Episode 372 - Don't follow Mel!

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

Welcome

00:00:24Tony O'Connell: Welcome to episode 372 of the parkrun adventurers podcast, a podcast about life, if your life is all about parkrun. Hello everyone, I'm TOC and I'm coming to you from Bunurong Country.

00:00:36Melissa Ellis: And I'm Melissa Ellis and I'm coming to you from Wurundjeri Country. Mel, how are you? Oh well, I am super, thank you very much. But Tony, listen, can you hear it? It's crickets. Crickets coming from parkrun World at the moment. Very quiet out there.

00:00:57Tony O'Connell: And, Mel, isn't it almost a relief that we've gone through a couple of gates and now we're out in the open field. We've got through some of those things and the noise is back. And we're back to parkrun, back to Saturday morning, having a ball, getting out and around. The issues are still out and about, but it's really nice just to rock along to parkrun and enjoy the day.

00:01:21Melissa Ellis: Yes, it's all settled. I'm happy. Well, it's mostly all settled.

00:01:25Tony O'Connell: It's somewhat settled.

00:01:28Melissa Ellis: Come the seas. And our weather, our climate here in Australia has settled a little bit too, Tony. Our bushfires seem to be under control. The stormy weather, there's no cyclones at the moment. Hang on, I'm touching wood. I do have a woody desk. I'm touching wood. All seems to be...

00:01:48Tony O'Connell: And look, Mel, in the greater state, and that's clearly Victoria, because we're the co-hosts this week, so we get to say whatever we like. In the greater state, it was marvellous to see Beaufort Lake back after their bushfires and Koonwarra, or our beloved Cooney, back after their storm damage. Unfortunately, Grand Ridge Rail Trails still out of action. The course up there was, You probably measured the trees down per kilometre in significant numbers. So they've got a fair bit of work to go, but they're actually working on clearing that course at the moment. So hopefully they'll be up and running soon. And even around the rest of the country, there weren't a lot of cancellations, which is really fantastic to see.

00:02:32Melissa Ellis: And I did notice, I mean, Seymour recently got hit hard with Campaspe being in flood, but that receded really quickly and they were back within a couple of weeks.

00:02:43Tony O'Connell: Yeah, it's really good. We look over at our UK friends and they had a few cancellations again this week, a couple of record numbers. I think up around Southampton, I think it might have been, was the biggest parkrun in the UK this week. It beat Bushy Park. And that was two of the local events to that both had to cancel with weather conditions, so they were lucky.

00:03:07Melissa Ellis: Well, their numbers were consolidated.

00:03:10Tony O'Connell: Yes, yep.

00:03:11Melissa Ellis: But you were out adventuring this weekend, Tony, and we haven't spoken to you for a couple of weeks, but would you like to give us a bit of a rundown on your weekend?

00:03:21Tony O'Connell: Well, we had an amazing parkrun weekend yesterday. We nearly didn't make parkrun. You nearly didn't get home from Adelaide. We nearly didn't get to Brisbane. Same thing with flights. Unfortunately, ours was our user error. We took off a little bit late from work on Friday night thinking clean run through Melbourne, not assuming that a car was going to break down in the tunnel and block the traffic. So, Mel, we... Jumped on a plane Friday night and flew up to Queensland to go up to Ipswich on the Yuggera lands. And we completed our third alphabet. We managed that elusive I. And coming from Inverloch, it sounds really funny that an I is going to be one of your last letters. But there's not many I's out there, Mel.

00:04:08Melissa Ellis: No. So two in Queensland and one in Victoria. Are they the only three in Australia? No.

00:04:14Tony O'Connell: One in Queensland, one in New South Wales. Inverell's, New South Wales.

00:04:18Melissa Ellis: Okay.

00:04:18Tony O'Connell: Yeah.

00:04:19Melissa Ellis: My bad.

00:04:19Tony O'Connell: And then Inverloch.

00:04:20Melissa Ellis: Must have moved like that other event did the other week.

00:04:23Tony O'Connell: Yeah. Storm damage, I think. It washed it down the river. Cyclone. Sorry. Queensland. Cyclone. Cyclone picked it up, moved it.

00:04:32Melissa Ellis: Like Panania.

00:04:33Tony O'Connell: And like some of our places, Stebonheath that seemed to move last week or our host moved across. Yeah. Anyway, Mel, we got up to Ipswich, 7 o'clock start. It was great. We got up there and the Quizmaster rocked along and met us there. So it was really great to catch up with Simon, have a run with Simon. I think in the 28-odd minutes we were running parkrun, I think we solved half the problems of the parkrun world and probably invented a few more. Yeah. It was really good. We met Carmel Roll. And I haven't met Carmel, but I see Carmel commenting on Dazza's nearly every week. I see her interacting with the posts. And to actually meet her and put her face to the name was really great. And it was great to have a chat with her after parkrun as well. It's just really good. Carmel turned up in the adventurers blue top and says, there's another one of us, there's another one of us, which I really loved. Ipswich was profiled by Lyndell a couple of weeks ago, and apparently one of this week's co-hosts forgot that and asked in our little group, has it been done? Was it me? That was me. It was me. So I won't go on too much about the course other than Heartbreak Hill was a lovely little flat section that went upwards, and you get to run it twice. If you don't enjoy it the first time, you're going to love it the second time. There was a candidate, Queensland's in their local elections at the moment, and there's a candidate there, one of the mayoral candidates that set up a tent, but they set it up a nice distance away, didn't get involved with handing out leaflets or anything. They were just there in their T-shirts as a group. They actually walked parkrun as a group. They weren't campaigning. They were just making a visible presence. But they were handing out icy poles and cold drinks after it, and that was so good. It was warm in Queensland, Mel. Oh, that's a surprise. Yeah, I'm not sure what Queensland's up to, but it was warm and it was humid. Yeah. After parkrun, we went to a local cafe, Jacqui, Simon and myself, and Lyndell the Legendary met us there. She'd been out at White Rock for her parkrun, which is, I think, southeast of Ipswich, about 10, 15 minutes away. So she drove in and caught up with us for breakfast. And, Mel, we were talking about what Lyndell's been up to. And there is an amazing person there. Yeah. With her triathlon work, amongst other things, with her triathlon work, being one of the chief referees at triathlons in New Zealand, did you know she's actually going to be one of the chief referees at the Paris Olympics in the triathlon?

00:07:26Melissa Ellis: Yes, I do know that. We're very proud of our Lyndell. We're going to be telling the world when she's over there in Paris.

00:07:36Tony O'Connell: And look, she's just so full of knowledge. And we talked for quite a while after Parker, to the point where we had to bail out in a hurry to get to our motel and get our stuff before they kicked us out at 10 o'clock. So, no, great morning. After that, we basically caught up with some family and filled the rest of the day up in Queensland. So our weekend was sensational. Mel, how was your parkrun day?

00:08:03Melissa Ellis: Oh, it doesn't sound like it was quite as exciting as yours, but yet... still filled my cup. So I stayed relatively local and attended event 109 of Cyril Curtain Reserve parkrun on the lands of the Bunurong people. This event is in Williamstown and that is 11 kilometres southwest of Melbourne on the mouth of the Yarra where it enters Hobson's Bay and Port Phillip. It was approximately a 40-minute drive from Meltown and was my second visit after having previously attended event six back in March 2022. And one thing I can say is that in the two years since my initial visit, E.D. Bronnie has lost none of her enthusiasm. And she has that in bucket loads. It's infectious. It's uplifting. and it's part of what makes this event an exemplar to all parkrun events. Big call? I know, I haven't been to every parkrun globally, but I've sampled enough to get a good feel for the bell curve. What a treat it was to arrive on a day that Bronnie was run directing. The reason I chose to visit Cyril Curtain this Saturday was because Eman and Christine were in town and they had assembled their Melbourne running crew. This comprises of a group of MCR runners that Eman got to know on previous visits, plus our very own Craig Ryan, a.k.a. Steve's Bike. And catching up with Craig was another bonus of the morning. Sadly, Craig's lovely wife, Rebecca, was unable to join the front due to a night shift, but we hope she's doing well and appreciate the important role she plays at the BOM. Conditions were a little breezy, as you'll hear later, at the Foreshore Park, which consists of three loops of an off-leash dog park. The parkrun does appear to coexist happily in the environment due in no small part to Bron's determination to convey the respect she wishes the parkrunners to bestow upon the locals, there were 100 finishes, ranking it equal seventh in the overall table, led to the finish by our very own Eman pushing Juno in the pram. Craig had a run chat with mate Alex, and I enjoyed a comeback of sorts to my previous form, taking a good three minutes off my course PB. Seems Steve Warwick was on the money with his thoughts last week regarding my recent blood donation, and Christine took things sensibly and walked. Afterwards, we went to the Hugger Mug Cafe for a very nice brunch. How good is the name of that cafe? I was super impressed with their service and I do believe they expect the parkrunners every Saturday morning and there's a nice long table in an outside covered area that serves the parkrun community well. I recorded some audio with Eman whilst in the cafe, which we will hear a bit later on, and I headed home with my empty cup once again refilled with parkrun happiness.

00:10:58Tony O'Connell: Mel, I've got to say, Cyril Curtain is one of the, probably the most awesome parkruns. Like for us, it's hours away and it's actually on my P-Index radar. It's one of the few parkruns I've been to a couple of times. I think I've been there three times already. And it's one of those ones that if you want your cup filled a little bit, if you want to just catch up and have a really great experience, Cyril Curtain is one of those places you head to.

00:11:27Melissa Ellis: Absolutely.

00:11:29Tony O'Connell: I love Bronnie. She just, as you said, if there's someone, if you could measure enthusiasm, she'd be off the Richter scale.

00:11:35Melissa Ellis: Yep. And I was just approaching, I'd already spotted Eman and Craig when I arrived and I was walking towards the area where all the parkrunners were congregating and she was already calling out to make sure, did I want to join parkrun? I'm like, yes, yes, I'm on my way. This is what I'm here for. Bless her. And anybody that goes past, she's inviting to turn around and come back and join in. And the photos afterwards, she writes down everybody's name. She wants to know who everybody is for the photos. And she puts a lot of effort into the social media for that event as well. So she is just a gem.

00:12:16Tony O'Connell: Yeah. Cyril Curtain's ace. And Mel, what else have we got coming up?

00:12:22Melissa Ellis: Well... We actually have got International Women's Day coming up this week, Tony, on the 8th of March, parkrun will once again be promoting International Women's Day this year with a global campaign designed to celebrate the involvement of women and girls at parkrun and to encourage people to walk, run or volunteer at parkrun for the first time. So not an unusual thing for parkrun to do, but specifically for women, the focus on women in this week to come.

00:12:50Tony O'Connell: And I think, Mel, part of the focus is the series of videos that got released last year. I think some of those will get a rerun. Some of the amazing stories out there of various women at different parkruns and their background story, how they came into it. Some of them have evolved to become Event Directors. Some of them have evolved to turn up at parkrun, and that's been a big enough change in their life. Some of the social media that's been bouncing around about International Women's Day has There's been a little bit of comment about the volunteering. Why do we want women to volunteer on the day? But remember, volunteering is a very important role at parkrun. It's part of our community. And if someone chooses to volunteer, that's sensational. I really think we should encourage that. Definitely.

00:13:39Melissa Ellis: Volunteering has many, many different benefits for mental health, It's being involved in the community is a positive risk factor for dementia. You know, like there's oodles of reasons and we encourage anybody to participate in any way they feel comfortable and if they don't want to get out and run or even be in active wear or if they're not capable of running or walking five kilometres, then there's other ways that people can find purpose and be involved and, yeah, be part of their community. So, yay! Cool.

00:14:13Tony O'Connell: Have you frozen?

00:14:14Melissa Ellis: I'm still here.

00:14:14Tony O'Connell: Oh, that's right. You just went all staticky and froze.

00:14:17Melissa Ellis: Yeah, your pitch has been frozen too. Okay. I'm just talking to you, frozen top. But anyway, so that's, yeah, a bit of a campaign that has been going on. So I shouldn't say crickets. That was maybe not quite right. We do have this campaign going at the moment. But we also have got sock sales.

00:14:38Tony O'Connell: And now we saw the first pair of socks in the wild today. Well, not in the wild, on Facebook wild. Congratulations, Brendan Peel. You're the first recipient, I think, in Australia of the socks. I know the socks have created a little bit of chat in a couple of the UK groups that I'm involved in, wanting to know how they can get them shipped over or whether they're just in the Australian store or the UK store. But, yeah, congrats, Brendan, and peeling back the curtain, we think you might be eating Nutri-Grain.

00:15:11Melissa Ellis: Hey, I wonder if that's what's in the Office Lady's box. I wonder if it's a box of socks.

00:15:16Tony O'Connell: Oh, I wonder. We'll have to have a bit of a shuffle through the desk here while we're chatting and see what I can find.

00:15:23Melissa Ellis: We can be like the kids at Christmas. We can go through the cupboard stock, see if we can find the box. See where she's hidden it.

00:15:29Tony O'Connell: Let's do that as we're going through and talking, hey?

00:15:32Melissa Ellis: You know what else was really good to see this week, TOC? It was Michael Schultz back out at S.S. Koopa Trail. He was with our very own Mossy, Dave Moss from the Channel 5 News crew, and he completed his 552nd parkrun.

00:15:49Tony O'Connell: Well done, Schultz. Great to see you back out at parkrun.

00:15:52Melissa Ellis: And he has a bit of a crew helping and supporting him along the way.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:15:56Melissa Ellis: Okay, so now we didn't get any other roving reports other than mine. So now I have the awkward pleasure of throwing to myself to hear my roving report.

00:16:00[background music]

Roving report Melissa Ellis — Cyril Curtain Reserve parkrun

Talking to Eman Vergara — Run Director, South Toowoomba parkrun; on-the-ground organiser for the show's PALM weekend

00:16:14Melissa Ellis: Alright, so here we are at the cafe. The cafe is called Hug Mug and I'm here with Eman. He's down visiting. Eman, how are you and how was your morning at Cyril Curtain?

00:16:24Eman Vergara: I'm well, Mel. Hey everyone. It's such a nice surprise seeing you this morning and having a great parkrun experience again and obviously most importantly the catch-up post-parkrun at the cafe. It's been a great morning so far.

00:16:36Melissa Ellis: You draw a crowd, Eman.

00:16:38Eman Vergara: Yeah, I was so glad I had the Melbourne crew coming in together, the Melton City Runners. I have a couple of friends who did their first parkrun here and just a couple of other tourists and obviously meeting the event team and meeting the other runners at the Cyril Curtain Reserve. Such a great morning and yeah, it's been a fun experience today.

00:16:56Melissa Ellis: This has been my first opportunity to tell you in person. Congratulations on the impending addition to your family.

00:17:03Eman Vergara: Yeah, thank you. It's been a pretty smooth second pregnancy by Christine so far, due in June. So probably be laying low in the touristing front for about six weeks and then probably get back into it from August and September and try and do a lot more touristing from then.

00:17:25[background music]

00:17:25Melissa Ellis: And how was your run this morning? You pushed Juno in the pram?

00:17:28Eman Vergara: I did. It was very, very windy. The course itself is quite flat. Mixture of concrete paths and a dirt track. But because it's next to the water, quite windy morning conditions. But pretty happy with the results still. Had a nice little win, which was great, which was nice, good bonus. I really enjoyed the amazing and charismatic event team, especially the Run Director this morning, Bronnie. She was just such a wonderful Run Director and really entertained the crowd as part of the briefing. I've certainly learnt a couple of things to take away when I do my briefing as well.

00:18:10[background music]

00:18:12Melissa Ellis: Excellent. Now, speaking of you doing your own briefings, of course, you are the man on the ground for our Palm parkrun at South Toowoomba. How are you? Are you excited about us coming?

00:18:25Eman Vergara: I am super pumped to be welcoming dozens and dozens of parkrun crazies, parkrun tourists from all over the country into our lovely little city in Toowoomba. So appreciative of yourselves and the parkrun Palm Committee choosing South Toowoomba as the main event on Saturday, the 13th of April. I am really looking forward to briefing everyone, making everyone feel welcome. I've told all the local runners to make sure that everyone has a great time and a great morning. And the whole weekend is going to be just a celebration of friendship, community and parkrun.

00:19:00Melissa Ellis: It's always full on, isn't it, Eman? You've been to a couple now. It just seems to go from freedom run to brunch to freedom run to dinner and hectic. But do we have much downtime?

00:19:12Eman Vergara: It feels kind of like a wedding, really. You've got... You know, a run sheet that, you know, starts on a Friday with a Freedom parkrun, followed by, you know, some dinner and drinks and then the main event in the morning. And then we've got, obviously, the cafe, which we've booked at Copper Bench. After breakfast, we'll be conducting the recording of the podcast. You'll have a bit of downtime, maybe an hour or two, depending on how much you stay at the cafe. Then we'll have the Freedom parkrun in Queen's Park, Toowoomba parkrun. And then you might even get a nap in the afternoon because you'll probably need to be well rested for a celebration of the party at night where it's dress up. I think the theme is flower power, which is a nod to Toowoomba's reputation as the garden city. So depending on how people are going after the Tour of the Sports Club, there might be an after party. I've got a couple of locations in mind for those people that want to kick on. And then Sunday morning, we've got another Freedom parkrun and Highfields parkrun, followed by breakfast at Abbey Lane. So jam-packed weekend. Try and stay hydrated, try and stay rested, but it is going to be pretty full on.

00:19:40[background music]

00:20:27Melissa Ellis: What's the weather going to be like?

00:20:29Eman Vergara: It could be hit and miss at that time. It really depends. Sometimes it can be sunny, sometimes it might be a bit wet. So fingers crossed, it's going to be good. Do bring a jumper because Toowoomba is located on top of the Great Dividing Range. It does get a bit windy. It doesn't get super cold, but definitely pack for some cold weather.

00:20:51Melissa Ellis: And do you have your costumes sorted?

00:20:53Eman Vergara: I have not. I do have some ideas. So obviously I'm not going to be blurting it out here. I'm going to keep that a secret just like you guys are. But team Vergara and we're all looking forward to having some creative ideas within the theme, obviously.

00:21:11Melissa Ellis: Fabulous. Well, it was great to see you this morning, Eman. Thank you for all that you're doing to help us prepare for Palm and I look forward to seeing you then.

00:21:19Eman Vergara: Yeah, definitely. Thanks so much, Mel. And obviously, TOC is doing a lot of the heavy lifting as well from an organisation front. I'm just glad I'm able to help with, you know, booking events and making sure that it runs as smoothly as possible.

00:21:30[background music]

00:21:32Melissa Ellis: Thank you. Cheers.

00:21:34Eman Vergara: See ya.

00:21:44Tony O'Connell: And Mel, wasn't it great to hear from Mel at Cyril Curtain in her interview with Eman?

00:21:50Melissa Ellis: Didn't she do a good job? She did a great job.

00:21:53Tony O'Connell: I think it might be her first time.

00:21:56Melissa Ellis: And, no, it was really good to get a briefing from Eman. He's got everything under control up there. He even gave me the hot tip about where to go for an ice bath, should I want to do that.

00:22:08Tony O'Connell: And I just want to really thank Eman for what he's done so far in helping to organise the venues for Palm. It's been great to have someone actually on the ground at Toowoomba. And we're looking forward to about, oh, the countdown's on now. How far off is it? It's six weeks? Just under six weeks. Yep, time is ticking around.

00:22:28Melissa Ellis: It is.

Dazza's

00:22:30Melissa Ellis: But it's time to tick over to Dazza's. And this week, Dazza has said, aren't we lucky to have our parkrun communities at home and when we go adventuring? Come on in and tell us about your experience of community today.

00:22:44Tony O'Connell: And Mel, our first comment on Dazza's comes from across the ditch. And it was Tanya Bailey saying, Had Pegasus today in our Punisher shirt to show our respect for a fallen parkrunner. Nice warm morning and managed to run walk today a bit faster than I have been. Thankful to parkrun for making me get out and do it. And the pick was of Brett and Tanya in their Punisher tops with Brunner, of course.

00:23:10Melissa Ellis: It was good to see lots of Punisher tops around in the socials this week, TOC. I know there's probably going to be another week coming up where Bathurst might do a call-out for everybody to wear them, but I did feel compelled to wear my Punisher top to parkrun on Saturday, which I did.

00:23:28Tony O'Connell: Another thing, just as an aside, I noticed in Strava, Especially in the early part of last week, there were a lot of people out with a photo in their Punisher top doing the 6.7k run. 6.2. Sorry, I was thinking of a backyard. Yeah, 6.2 for Steve. Actually. The 6.2, yeah.

00:23:46Melissa Ellis: Yeah, we should give a shout out to, I'm trying to think, Shellharbour parkrun. Oh, they had to get a mention somehow, didn't they? You brought it up. One of the Shellharbour Run Directors who I'm friends with on Strava and actually posted herself. Ralph and, oh, what's her name? It's not coming to me. Anyway, yes, we all copied her anyway. Bec went out and did it. I went out and did it. Ingrid went out and did it. We all did our 6.2 for Steve, which is the distance of one hot lap of Mount Panorama.

00:24:24Tony O'Connell: And it was great to see not only the social media, the Strava, sorry, the Facebook, but yeah, to see it pop up on Strava and that, probably a good tribute.

00:24:36Melissa Ellis: Now, we also heard from Ingrid. Both are coming to us from New South Wales. And she said, Dazza, I'm firm in my opinion that I don't like the actual running bit, but I think I've changed my opinion on really not liking running with people. I had a lovely run with Catherine O'Connor today, and I think after a few nice runs with people over the last little while, I think I'm coming around to the idea. I don't have a Punisher shirt, so I wore my adventurer shirt today in memory of Stephen. And Ingrid didn't share a photo, but she was, of course, at Dolls Point.

00:25:10Tony O'Connell: Naturally. Righty-o, we're going to move a little bit further south, down to the ACT, and we had Linda Sharnock. A fabulous morning at Burley Griffin parkrun, and very pleased for our Females in Training rookies who ran their first 20 minutes today as part of their training to run 5.4 kilometres in the Canberra Running Festival. And once again, Mel, we didn't have a photo with Linda's post.

00:25:35Melissa Ellis: We also go a little bit further down the map, to South Australia and we heard from Kitty Hicks. Torrens parkrun, a lovely run along the river and a very energetic RD. Amazing, they were celebrating a 500th volunteer. And there was a selfie of Kitty with the aforementioned volley wearing a sash which said 500th volunteer. And fun fact, there were actually five adventurers at Torrens on the day. There was Lily Nguyen, Sheridan Davies, Sue Bannister, Amy Kent and, of course, Kitty Hicks. And some stalking of the weekend's results identified the said 500th volley as V495244 Marilyn McMillan. Now, Marilyn seems to have never completed a parkrun event. So she is one of those pure volunteers.

00:26:27Tony O'Connell: And that is totally amazing that you can reach 500 with never having either walked or run a course.

00:26:34Melissa Ellis: Karen. It's Karen. Karen Hamilton. Sorry. I'll just refer back to our discussion about the 6.2. It was Karen Hamilton. Sorry, Karen.

00:26:40[laughter]

00:26:46Tony O'Connell: Insert Karen Hamilton here.

00:26:51Rachel - Club Corner contributor: Well done.

00:26:52Tony O'Connell: Now, going even further west and slightly more north, we're getting our little geography lesson today. You were heading west in case you were wondering when you were saying you were going south and the other way.

00:27:04Melissa Ellis: Is South Australia not south of ACT? I think it was.

00:27:11Tony O'Connell: No.

00:27:11Melissa Ellis: It is. It's below on the map, surely.

00:27:15Tony O'Connell: It's Tassie, I think you're thinking of. Oh, I'm going to get the map out. But moving across to the west, we go to South Africa and Johan has posted in Dazza's this week. And Johan said, community is really what parkrun is about. So it was riem onder die hart for me today at Heidedal parkrun as Timekeeper for my V250 milestone. Surrounded by my most awesomest volunteer team. The expression literally translated means raw hard belt under the heart and it is used to express an immense feeling of joy, pride or encouragement. It's about being at home and home is where the heart is. And Johan shared a photo of the event team with a purple V25 flag and a green 250 flag.

00:28:06Melissa Ellis: So, TOC, I've got an apology to make.

00:28:10Unidentified speaker: LAUGHTER

00:28:12Melissa Ellis: I've just looked at the map. Apparently L.A. has moved.

00:28:17Tony O'Connell: That would be because of all Janet's jumping up and down encouraging people.

00:28:26Melissa Ellis: It's west of the ACT.

00:28:29Tony O'Connell: Just a little bit. Well, if the viewers could see your face now, it would be a great laugh. Or even the listeners, not the viewers.

00:28:38Melissa Ellis: Moving on to the UK, which is somewhere else in the world. We heard from Rory Marriott, parkrun number 1,000 for me today. 1,002 to 1,005 should all be in Australia, starting with Ipswich, Queensland next Saturday. Can't wait. And Rory shared a screenshot showing his 1,000 total and, interestingly enough, 872 of those people are volunteer-only roles. So well done. Rory is going to be, yeah, as he said, in Australia next week. Missing you by one week, TOC.

00:29:14Tony O'Connell: I'm really disappointed in Miss Rory. Mel, I met Rory on our European trip last year. And he is an amazing person, has done a lot of stuff for parkrun and with parkrun and in parkrun. And I was really disappointed when I booked my flights and then realised they were non-refundable and Rory was there one week later. Not good planning.

00:29:37Melissa Ellis: There's a challenge named after Rory, the Marriott. Now, I believe that is volunteering at 50 unique events. Yes. Is that correct?

00:29:49Tony O'Connell: I'm not 100% sure on that, Mel. Oh, okay. But if it is correct, I'm a member of that club.

00:29:56Melissa Ellis: Okay. Well, yeah, maybe it's 100. Oh, now I doubt myself. Anyway, go with the gut.

00:30:01Tony O'Connell: Moving along and staying somewhere in the UK and geographically have absolutely no idea whether it's north, south, east or west of where Rory was because Rory's event wasn't actually listed in his comment. We had Helen Rudder. And Helen said, had fun surprising Mr. R with Rutland Water parkrun. A pathetic attempt at a name. A couple of laughy face emojis. Had fun, met two friends. I jeffed at 30.30 and got under 30 minutes, so very happy on my way back. And Helen shared two photos, one showing the Rutland Water pop-up and the other with Helen and Andy covering up the letters of the pop-up to spell Rutter. And the reference to surprising Mr. R was a little while ago he surprised Helen with a trip to a parkrun in Italy, and it was his birthday this time, so I think Helen surprised him with a trip.

00:30:58Melissa Ellis: Oh, I do like Helen's photos. Thank you, Helen. They're always very interesting. She's either... teetering on a pop-up or finding some fun way to interact. So thank you. Very good. Anyway, lastly, in the great estate, we heard from Andrea Booth. Wherever I parkrun, I feel part of that community. Today I zoomed at Darebin parkrun with an unexpected hot air balloon landing. And Andrea shared a couple of photos, one of the hot air balloon landing which was just above the tree line behind some sort of clubhouse, so it was very close to where they were assembled, and another of her zooming around the course. Well done, Andrea.

the Obi Award — Kitty Hicks

00:31:42Tony O'Connell: And Mel, I think that leads us up to the Obi.

00:31:46Melissa Ellis: It does. Do you have the envelope?

00:31:51Tony O'Connell: I have the – is that different today, Mel? I have the Obilope.

00:31:56Melissa Ellis: Hang on. Hang on. Put it close. There we go. Smile. Obilope. I love it. That's clever.

00:32:05Tony O'Connell: We have an Obilope. So it's dedicated to our Obi winner each week. And it will be recycled.

00:32:12Melissa Ellis: Will it?

00:32:13Tony O'Connell: The joke never gets old. And our winner this week is Kitty Hicks. Well done, Kitty. To the Torrens River parkrun.

00:32:15[background music]

00:32:33Melissa Ellis: Hooray. Good work. Thanks for bringing us that news about the 500th volunteer. That's really good. And thanks for coming to Dazza's. Now, that's pretty much all we've got in this section. There were no emails this week.

Club Corner

00:32:48Melissa Ellis: So it's time for us to throw to Rachel and hear what she's got to say in Club Corner.

00:32:55[background music]

00:33:07Rachel - Club Corner contributor: This is Rachel with Club Corner, where we talk about the what and why of parkrun clubs, and I am coming to you from Arrernte Country. Today we are dressing up a little. Who loves a bit of something special at parkrun? As long as people have been running for fun, there have been people adding to the experience by dressing up. Whether it's as a dinosaur or a clock, in a frock or a suit, in club colours or touring uniform, some people love a dress up. There have been traditions develop with the growth of parkrun, and some of the clubs and achievements, and parkrun themselves have leaned into this with milestone shirts, and buffs, and hats, but not bucket hats, and umbrellas, heck all of the merch. A classic dress-up is as a pirate, for those achieving Pirate Club status of having completed events starting with 7th season and ah! How do I roll and arh! Hum! Arrrrrrrrrr! A favourite of mine is when events have local traditions to celebrate their milestones with capes, or bibs, etc. I have heard of events on university grounds using a gown and or mortar board. How exciting! Tutus on a tutu weekend are always popular. Though in 2024 we need to wait until June for that particular combination again. And of course, who can go past a tinsel of uglies, all dressed to the nines at Christmas time, or at palm time. I hope that Mel is listening to this before recording, and here's this question for this week's pod hosts. What is your favourite dress up? But, that's a wrap from me. I won't hem or haw anymore. It's time to tie it up and be like the hat, and go on ahead. See you next time, and remember, in parkrun life, all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun, so stay tuned for our future club corners.

00:34:48Tony O'Connell: And once again, Mel, great to hear from Rachel in another fantastic club corner. But Rachel posed the question, Mel, and it needs to be answered. What is your favourite dress-up?

00:35:00Melissa Ellis: Oh, that's easy. So I am a really big Wizard of Oz fan and I have been known to dress up as the Wicked Witch from the West, and even complete with green face and I went to a Westerfold's birthday anniversary I think it was their fourth I don't know what the theme was I think it was green because I remember there being frogs and things. But anyway, I went as the Wicked Witch of the West with my green face and I dressed my daughter up as Dorothy and I ran with a broom and I won the best costume for the morning. So that's my favourite.

00:35:44Tony O'Connell: So how did you go running with a green face?

00:35:46Melissa Ellis: Oh, I did okay. I was with her at the time. She was probably about seven. So we weren't going awfully fast. She was actually, I think it was Kasha was the green frog. Anyway. Good memories. What about you, TOC? What's your favourite?

00:36:07Tony O'Connell: Now, I have a closet full of different costumes that I've worn to different parkruns from different time to time, but I'd have to say my favourite's probably been the Teletubby costume that I've got that I wore at Darwin on a ridiculously hot and humid day and a foam-padded Teletubby suit and Darwin do not go together. Yeah. It's like running in a sponge. But that's probably my favourite costume. It's the one that's come out a few times. We had a Jetstar flight home that night, and I reckon the costume probably nearly exceeded my baggage allowance just from the amount of sweat that it soaked in. It was hideous.

00:36:49Melissa Ellis: Yuck! Yuck!

00:36:52Tony O'Connell: It was the day that the wet season broke. It had been dry for ages and I remember being told, yep, it's going to start to rain and it did and it just kept raining and raining and we just got wetter and wetter. But that Teletubby suit's had a few runs now and that's probably one of my favourite parkrun dress-ups.

00:37:13Melissa Ellis: I hope it's had a few washes. Yeah.

00:37:16Tony O'Connell: Oh, yes, yes. That Teletubby suit, during the start of our little lockdown that we had enforced upon us in Victoria, when you were let out, I actually decided to get an Inverloch one day and make a few kids. So I actually went down and did a (not)parkrun on the Inverloch course in the Teletubby suit in the middle of the week just to give a few kids a laugh.

00:37:40Melissa Ellis: Well, funny, you should have mentioned lockdown because do you remember Bubble Bird? Do you remember when we had a plastic chicken going all around Victoria and there was a relay race with the plastic chicken and I got up at 5 o'clock in the morning, put on my green face as the Wicked Witch of the West and went right around the block for an hour. Oh, the things I do. If you could please, very please have a palm one day where I can dress up as the Wicked Witch of the West, I would like that. Thank you.

00:38:13Tony O'Connell: I know somebody who knows somebody who usually sets a theme each year.

00:38:20Melissa Ellis: Good point.

00:38:22Tony O'Connell: Okay. Yeah. Okay. That's thinking. Palm next year. Too early to start that conversation.

00:38:23[crosstalk]

Consolidated Club Report

00:38:33Melissa Ellis: All right, let's move on. The adventurers Consolidated Club report for Saturday, the 2nd of March 2024. Of a total of 590 members, 452 took part on this date in six countries across 229 locations. In the UK, there were adventurers at 39 events. There were four in South Africa, three in the USA and two in Poland, locally we had adventurers at 46 in New South Wales, 45 in the Greater State, 41 in Queensland, there was 14 in Western South Australia, 11 on the West Side, 9 in Tassie, 7 on the North Island, 6 in the ACT and 2 on the South Island and there was none in the Northern Territory.

00:39:23Tony O'Connell: No bowling strike this week, Mel. No.

the Frond — The Ponds parkrun, New South Wales (frond of 15); Princes parkrun, Liverpool (largest international frond, 6)

00:39:25Tony O'Connell: But internationally, our largest frond was at Princes, which is in Liverpool, with a total of six people. We had Phil Corker, Pippa White, Cameron Storey, Christine Imbert, Calum Burrell, and Amanda Murray-Hynde. And we had a couple of comments, Mel, come into Dazza's this week from Princes. One of them was from Amanda. And she said, And I think that's a little smiley emoji. And that's three weeks post foot operation.

00:39:53[15 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:40:09Tony O'Connell: and Amanda posted a selfie with an enthusiastic-looking bunch in behind, and we were able to spot both Pippa and Christine amongst the bunch as well. And our second comment in Dazza's came from Calum Burrell. Another fun, friendly community of tourist folk at Princes parkrun in Liverpool for Graeme Holland doing his 250th parkrun. Phil Corker managed to get a fab photo of the synchronised zoomies from myself and Christine Imbert on the final 200 metres of the course. And Calum shared the photo showing the zoomie.

00:40:42Melissa Ellis: fun and celebrations over there at Princes. But locally, we had a frond of 15 at the Ponds in New South Wales. And they were, are you ready? Charles Burns, Robin Rishworth, Dennis Peden, the famous Jack and Claire Corkill, Jeff Robinson, Joe McLean, Louise Garbers, Penny Prosser, Charina Giran, Manish Bindroo, Rio Lambino, Renata Koch, Mary DeLuna and Lisa Spencer and Jo McLean posted in Dazza's from The Ponds and said at home at The Ponds parkrun this morning catching up with friends and getting my double tonne humid morning so I'm not sure if all the adventurers were there for Jo's double tonne but in any case she did share a photo of herself and friends at the event Perhaps afterwards, as I spy Zooper Doopers in the background.

00:41:37Tony O'Connell: It seems Zooper Doopers might have been a bit of a theme for the weekend, or they seem to be a fairly reoccurring theme, Mel.

00:41:44Melissa Ellis: Not anywhere I've been.

00:41:46Tony O'Connell: No, we had icy poles. And by the end, the icy pole that Carmel was having after resembled a Zooper Dooper because you couldn't pull it out of the packet. You had to drink it out of the packet.

00:42:00Melissa Ellis: Yuck.

00:42:01Tony O'Connell: But it was still cold and half frozen, so those were very welcome on the day.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

00:42:06Tony O'Connell: Mel, we have news on launchers. After two weeks in the parkrun world of no launchers, and I thought, oh, parkrun have taken the silent launch to new.

00:42:16Melissa Ellis: parkrun have cancelled launchers.

00:42:18Tony O'Connell: They're uproar. They'll start no launch gate.

00:42:23Melissa Ellis: Start a petition.

00:42:28Tony O'Connell: Well, it was with a welcome breath that we got to see a new event appear this week. Welcoming you to the parkrun family, we have Laytown Beach in Ireland. Now, Laytown Beach is an out-and-back course along the beach from Laytown, which is 35 kilometres north of Dublin Airport. Different to your notes, but... Oh, okay.

00:42:49Melissa Ellis: LAUGHTER

00:42:52Tony O'Connell: overlooking the Irish Sea by the mouth of the River Nanny. They had 388 participants for their launch, and 69 of those scanned their barcode for the first time. And interestingly, they launched this week. They're cancelled next week.

00:43:07Melissa Ellis: I did see that.

00:43:09Tony O'Connell: Laytown Beach parkrun is run entirely on a beach. It's a very tidal-prone beach. It's a very flat beach. And next week they have spring high tides, so they have no beach. So they have no parkrun next week. So there's not too many events that can say they launched one week and had a cancellation the following. And for those that are interested, I'd encourage you to jump on their Facebook page. There's just a couple of amazing photos of the crowd on the beach at the start. The whole course is run on sand, so it's one of those courses that meets our beaches criteria.

00:43:45Melissa Ellis: Get your feet wet.

00:43:46Tony O'Connell: And I think there's several of them around the world that are completely on sand. And the turnaround is at Bettystown Beach. So you run up to Bettystown Beach and back. So it looked like a crack of a course, Bella. It looked like it was reasonably firm sand from the mid-run photos that I could see. But people were splashing a bit. So, yeah, there was a bit of water on the sand.

00:44:11Melissa Ellis: Fabulous. Well, nice to have another new parkrun. Welcome to the family. And remember, everybody, you can add the Adventurers Club as one of your five affiliations on your parkrun profile. If you need a hand, just yell out.

00:44:26Tony O'Connell: Yeah, and it's always good to see additional adventurers popping up on the different lists. And it's always funny when you're at a parkrun and you don't think there's adventurers there and then you're looking at the results later and you scroll, scroll, and you think, hang on, wait on, there was an adventurer there and I didn't get to meet them.

00:44:43Melissa Ellis: We want to meet all the adventurers. Oh, and that's what we also want to say. If you are coming along to Palm and you're going to be at the Freedos and at the Saturday morning event, please make sure you've got the adventurers on your parkrun profile as one of your five clubs so that you are counted and we have our biggest frond ever because there's going to be lots of us at Toowoomba, isn't there, Tony?

00:45:06Tony O'Connell: There is, Mel. The early numbers, and I would encourage people to also jump onto the page and register their going to the event because we're actually potentially going to reach capacity at one or two of the events. So it would be appreciated if people could jump on and let us know if they are going.

00:45:26Melissa Ellis: Are we going to get an attendance record for South Toowoomba?

00:45:30Tony O'Connell: I haven't looked at that. I don't know.

Sign-off

00:45:35Melissa Ellis: Okay. Well, that's what we're looking forward to at the moment. There isn't much else on the horizon at the moment, so we're just in preparation. We're being very busy behind the scenes, getting audio equipment and all sorts of things prepared in time for our trip. But other than that, this episode is drawing to a close for another week, except to say, where will you be next parkrun Day, Tony?

00:46:03Tony O'Connell: Mel, I'm going to be at the Sunny Inverloch. We have a couple of our Inverloch stalwarts running there, 250th, the husband and wife team, Noel and Julie Farmillo. So we're going to go to Inverloch and run with Noel and Julie. What about you, Mel? Well...

00:46:25Melissa Ellis: It's been a while since I took my little car on a road trip. When I say a while, I haven't done one this month yet.

00:46:33Tony O'Connell: Mel, we are at the 4th of March.

00:46:35Melissa Ellis: I know, and I can't actually remember. I'm pretty sure I did one in February.

00:46:40Tony O'Connell: This month's four days old.

00:46:42Melissa Ellis: Any case, I'm going to drive to Queanbeyan on Friday night, which is... a bit of a drive, but I know it's north, so don't worry about that. And I'm going to camping, well, not camp literally, but I'm going to stay in Queanbeyan for the night and then I'm going to get up in the morning and go to Braidwood Showground. I think Braidwood Showground is probably my Nendy. I haven't even gone to the trouble of trying to figure it out because it always says it's Tassie and we know it's not Tassie because it's across the Bass Strait. But I'm pretty sure Braidwood is my Nendy. So the reason I'm staying in Queanbeyan is to save myself another hour and a half of travel on the night but also because the Queanbeyan Rodeo is on, and that's why I want to go. So does anybody want to come to a rodeo with me? Because at the moment I'm going by myself, but that's okay.

00:47:38Tony O'Connell: So shout out for the Queanbeyan Rodeo, Mel. Yeah.

00:47:43Melissa Ellis: Anyway, I think I might have the lovely Bec Bailey joining me at Braidwood if I am not mistaken. So that will also be pretty cool. So, yeah, big adventures for me. Cross your fingers that my car makes it because my brakes aren't too good and I maybe need – a bit of work on my gearbox, but I'm in the RACV, so that's... Do they operate in the north? Oh, yeah, they've got affiliations, don't they, with NRMA?

00:48:09Tony O'Connell: Yep. All right, Mel, I think that about wraps it up. As always, you can contact us for our parkrun adventurers on Facebook or our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. That's it for another week. We'll see you all next week for more adventurers.

00:48:20[outro theme playing]

00:49:37Tony O'Connell: Hey, Mel. Mel, look at this. I got through the Office Lady's desk and I found an invoice. I know what's in the box. Do you want to know? We've got a box full of ****.