Episode 375 - Outback parkruns

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

Welcome

00:00:23Melissa Ellis: Welcome to episode 375 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. My name is Melissa Ellis and I'm coming to you from Wurundjeri Country.

00:00:34Tony O'Connell: And my name is TOC, and I'm coming to you from Bunurong Country.

00:00:37Melissa Ellis: Welcome back to the pod, TOC.

00:00:40Tony O'Connell: Thanks, Mel. It's been a little break since I've been on, so it's really good to be back.

00:00:45Melissa Ellis: We had a little break last week.

00:00:47Tony O'Connell: We did, Mel. And I think we'll have another one next week, just in the lead up to Palm.

00:00:53Melissa Ellis: We will and we're sorry that we missed you all last week. That's my fault. I'll put my hand up. I had things on and I didn't have time to do editing so I needed to have a bit of a break. And, yeah, with Palm fast approaching, the same is going to happen next week with a short week and lack of time.

00:01:17Tony O'Connell: I think with people travelling interstate too, Mel, it's just too hard to fit recording and editing and everything else in, and it gives us a lot more room for content for Palms.

00:01:27Melissa Ellis: Yeah, that's right, our live recording. I can't say I was sad to have a week off. I actually really enjoyed the opportunity to have some extra time on the couch to watch some TV and put my feet up and do some ironing, to be actually completely honest. Yeah.

00:01:46Tony O'Connell: You had some Mel time.

00:01:47Melissa Ellis: I did. All the things that I usually put aside and push to the back.

00:01:54Tony O'Connell: Excellent, Mel. I'm glad you managed to get a break in. But here we are. We're back.

00:02:00Melissa Ellis: We are, we are, we are. And it's been a big weekend. It's been Easter weekend. But would you like to fill us in with what you've done in the last few weeks, Tony?

00:02:13Tony O'Connell: Yep. Look, Mel, I'll start off with last weekend because we had an adventure. We drove back up to New South Wales to Ball Park at Corowa. And I've got to get that right because apparently last time I said ballpark was in Cowra. I was geographically embarrassed. It seems to be a function of the hosts of this show is that geography is not our strong suit, sweet. But last time I went to ballpark, I got a little bit ill and spent the night in the emergency department strapped to a bed. Whereas this time we got up there and we were fine. And even better, I got to run, but Jacqui, because she'd been up there a couple of weeks before, she actually popped her hand up as a visiting RD. So Jack came in and RD'd the event and gave the Run Director from up at Ballpark, who's been doing the last eight weeks, gave her a break and she went off to the local footy.

00:03:11Melissa Ellis: Oh, God bless you, Jackie.

00:03:14Tony O'Connell: That was really cool. It was actually good to see that she got the opportunity to go away too and go to the footy where I think she's secretary of the ED up at Ball Park. So like a lot of people that are involved with parkrun, she wears many hats in the community and she got to change hats and take off. This week, however, I was RD at the stump. And look, I promised everyone sunshine and we delivered. We delivered sunshine. We delivered Easter eggs. And we delivered the second biggest attendance that Inverloch had with 325 people. We were just seven behind our record attendance. And interestingly, three of our largest attendances or our three largest attendances have all been in the last 12 weeks. So... Things are growing. Things are stretching. And Inverloch with 325 people is a very crowded course.

00:04:10Melissa Ellis: Wow.

00:04:12Tony O'Connell: But even better on the day, we had pop-up visits. We had Jack and Claire Corkill called in, and that was just really cool to meet them. I said to them, I've heard about you guys so often on the podcast. It's actually really good to meet you. So we had a bit of a chat. Julie and Amy Doolan were there as well. We went and had coffee with Julie and Amy afterwards. But Jack and Claire took off from Inverloch. They did parkrun. They took off. They headed down to Wilson's Promontory, which is about a two-hour drive, to climb up Mount Oberon. Mount Oberon walk is about three kilometres with about 800 metres of climb in the three kilometres. So that's a fairly steep hike. They got to the top of Mount Oberon to get a fantastic view of the sea fog. Some days you get to the top of the prom and you can see literally hundreds of kilometres. Other days you see sea fog and unfortunately they've got sea fog.

00:05:08Melissa Ellis: It's a very famous place, isn't it, in Victoria for nature, the prom? Yeah.

00:05:18Tony O'Connell: It is. We have a bit of everything down there. We have a lot of hikes. We have a lot of opportunity to interact with wombats and rosellas and kangaroos and emus and feral deer and all sorts of things down there.

00:05:33Melissa Ellis: And the famous corkles at the stump.

00:05:36Tony O'Connell: Yes, that was really cool. We got a selfie with us in the stump. So that was really cool to meet Jack and Claire. They're just a lovely couple. I really enjoyed having a chat to them. Just a pity they had to take off down to the prom. Hmm. Mel. I believe you might have had the bestest weekend adventure ever. Tell us all about it.

00:05:59Melissa Ellis: I did have a pretty good weekend, I'm not going to lie. And look, the weekend before I was working, so I held out for this weekend, but I travelled far, far northwest to remote South Australia and and it was event number 73 of Coober Pedy Oval parkrun on the lands of the Kokatha and Arabana people I hope I have done that justice now um the uh the present day indigenous name for Coober Pedy is Umoona which means a long life it's also the name used for a common tree in the area the mulga tree But originally, when European people named it Koopa Piti, it was an Aboriginal term called Koopa Piti, meaning white man in a hole. And Opal was first found in the area by a 14-year-old boy. Opal has formed over millennia. When the seawater receded and lowering underground water, silica solutions trapped in cavities and faults underground became opals. I travelled across from Victoria with Martine and Andrew. We flew into Adelaide and then made the 850-kilometre trip north to Coober Pedy, staying in the underground motel. We met up with Matt and Sarah from the West Side and had a nice dinner at the Big Winch Hotel. We were amongst 29 finishers at Coober Pedy parkrun for this unique event, which had tourists from all around the country. Before the event, we posed with the local CFS, and you can see that photo on our very new banner pic. I ran with Sarah, and afterwards we enjoyed brunch at the Opal Cave, along with Kat and Caitlin from the Northern District's Adelaide Athletics. Kat, having achieved SA statesmanship status, on this very visit. So don't be mistaken that there isn't much to do in Coober Pedy. We visited Josephine's gallery where we met Aboriginal artist, world famous Aboriginal artist, Tommy Crow and bought some of his artwork before heading to the Umoona Opal Mine and Museum for a tour. After dinner, we joined the locals at the Speedway. TOC, this was my first ever experience at a speedway. I've never been to races of any kind and it was pretty exciting. There was racing and burnouts as the sun went down in brilliant outback colours but all too soon we were travelling back home. I could have happily spent another couple of days in Coober Pedy but alas time did not permit. I'm so pleased I was able to enjoy another amazing adventure with friends and I am always grateful to enjoy another parkrun adventure with those who are willing to push the boundaries of parkrun tourism with me. If you ever get the opportunity to visit this parkrun, I encourage you to do it.

00:08:58Tony O'Connell: Sounds like an amazing weekend, Mel. You certainly fit like 48 hours of activities into a couple of hours when you're there.

00:09:09Melissa Ellis: So the underground motel, I thought we would be staying, when they say underground, I thought like under the ground, like below ground. A lot of the housing in Coober Pedy, it is within the ground, but it isn't below. Like it's set into the side of hills. Okay.

00:09:31Tony O'Connell: Okay, when I stayed in Coober Pedy about 40 years ago, the only accommodation was well and truly underground.

00:09:39Melissa Ellis: Okay. Yeah, well, now there's like motels just set into the side of hills. So, yeah, the walls are like dirt and it's all very cool, like the temperature is very constant but it's not below the level of the ground there is I believe um a lot of the residents that all live below ground but yeah some of the motels are sort of set into the side of hills

00:10:07Tony O'Connell: Probably come a long way from when 40 of us slept on mattresses in one big room. Were you at school? No, no, it was just a trip away.

00:10:14Melissa Ellis: Because I've sent three of my kids to school camp, to Central Australia school camp, and they have stayed en route in Coober Pedy. But, yeah. Yeah. That was my first visit and absolutely loved it. I've got an opal ring, I've bought Aboriginal artwork and I've got a whole new appreciation for the outback, I think. Kilometres and kilometres and kilometres of nothing.

00:10:43Tony O'Connell: Nothing is what it excels at. I'm afraid a lot of those distances, it's just hour upon hour of nothing.

00:10:51Melissa Ellis: It's good to have three people in the car to take turns. So thank you to Andrew and Martine for being part of that journey. We saw lots of emus. If you want to see emus, that is where you will see them. They are fantastic. Yes, I had to jump on the brakes on my leg of the trip because there was an emu that decided he would just jump out from the side of the road in front of my car. They're gorgeous though.

00:11:19Tony O'Connell: Yeah, well, speaking of jumping out, we had over in the UK, we had Nicki Clark jumped out and achieved the 1,000 volunteer milestone. How amazing is that?

00:11:32Melissa Ellis: Amazing, yes. We missed that because we didn't record last week, but congratulations to her.

00:11:38Tony O'Connell: And they've released the new colour of the shirt as yellow. So it's the last of the primary colours. So we now have the set. We know what the set are. It's pretty cool to see it come out.

00:11:50Melissa Ellis: How far are you away from yellow, TOC?

00:11:52Tony O'Connell: I'm about 27 years away from yellow. Now, I reached my 200 volley on Saturday, actually, so I'm only 800 away from it. Congratulations. Thank you.

00:12:05Melissa Ellis: I can't imagine. Why are you sort of, oh, because you're an ambassador and ambassadors don't get volunteer credits.

00:12:13Tony O'Connell: You don't count all that sort of – yeah. Oh, bless you. And when you go to parkruns and do stuff, you don't count it.

00:12:19Melissa Ellis: You should be at a billion volunteers.

00:12:23Tony O'Connell: Just a little bit about Nicki, Mel. Her home event is Riddlesdown, and she attends there nearly every week. She volunteers at juniors every week, so she's one of those special people that just loves to put back into parkrun. I love the comment, though, and it's been quoted a few times. They asked why she does it, and I think her comment was something along the lines of, I turn up a lot, apparently. It's a pretty amazing little comment to make. But, yeah, they made a bit of a day of it. And just congratulations, Nicki. That's a huge achievement, and I'm sure everyone in parkrun really appreciates what you've done.

00:13:04Melissa Ellis: Absolutely. It's brilliant, and we wish her all the best. I will be a very, very long way away from 1,000. I was just aiming for my 500 blue shirt.

00:13:18Tony O'Connell: And I'm sure you'll get that, Mel.

00:13:21Melissa Ellis: Eventually. But there was lots of April Fool's pranks today because we are recording on April Fool's Day, Tony.

00:13:28Tony O'Connell: There was, Mel. And look, it's very interesting. Being a podcast that spans different time zones and different countries, we started seeing April Fool's pranks this morning when I got up and had a quick look at Facebook. And it's interesting to see that the UK is morning. Now we're recording at night, but the UK is morning. And they're doing all their April Fool's pranks now. And you keep thinking, but it's after lunch. You can't do it.

00:13:57Melissa Ellis: Well, I actually got home at 1am and Shellharbour had already posted theirs. It must have been sent. Ollie, you must have scheduled that for like one minute after midnight because I spotted that before I even went to bed.

00:14:10Tony O'Connell: Yeah, some of the ones that I've seen today, and there's been some rippers out there. Shellharbour and a number of other events have posted about the Olympics that are in Paris in July, running a special demonstration sport of parkrun, and the parkrunners, instead of getting a medal, being able to keep their celebratory finish token. LAUGHTER I saw one on one of the Facebook groups announcing the launch of a new event up in Cairns at Xavier Herbert, which was an ex-parkrun. And it's been interesting. There's been a number of those pop up during the day as different time zones have come on board, and a couple of events in New Zealand posted that their special day had changed and that it was actually today, and one of them actually had an event that they'd put up an event to and had a whole heap of people marked as going. So I don't know whether there's people getting to a park that are going to be very disappointed or – Was that Kingstown? It was, yeah. Yeah.

00:15:16Melissa Ellis: Yes, I got sent an invite to that and I actually mistakenly thought it was in Queensland, Kingsland, but apparently I was wrong.

00:15:24Tony O'Connell: Well, interestingly enough, Queenstown in New Zealand posted that they were changing their name and it was going to be to Kingstown Park and that all alphabet clubs would no longer apply with the Queenstown, that they were going to become a K event and a whole heap of other changes. And I saw a few comments on their page saying, what, you can't be serious, what? And then people wake up. Yeah.

00:15:52Melissa Ellis: It's always fun, yeah.

00:15:54Tony O'Connell: Yeah, there's some good April Fool's Day stuff and banter out there.

00:15:58Melissa Ellis: But, Tony, our very own Shultzy, he's been in the media.

00:16:03Tony O'Connell: Oh, Mel, I don't know, with you being away, whether you've heard the Brisbane radio. But, yeah, Shultzy had about 10 minutes of live radio talking about parkrun and his love for parkrun and getting around. And I think it was really good to hear Shultzy. And he's just turned 69. He was talking about his 70th birthday plans in 12 months. And, yeah, still been out and doing parkruns.

00:16:26Melissa Ellis: God bless him. I hope he comes to Palm. I hope we might see you there, Shultzy.

00:16:30Tony O'Connell: So, yeah, no, it was good to hear Shultzy up and about. In other news, Mel, parkrun Australia announced this weekend that we had 84,000 participants across Australia for the Easter weekend. A record for Australia, a record number of people. Fair to say, looking around at the local events, and we're predominantly a tourist area along the coast, every event was sort of bulging at the seams. So I would imagine that it was quite possible. And we had probably a higher number of, first timers at Inverloch than we normally do. By proportion of number of finishers, we had a higher percentage. So I don't know if there was a lot of people bringing people along for the day or what the story behind it was, but we seem to have a much higher proportion of first timers. Our first timers briefing this week, I think we had about 40 people go to it.

00:17:24Melissa Ellis: Oh, that's fabulous. Maybe it's just becoming more and more well-known as more and more people do it, more and more friends through social media are aware of the cause. My very own son-in-law participated at Portarlington parkrun this last Saturday, although he wasn't registered so he will appear as unknown. I can rectify that next weekend when I see him and sign him up.

00:17:53Tony O'Connell: Get on to it, Mel. Get on to it.

00:17:55Melissa Ellis: I was pretty excited. That's my first family member that's voluntarily gone into a parkrun without me dragging them there.

00:18:03Tony O'Connell: That's great news, Mel.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:18:06Tony O'Connell: And in other news, we're heading across to some roving reports, Mel. We've got a few this week because we were on holidays last week. So we've got a couple of extra ones. But why don't we start with Lyndell at Harris Avenue? Yeah.

00:18:10[background music]

Roving report Lyndell Murray — Harris Avenue parkrun

00:18:28Lyndell Murray: G'day, parkrun adventurers. It's Lyndell, and today I am coming to you from the lands of the Gubbi Gubbi people just north of Brisbane.

00:18:36Lyndell Murray: I am at Harris Avenue parkrun, and I have got Tony, the Event Director, and Jeff, today's Run Director. G'day, guys. How are you going today?

00:18:44Tony: Very good. Thank you very much. Good to see you.

00:18:46Jeff: Yeah, good to see you.

00:18:47Lyndell Murray: Now, I have been here before and recorded a little piece for the podcast before, but that was a while ago, wasn't it, Tony?

00:18:56Tony: Yes, it was. In those days, I think we had numbers of, it was about, after the initial event, cheers, it was about 80 or so, wasn't it? And then the COVID thing happened and we died down in numbers. And then since then, though, we've gradually picked up to about an average of about 120, 140. So it's been, yes, going good, really good.

00:19:15Lyndell Murray: Yeah, brilliant. I think it was the launch that I came to because back then we were allowed to go to launches. I don't like that so much anymore. And look, it looks like you've built a really nice group of volunteers here.

00:19:27Tony: Yes, we do. We've increased our Run Director base and we don't really struggle with volunteers anymore, which is really good. And everyone's really friendly. We've had people come here and say this is the friendliest park one they've come across, which is really nice to hear. I can't say it's true or not, but we'll take it anyway. Take it.

00:19:44[crosstalk]

00:19:45Lyndell Murray: Absolutely.

00:19:46Tony: But, yeah, it's a fantastic place to be on a Saturday morning. We've got the lake and there's turtles and ducks and stuff, and it's a great course. So, yeah, come on down if you haven't done the H yet.

00:19:55Lyndell Murray: Absolutely. So H is a great reason to come.

00:19:58Lyndell Murray: Now, I have got a bit of a bet that maybe part of the reason why people think it's such a friendly parkrun is I noticed this morning, Jeff, in your briefing, you mentioned all of the names of all of the volunteers that helped out today.

00:20:12Jeff: Yes, that's an idea I picked up from, it's not my idea unfortunately, I picked that up when I was volunteering at Nambour parkrun and they did the same thing and I just thought that was a really nice touch to add. So I've adopted it subsequently.

00:20:24Lyndell Murray: Yeah, brilliant. And so you run direct here regularly?

00:20:27Jeff: Yes, here and Central Lakes I run direct at two parkruns.

00:20:31Lyndell Murray: Excellent. What's the best thing about volunteering at parkrun?

00:20:36Jeff: What's not good? It's it. I don't know. I just find it really rewarding. The people are always very friendly. Everyone's appreciative of what you do, which I find really great. And, yeah, it's just a good way to get in touch with the community. So I really enjoy it.

00:20:46[crosstalk]

00:20:50Lyndell Murray: Absolutely. All right. Now, I am going to make a bit of a... A bit of an embarrassing little story about myself now. I had totally forgotten how lovely this parkrun course is. I thought Harris Avenue was kind of round fields and concrete and I forgot all about the lake.

00:21:09Tony: It sounds like a street, doesn't it, Harris Avenue? It's just a road, surely, but nothing could be further from the truth, it seems. surrounded by a beautiful lake and we've got parklands here and wildlife and sometimes it can get busy down here because there's soccer fields there's baseball which was finished up last week so and there's tennis courts up there so it's a really sporty area and people get together and all congregate and they all know each other a big community sort of feel so it's fantastic

00:21:34Lyndell Murray: Excellent. So it's a real hub. Now, could you describe the course here for us?

00:21:41Tony: Yes, it starts and finishes on a bit of grass. It's about 200-300 metres. Other than that, it's pathed. It's nice and flat, there's no real hills to speak of which is sometimes good for people. There's one little bridge down the back there which might go under if it rains an awful lot but we've only had that happen twice. And other than that you just pretty much get a view of a beautiful lake in the middle. There's some ducks in there and some turtles and sometimes some people have seen swans as well. So yeah, it's really nice.

00:22:15Lyndell Murray: Brilliant. Now, we've covered a few things. We've covered the lake, we've covered the community, we've covered the H. Is there anything else you would like the parkrun adventurer community to know about Harris Avenue?

00:22:26Tony: Basically, if you haven't been to Harris Avenue, come and experience it for yourself. We get visitors from here, as all parkruns do, interstates and from far and wide and other countries. So we've got people here today from Dorset in England as well. Brilliant. Fantastic.

00:22:40[crosstalk]

00:22:41Lyndell Murray: Excellent.

00:22:42Tony: Thank you.

00:22:42Lyndell Murray: All right. Well, thank you for everything that you have done for parkrun and your community, Tony. And thank you to your whole community of Run Directors. We've lost Jeff. He's back helping out the other volunteers now. So thank you so much. And hopefully we'll see you again at Harris Avenue. Look out for the parkrun adventurer shirts.

00:23:00Tony: Yes, thanks. Looking forward to the podcast. Cheers.

00:23:05Lyndell Murray: All righty.

00:23:06Lyndell Murray: Now I have with me Emma, who is the newest and youngest volunteer.

00:23:11Emma: Yep, 18. 18 years of age.

00:23:13Lyndell Murray: Yep, 18 years of age. And just started run directing here at Harris Avenue.

00:23:19Emma: Yeah, I started run directing on the International Women's Day parkrun.

00:23:23Lyndell Murray: Was that planned or was that a coincidence? It was planned. Well, that's brilliant. What do you like about run directing?

00:23:31Emma: I just like the community here and I love volunteering as well. So I just found that the run directing was really fun. Yeah.

00:23:38Lyndell Murray: And chatting with you, it sounds like you adventure a lot to a couple of different parkruns around the Traps.

00:23:43Emma: I've been to a few different ones. This is the one I've been to the most. I've been to one in New Zealand, actually. Yeah. One down in New South Wales and a couple around here.

00:23:51Lyndell Murray: Yeah, cool.

00:23:52Emma: Are there any highlights from the trips that you've taken to parkruns? Any favourites? Definitely Maroombula, very nice. Boardwalk around a lake, but unfortunately it doesn't exist anymore. Yeah.

00:24:02Lyndell Murray: It's on a lot of our bucket lists, and now we have to scratch it off and find another beautiful parkrun. Luckily, there's lots of beautiful parkruns.

00:24:09Emma: Yeah, there are a lot. Petrie's actually quite nice, aside from the hills. Yeah, there's a few hills there, isn't there? And New Zealand, where did you go in New Zealand? I went to Barry Curtis Park, which is in Auckland. Nice one.

00:24:22Lyndell Murray: All right. Now, what would you say to other young aspiring volunteers or Run Directors? I mean, you're a young woman, probably high school or just finished high school. What would you say to people around your age who are looking to volunteer or start run directing?

00:24:37Emma: Definitely volunteer. Very fun. Excellent community. You get to meet a lot of nice people, make lots of friends. And yeah, just overall, really good time. Have you learned stuff being a Run Director as well? Yeah, I've definitely learned a lot about leadership and how to manage a team.

00:24:53Lyndell Murray: Brilliant. Well, that will stand you in good stead whatever you do in your life ahead of you.

00:24:57Emma: Yeah, thank you.

00:24:58Lyndell Murray: All right, Emma, thank you so much for having a chat to me. And maybe we'll see you around the traps or back here at Harris Avenue one day.

00:25:05Emma: Yeah, hopefully. See you soon.

Roving report Sarah Jefferson — Centennial Park, Dunsborough parkrun

00:25:08Sarah Jefferson: Good morning parkrun adventurers. It's Sarah here from the West Side, on the West Side with Trish down in Centennial parkrun Dunsborough. We're here for event 16 this morning.

00:25:19Sarah Jefferson: How has this parkrun been tracking, Trish?

00:25:22Trish: Oh, so well. We absolutely hit the ground running, pardon the pun. But because we're a tourist town, we have great numbers every week. And, yeah, it's amazing. It's great. The locals have really embraced it and we're loving it.

00:25:40[crosstalk]

00:25:40Sarah Jefferson: Yeah, well, it was nice that it was a bit cooler this morning, I must say. Still warmed up, but it's beautiful down here.

00:25:45Trish: Yeah, beautiful.

00:25:46Sarah Jefferson: I did check out your volunteer roster and it's very full. What's the trick?

00:25:50Trish: I know, I know. Well, I did quite a bit of promotion before we started. And the locals have really got behind it. Fabulous. So we've got a great team and people really enjoy coming. Great.

00:26:02[crosstalk]

00:26:02Sarah Jefferson: And are you one of the EDs here? Yes. Great. So how long has this been in the works for this parkrun?

00:26:07[crosstalk]

00:26:08Trish: About a year I started planning. But I'd never done a parkrun before I set it up. Right. I just had seen one in Geraldton and I thought, this is wonderful. This is such a great... And I'm really into community events and... community building so I thought well this is perfect fabulous and I'm a I'm not really much of a runner but um I do run but um not seriously so I but I it's more the community that I really was keen on that's what parkrun is great for isn't it wonderful and so you've participated a few times now in this event um no I usually come and do the run beforehand okay

00:26:36[crosstalk]

00:26:46Sarah Jefferson: And volunteer. Volunteer, yeah. Oh, you're so good. Yeah, yeah. Thank you for that. Yeah. Obviously, you mentioned this is a tourist area, so we are an adventurers podcast. So for those people who would like to adventure maybe from the East Coast or even internationally, why should they come down to this area?

00:27:00Trish: Oh, Dunsborough's absolutely beautiful. We've got the most amazing coast around our cape. Very picturesque. There's lots of beautiful walking trails, beautiful beaches, wineries, restaurants. It's just a lovely area to visit.

00:27:14Sarah Jefferson: And I was a bit confused this morning because we normally see the sun set over the water in Western Australia, but obviously the sun was rising over the water.

00:27:19[crosstalk]

00:27:22Trish: Can you explain that a little bit? Well, the Geographe Bay, the orientation of the bay is a bit confusing. Yeah, so...

00:27:33Sarah Jefferson: But that's quite unique as well, I guess, because you actually can see part of the sunset, right? Am I right in saying you can see the sun kind of rise over water and set?

00:27:40[crosstalk]

00:27:40Trish: Yes, on the other side of the Cape. Yeah. Between Dunsborough and Yallingup, yeah, wherever you are, yeah, you've got different aspects. It's lovely.

00:27:48Sarah Jefferson: And have there been any highlights, I guess, since starting? I know only 16 events in, but some highlights that have stood out for you?

00:27:55Trish: One week we had a five-year-old and a 90-year-old all compete in the same event. Fabulous. It was lovely. Great. Lots of international visitors. And every week we have so many first-timers to the course because people are on holidays. So it's always got a lovely atmosphere because people are happy to be here. Well, exactly. When you're on holidays, you're very relaxed, aren't you? That's right. It's always really cheery and happy.

00:28:12[crosstalk]

00:28:16Sarah Jefferson: And it's definitely achievable. We left at 4.30 this morning from Perth. I did. Well done. So it is achievable to drive down from the metro as well. It's a three-hour drive. So, yeah, which is quite good. And you've got toilets here. There's plenty of parking. I assume there's a coffee shop picked out for after? Yes. Yes, there is.

00:28:20[crosstalk]

00:28:37Trish: Yes, well, there's lots of cafes. Well, there are lots, yes, yes.

00:28:38[crosstalk]

00:28:40Sarah Jefferson: So hopefully we can catch a few people at coffee. And there's obviously the bay right here. You don't run on the beach. It's the path. Along the bay. Sort of along the bay. It was a bit cold when I put my hand in there this morning. Not sure if I'll get in there. But just quickly as well, could you just explain the course to the listeners as well, please?

00:28:46[crosstalk]

00:28:58Trish: It heads north towards the K. So it's an out and back 1.5 Ks back to the beginning and then out and back 3.5 the other direction.

00:29:12Sarah Jefferson: So you do pass the finish line. Nice to pass a few people on the course as well. Yes. Yes. And also just this cape that you're talking about. I know that lots of people in Western Australia want to hike this Cape to Cape. Yes. Do you know much about the Cape to Cape hike that you share?

00:29:25Trish: Yes, I did it last year. Oh, congrats. It's absolutely amazing. Fabulous. Yeah, it's amazing, absolutely picturesque so it's um Cape Naturaliste to Cape Leeuwin um and it's 125 k's I think yeah yeah wow how many days did it take I did in six days but I didn't I didn't camp I I um got dropped off and picked up each each evening but yeah you're across beach you're across uh rocks and uh forest forest yeah wow Boranup forest it's absolutely stunning Yeah, there's a whole range of scenery. Fabulous. And you end up at Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse. Yeah, beautiful. Well, congratulations. I really recommend it. Thank you.

00:29:39[crosstalk]

00:29:51[crosstalk]

00:30:01[crosstalk]

00:30:05Sarah Jefferson: For any adventurers out there that are keen to do that, they can tack a parkrun on at the start of the trip and at the end.

00:30:10[crosstalk]

00:30:11Trish: Absolutely, and at the end. Yeah.

00:30:13Sarah Jefferson: Well, thank you. It won't be long until you get your 25 volunteer shirt, the purple shirt. Thank you for all that you do for parkrun and for setting this up. We really appreciate it. Yeah. Thanks, Trish.

Roving report Tracey Wood — Mackay parkrun

00:30:23Tracey Wood: Good morning, adventurers. It's Tracey in a Tutu. Guess where I am? Oh, you won't guess, so I'll tell you. I'm in Mackay. Okay, I've just happened to park my way around a very beautiful Mackay course. I didn't do an intro before the course simply because I was running late. Despite only being five minutes away, there was a bit of an oops in communication and we sort of arrived late and I got the most of the briefing and I set off and now I'm finished and now I'm looking for someone interesting to chat to. Stand by. Okay, the RD of the day has bailed out and dobbed in Cole.

00:31:02Tracey Wood: And Cole is a Volunteer Coordinator or?

00:31:05Cole: Today I was in a Run Director at other times and volunteer whenever I can and run whenever I can.

00:31:10Tracey Wood: Beautiful. Now, Colin, for the listeners at home, what would you like them to know about Mackay parkrun course?

00:31:17Cole: Oh, the course is beautiful. A lot of it is covered in the shade, which up here you need a lot of shade because it gets very hot and humid. This time of year is much better. But it's a beautiful scenic course, runs through the botanical gardens and lots of trees, lots of shrubs, a lake to run beside. Beautiful.

00:31:34Tracey Wood: Yeah, it was absolutely wonderful when I ran it. Can you describe the shape of the course? Look, I know I've run it, but I'm not so good with the words. And as a local, you could probably describe it better.

00:31:45Cole: Well, it's difficult, but it runs straight out, and then you do a little U-turn, and then you do a dogleg, and that's an out-and-back dogleg, and then you come back to the original path, and then it's straight home. So it's fairly straightforward, just a few little turns along the way.

00:32:01Tracey Wood: And what would you like the listeners at home to know about parkrun in Mackay? Is there something special about this, something you'd want people to know? Is there, I don't know, what's unique about this?

00:32:14Cole: Well, parkrun in Mackay has got a pretty good reputation. A lot of visitors say it's a good, friendly parkrun to come to. So we're always looking for tourists, parkrun tourists, to come and join with us. And it's a challenging course because of the humidity and the heat, but it's one that people enjoy all the time.

00:32:34Tracey Wood: Absolutely. It was very nice. Now, also, while I'm here, as I mentioned before, I came late to the briefing. Now, there are paces here today or were paces here today, which was great. But there were also other things happening. There were three groups, red, black and something. Can you explain?

00:32:54Cole: Well, we had what's called a takeover. So all the volunteers today, or most of the volunteers today, were all from a group called On The Run. Many of them are regular parkrunners as well, but it's a separate running club here in Mackay. And they took over the pacing duty. So every so often we have a pace a week to help people get their PBs. And the popularity of the... Mackay runners really shot up. This year we've had several runs over 400, whereas in the past, I think 380 or thereabouts was our maximum. And it's just more and more people coming every week, so it's great. And groups like On The Run who come along, and the Mackay Runners Club do, the Referees Club occasionally will do a takeover and bring in volunteers and new people to parkrun, which we all want to see all the time.

00:33:43Tracey Wood: Excellent. All right. Thanks for your time, Cole. And this is Tracey in a Tutu signing off and sweating away in Mackay parkrun, ticking off another of my list. Thoroughly recommend this parkrun if you're up this way. Absolutely beautiful course. And as Cole said, it is in the shade or mostly in the shade. So it's really lovely. Okay. Take care, team. See you another time.

Local Weather Expert

00:34:07the Local Weather Expert: Hello. This is your local weather expert here. I was very excited last week to hear Mel and Simon discussing ocean currents, Coriolis and the weather. With respect to the Benguela current, the gyre and the current are linked to the winds in the area. Coriolis and the landmass does play a role though in determining the direction of the current. There are a couple of minor corrections though that I'd like to make to what was said last week. Firstly, Coriolis forces have most impact on large-scale systems, such as the ocean, as correctly pointed out by Simon. It also has an impact on weather systems. This is why low-pressure systems spin and helps the formation of hurricanes and tropical cyclones. Coriolis, however, has a negligible impact in day-to-day life. The circular motion of water draining out of a tub or a wash basin is not an example of Coriolis. It is more linked to the basin and bathtub design. If Coriolis did impact on such a small scale, a ball would never travel straight on a billiard table. Lastly, El Niño and La Niña are not weather patterns, nor do they move. The El Niño Southern Oscillation involves temperature changes in the waters in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. When temperatures are above average, an El Niño occurs and La Niña when they are below average. They have an impact on the likely weather we experience globally. Australians typically experience drier conditions in an El Niño, whilst the southern parts of the USA experiences more rainfall. However, it is very complicated and doesn't always play out this way. Lastly, I'd like to provide my local weather forecast for your parkrun weekend. May your parkrun day be fine with the chance of a PB.

00:36:00[background music]

00:36:16Melissa Ellis: And thank you to all our roving reporters and to our local weather expert, TOC, bringing us all their updates and corrections for the information that we got wrong the other week.

00:36:28Tony O'Connell: Every day is a learning day, Mel.

Dazza's

00:36:32Melissa Ellis: is thank you local weather expert please give us a forecast for upcoming palm but Tony, we are here to talk about Dazza's and this week Dazza said a four-day weekend is a great excuse for an adventure come on in help yourself to a chocolate egg and tell us all about your parkrun morning and who are we starting off with

00:36:55Tony O'Connell: Mel, the first of our 153 comments this week comes from Amanda Murray-Hoyne from the UK. So we're jumping over the big ditch to start with. And Amanda said, with a really happy party face emoji. Amanda didn't post a pic, but I've met Amanda before. And Amanda, I hope your foot heals really well and you're back out and doing it. Amanda's one of those real bubbly people. So yeah, I hope she heals quickly.

00:37:28Melissa Ellis: Fabulous. We also heard from Mark Hibbard coming to us from the ACT and he said, took an adventure to become a capitalist again at Point Hut Pond parkrun. First run in my new shirt, my first running shirt. Hooray. And it is, of course, our very own Adventurers top. There was a photo of Mark who at first glance appears to be standing on the water in his adventurers T-shirt.

00:37:54Tony O'Connell: Well, next one we jump across to South Australia, and I think this might have been an event that you might know a little bit about. We heard from Sarah Jefferson. Sarah from the West Side who comes slightly east side. Happy Easter, Dazza. Fabo morning at Coober Pedy Oval parkrun and the morning is only young. Stayed the night in an underground motel, had a fabulous run and chat with Melissa, impressed by the firefighters doing their parkrun in their kits on and they even got their zoomies out. Excited for a day ahead exploring an opal mine, the gem show and then the speed show tonight. And... Sarah's pick, and I'm sure everyone can jump in and have a look in the parkrun adventurers Facebook page because it's currently our cover photo. And it's a fantastic photo of five adventurers in their blue shirts alternating with four fire people in their yellow turnout gear in front of a fire truck. And it's just an awesome picture. We also had Dazza's feedback on the weekend from Coober Pedy from Martine Barrot, Mel and Eric Banner. So lots of feedback in Dazza's from Coober Pedy this week.

00:39:00Melissa Ellis: Yeah, and I must thank Sarah. She was the push behind getting that photo organised. So good work, Sarah. Now we also heard from Val Warwick. She was our Tasmanian content this week and she said after an early morning start, we reached Zeehan Golf Club parkrun where we were volunteering and meeting up with Brendan and Jodie. And Val shared a photo of herself, Steve, Brendan and Jodie in the Zeehan photo frame. So good to see our good friends down there representing in Tassie.

00:39:37Tony O'Connell: Going from Tassie, Mel moving back up to New South Wales and one of the team, the Office Lady, Sam Schroder. Luke and I marshalled at the bottom of the hills at Shellharbour and caught up with lots of beautiful people. And the picture is a cracker of Sam and Luke together with Hannah and Ollie in inflatable Easter Bunny costumes. And they're probably some of the better costumes I've seen across the weekend. So well done, Hannah and Ollie.

00:40:03Melissa Ellis: And you might notice anybody who has been looking at our socials, I used that for our Consolidated Club Report photo this week. Now, we also heard from Jackie Hancock coming to us from across the ditch at New Zealand. She said, I was RD at Pugas's parkrun. It was egg-cellent. And there was an egg-cellent pic of Jackie dressed as an Easter egg.

00:40:30Tony O'Connell: Rightio, Mel. We're doing a big circle. We started in the UK. We're back in the UK. And we've got Ian Thompson. Hi, Dazza. Took it easy today at Five Arches at Radstock, Somerset. Having raced a fast 10-mile road race yesterday that included an ex-Prime Minister along the Marshal crew. A lovely out and back along an old railway line, which was dead sociable. Hmm, dead sociable. And we had a picture of Ian and some friends, and I'm guessing a little bit of cyber-stalking. Maybe one of them's Alexander. Maybe it's not. But Alexander Thompson also appeared in the results as a young lad, and there's a young lad in the photo. And they're in front of the Five Arches pop-up sign.

00:41:14Melissa Ellis: So I'm taking it that's not the ex-Prime Minister?

00:41:19Tony O'Connell: I don't think so, no.

00:41:22Melissa Ellis: We also heard from Wendy Glen. She is our Victorian representative this week. And Wendy said, Trebeck Reserve parkrun, new team and a gorgeous course. And there was a photo of the start line of Victoria's newest event, showing the trail disappearing into a spectacular sunrise. I'm excited about this one, Tony. I am going to check it out next week.

00:41:47Tony O'Connell: Sounds like a cracker, everyone. Do, Mel. Across the ditch, Alison King coming to us from New Zealand. Second highest attendance at Puarenga today. Lots of Easter visitors to Rotorua. Axel handed out 192 tokens. I did course check, set up first time as welcome and shot some video. One of our juniors achieved his 50 run milestone and brought cake. Axel had three pieces while on duty. Hope everyone's had a wonderful weekend. And there's a pic of Alison and Axel, and Axel looks like he's had three big pieces of cake and he's not feeling too well after having three pieces of cake.

00:42:28Melissa Ellis: Well done, Axel. That's good work volunteering. Now, moving across to South Africa, we had Johan. Now, I'm not even going to try to pronounce all the things that Johan said, so let's listen to what Johan had to say.

00:42:44Johan Duvenhage: Well, our intrepid adventuring co-hosts chickened out this week on my entry to Dazza's and I've got to do it myself. It's Johan and this week I took a short drive to Lephalale in the Limpopo province to get to Mogol parkrun in order to fill in one of the largest missing blocks on my Voronoi map. I also got to meet the friendly Buschvelders and say hi to the ED and event ambassador Niels Scherber. Short these days is anything under a thousand kilometres. By the way, If Lephalale doesn't ring a bell, previously it was called Ellisras and it is also the site where Eskom is building one of what will become the largest dry-cooled coal-fired power station in the world upon completion. Construction started in 2007, is still ongoing, as is load shedding, unfortunately.

00:43:37Melissa Ellis: And thank you, Johan, who shared a photo of himself and Niels in front of a Mogol 250 sign.

00:43:44Tony O'Connell: That's a nice bright green 250 sign, Mel.

00:43:48Melissa Ellis: Yes. I love their signs over there in South Africa. They are to be envied. But that's it for Dazza's this week.

the Obi Award — Mark Hibbard

00:43:55Melissa Ellis: Tony, do you have the Obilope?

00:43:59Tony O'Connell: I have the Obilope. Hooray.

00:44:02Melissa Ellis: Hooray. Okay, hang on. I've got to get the camera ready.

00:44:05Tony O'Connell: And Mel, our winner of this week's Obi goes to, let me open the envelope. Lucky I don't tear it each time. Our winner is Mark Hibbard.

00:44:15[background music]

00:44:28Melissa Ellis: Okay, I've got the photo. I can't see it, Tony. There we go. Brilliant. Thank you. All right, congratulations, Mark, and beautiful photo there.

00:44:39Tony O'Connell: I really enjoyed that photo, Mel. As I said, at first scroll on Dazza's when I was looking on the phone, I scrolled past, I thought, he's standing in a puddle. He's in a big puddle. Then I realised he's standing on a bit of a deck or something, but it looks like he's out walking across the lake. So well done, Mark. Great photo.

Emails

00:44:57Melissa Ellis: Now, we have an email.

00:45:00Tony O'Connell: You've got mail.

00:45:02Melissa Ellis: And it comes to us from our very own Bec Bailey. Shall I read it?

00:45:08Tony O'Connell: That'd be a great idea if you read it, Mel.

00:45:11Melissa Ellis: Okay. It says, hello, parkrun adventurers team, long-time listener, first-time emailer. I hope you all had a safe and enjoyable Easter break. I'm writing to tell you about my long weekend's adventures because this parkrun needs a mention. To avoid the busy period where it seems everyone from Sydney and surrounds heads to the south coast, I packed up my car and headed inland to get away for some quality battery charging quietness, looking at my parkrun map on Thursday to find a perfect place with a parkrun. On Friday, I began driving approximately nine hours northwest of Shellharbour. That's driving inland for all the geographically challenged people. I don't know what she's saying.

00:45:54Tony O'Connell: That's us.

00:45:55Melissa Ellis: And I headed up to Cobar, a rural historic mining town in central New South Wales. Cobar is located five hours east of Broken Hill and five and a half hours west of Bathurst, four hours north of Griffith and three hours south of the Queensland, New South Wales border, making it fairly far away from any neighbouring parkruns with the closest been Bourke Racecourse 155 kilometres away. Cobar is a simple out-and-back parkrun completely on bitumen pathway, starting and finishing at Newey Reserve, two kilometres away from the Cobar Caravan Park and the centre of town. There were 20 people in attendance, mostly visitors as the locals had gone away for the long weekend. I had a lovely chat to the community after my run and offered RD Trudy a hand handing out the tokens as she was super RD doing token scanning and RDing on the morning. It was event 230 for Cobar, an event that started back in May 2018. The event was in fear of closing in 2021 as numbers declined to under 10 on a regular basis. That's when Trudy took over as ED to ensure parkrun in this small town stayed alive. It's a lovely small community. Everyone was very welcoming and I was invited to join brunch with a couple of locals at Gum Nat Cafe, a cafe that Trudy also manages. The community was thankful for my visit. Couldn't believe someone would drive all the way to nowhere, their words not mine, to visit. Especially when there is not much to do in the area. Sounded perfect to me, hence the visit. After brunch, I headed down the main street to the miners' memorial, the Cobar sign, and wandered beneath the fans of the Cobar Museum to escape the 34-degree heat before getting another cold drink and making my way back to my tent at the caravan park. I'll be staying another night with plans to head home Sunday but may stop along the way to check out all the sculptures on the road between Cobar and Forbes. Might not make it back till Monday night." Everyone should put Cobar on their parkrun lists and pay them a visit. Thanks, team. Happy Easter. Bec Bailey.

00:48:09Tony O'Connell: Now, just looking at Bec's road trip there and put a little bit of perspective into it for our UK, probably listeners more than our Australian listeners, it's a nine-hour car trip and Bec probably in nine hours of driving probably only drove past four parkruns in that nine-hour drive. So the parkruns out in the middle are very remote and very distant from each other. I just had a quick look on the map and I think she passed four depending on which way she went. So, you know, when your nearest parkruns two and a half, three hours away, gives you a little bit of idea on some sizing. And that's not even probably considered our remote parkruns. Some of them are six or eight hours from the nearest event.

00:48:54Melissa Ellis: Yeah. So not dissimilar to my trip. TOC, to Coober Pedy which whilst we were on route checking their Facebook page to confirm that they were going to be going ahead because there's never any guarantee obviously you know it's it's run by volunteers and things come up and you know we can't be upset if circumstances mean that the event has to cancel but when events are so remote there's no chance of getting anywhere else absolutely no chance you're turning around like Port Augusta would have been our nearest parkrun I think which was probably six hours back yeah in the direction from whence we came

00:49:42Tony O'Connell: Puts a bit of perspective into it, doesn't it, with the distances that some of the events are from each other and from the nearest support with different, even basics. So the communications and phone, Facebook, that sort of thing become more important to those teams because if something goes wrong with results and they're looking for some help, you can't just duck up there and have a coffee with them and help them through their issues, right?

00:50:08Melissa Ellis: No, and it's very obvious that, like, I think you were saying, what was the reference to somebody being involved in a separate volunteer capacity on the day? I think it was one of the Dazza's posts that you read out. The CFA at Coober Pedy. is obviously very involved. They were volunteering with the event. And I think that whoever is behind the event team at Coober Pedy, there's a crossover with the CFA there. So it's not unusual. Much like yourself, Tony, you're active in your community in CFA and Surf Lifesaving and as well as parkrun. So there's a lot of crossover with volunteers in small communities.

00:50:53Tony O'Connell: Yeah, there is, but the likes of the CFA down here, if we need help, we've got two other fire trucks from neighbouring towns 20 minutes, half an hour away, not six or eight hours away.

00:51:07Melissa Ellis: Yeah.

00:51:08Tony O'Connell: Yeah. Yeah, that's true. You really have to appreciate what they manage and what they have to experience. But, Mel, moving along.

Club Corner

00:51:20Tony O'Connell: I think it's time that we go and have a listen to Rachel and then the birthday boy.

00:51:25[background music]

00:51:37Rachel: 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. As we have Palm 2024 coming up, I have had a request for a very topical club, the Southern Cross Circuit, and the quest for one to become a stargazer. This club started back in the days of maps, and is based around what was then, a crucifix shape as viewed across the Darling and Southern Downs of Queensland, and which has had bonus pointer stars added as, bonuses, to the main constellation. Picture this, or better yet, open the parkrun map for Australia, and pop in your search, Toowoomba parkrun. You should know where it is, given this year's palm, but just in case, go do it. The city of Toowoomba is now a cluster of events, but was originally only the one, so treat that blob in the centre as a single dot. Go up the map, and you have Highfields parkrun. Look left and right of Toowoomba you have Pittsworth and Gatton parkruns respectively. Come down the map and you pass through Warwick parkrun, and stop at Stanthorpe parkrun. These six events make the shape of the so-named Southern Cross Circuit. As the region grew, it was just like in the sky above, with pointer stars added, like Oakey and Dalby. If you are Northern Hemisphere listener, and above 26 degrees above the equator, sorry, you have no idea what we are talking about. If you're an Antipodean, then you're in luck. Let's lean into this particularly Aussie club, now the central blob of Toowoomba has expanded over the years and now includes Picnic Point Parklands parkrun g I love say that event name Picnic Point Parklands parkrun Picnic Point Parklands parkrun Picnic Point Parklands parkrun plus South Toowoomba parkrun The Venue for palm 2024 this brings the total number of events in the main constellation to eight the surrounding towns which point to the main constellation Both from the Northwest and the West, Southwest have added in a number of bonus stars, namely Charleys Creek in Chinchilla, Dalby, Goondiwindi, Miles, Oakey and Roma parkruns. Yes Mel, those directions are a thing... In my research, I found that this club was named by Linda Coombes, Sonja Pohlman, and Peter Pohlman, back in late 2015, or early 2016. It's unusual for some of these early clubs to have a firm origin, so thank you to them. This was one of the more fun clubs to research, and one that is a little quirky and different to the regular cluster on the map, or word salad challenges. And remember, in parkrun life, all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun, so stay tuned for our future club corners.

00:54:00[background music]

the Birthday Boy

00:54:14the Birthday Boy: Howdy, it's the birthday boy here with some of the goings on for April 2024. April has no Easter this year, but it does have four parkrun days, so four chances for cake. The parkrun days this month are week one on the 6th, week two on the 13th, week three on the 20th, and week four the 27th. If you happen to be in South Africa this month, You will not be doubling up for Freedom Day, as this year it falls on the 27th, week four. So be sure to check that events are still happening in case of other community events at their location. Are you planning to get your volunteer vibe on in April? Do you have an April adventure planned? Are you coming to Palm on the 13th? An anniversary reminder first. Events may celebrate what they like, when they like, so please check all details with the local source, i.e. their webpage and or their Facebook page. This is especially true for dress-ups, cakes, etc. Before Main Beach skips away to 13 years of park runnings, is there anyone joining them on 12? Yeah, kinda. Ginninderra in the ACT reaches 12 in the last week of the month, just after Main Beach gets to 13 in the first week. Now let's check out the first anniversaries. We have Tallangatta Station and Yackandandah Rail Trail, both in Victoria. In Palm Week, we have loads of other options if you're not going up Toowoomba Way. Now I say up because Toowoomba is at the top of the Great Dividing Range. These anniversaries are some of your options to party if you're not at Palm. Birdsland Reserve in Victoria is turning 5. Chaffey Park in New South Wales turning 2. Fingal Bay in New South Wales is turning 11. George Town in Tasmania turning 7. Myponga Reservoir in South Australia turning 2. And Warragul in Victoria turning 9. Which tells me that if you're in Queensland, the party is at South Toowoomba. This month, the most popular anniversary celebration is the Sixers, with 11 events turning six, including the aforementioned South Toowoomba parkrun. But they do it on the 6th, not on the 13th for Palm weekend. Hmm, will there be any leftovers for those heading out for Palm? This month for juniors, we have one celebrating in April, Des Connor Park in Queensland, as featured recently by Tracey in a Tutu. Congrats to Des Connor. As with all parkrun adventures, the parkrun cancellations page is a valuable tool. See parkrun.com.au forward slash cancellations. The official cancellation page contains information for the coming weekend plus two further weeks. So be sure to check it again next month. Well, see you next month for some more birthday boy banter and be sure to let Mel, Ollie and the boys know if you have any requests.

00:57:20[background music]

00:57:33Melissa Ellis: And thank you to Rachel and the birthday boy this week. We were lucky, Tony. We had both of them. Rachel telling us about the stargazers.

00:57:43Tony O'Connell: Yeah, now the Stargazers, the events that are included in that challenge are Highfields, Toowoomba, South Toowoomba, Picnic Point Parklands, Pittsworth, Gatton, Warwick, Stanthorpe, plus there's a couple of other events that form the Pointer Stars.

00:57:57Melissa Ellis: Very good. So for all those coming up to Palm, yes, look at the Stargazers challenge, yeah, and look at ticking that off.

00:58:09Tony O'Connell: And we'll be doing a few of those events as Freedos and one of them as our Palm event. So nice little tie in there.

Consolidated Club Report

00:58:17Melissa Ellis: Absolutely. Now, Tony, the adventurers Consolidated Club report for Saturday, the 30th of March, 2024, of a total of 608 members, 493 took part on this day in nine countries across 249 locations. In the UK, there were adventurers at 48 events. There were five in South Africa, three in the USA, two in the Netherlands, and one in Canada, Germany, and Japan. Locally, we had adventures at 58 events in New South Wales, 45 in Victoria, 37 in Queensland, 17 in South Australia. The West Side had 10, North Island had seven, there were six in Tassie, five in the ACT, two on the South Island, and one in the Northern Territory. So this week, South Australia tipping out the West Side again, but big news, the UK taking silver.

00:59:20Tony O'Connell: UK coming in second and quite clearly, Mel. And there's a bit of a spread. I had a quick look at the list of events that were in there for the UK and they're spread far and wide. The people in the UK are definitely adventurers, definitely travellers.

00:59:36Melissa Ellis: Wow. Yeah. That's great. Well, obviously they would be. If they're listening to our podcast and joining our… Joining our group. Our group. They're going to be tourists, aren't they? But, yeah, yay, shout out. We just need some bigger fronds happening, guys. Sign up your friends.

the Frond

00:59:52Tony O'Connell: Our biggest frond internationally, Mel, was in Tapijn in the Netherlands where we had three people. We had William Boughton, Deb and Andy Airey. So, yeah, although the UK had a huge number of events, there was only one or two at each. So it'll be great to see a big frond form there.

01:00:11Melissa Ellis: Yep, but locally we had fronds at 12 members out at Shellharbour celebrating Easter. There was eight out at Inverloch enjoying the sunshine on the stump, but seven in Gungahlin in the ACT. So they're the ones we're calling out this week. We had Mark Weber, Eva Webber, Diana Marshall, Amy Kent, Sue Bannister, Kathleen Hicks and Katie Guthrie. So well done to those people enjoying the ACT this week.

01:00:43Tony O'Connell: As always, it's great to see the little fronds forming here, there and everywhere right across the big broad land and further afield internationally.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

01:00:52Tony O'Connell: Now, this week, parkrun didn't have another launch. I thought Easter, we might have had a few little Easter eggs pop up out there, but we were on holiday last week and we did have a launch last week. Last week into the family, we welcomed Tubbercurry Trail in Ireland. This event's located northeast of Dublin and southwest of Belfast, so pretty much over towards the west coast, but about halfway between the two. And they launched on the 23rd of March with 181 finishes, but they had 39 first-timers. That's a percentage. That's sort of up in the 20s, and I think that's one of the higher percentages of first-timers I've seen at an event that's got many events around it locally. You see typically a high percentage if an event's very remote and isolated because it doesn't have the tourists going there. It has the locals that have got enthused. But this is an event that's surrounded by parkruns, and they still managed to draw in 39 first-timers, which is huge. They were supported by 31 volunteers, and the course is described as the courses on the Tubbercurry Trail, and runs through open bogs and through wooded areas. It's a figure of eight course with approximately 1.5 kilometre loop in the centre section.

01:02:09Melissa Ellis: So welcome into the family. 31 volunteers. That's really high.

01:02:15Tony O'Connell: Second week this week, and I think they had about 130 finishers and still had about 30 volunteers. So they must have quite a few marshals or something out on the track. I didn't look at the volunteer numbers to have a look at that.

01:02:29Melissa Ellis: Wow. And remember, you can add the Adventurers Club as one of your five affiliations on your parkrun profile. So feel free to add us. You don't have to necessarily, I don't know, have any qualifications. If you just want to be recognised as an adventurer, feel free to add us. We are quite happy for you to join in and message us if you need any help on how to do that. But looking forward, Toc, what have we got to look forward to?

01:02:58Tony O'Connell: Well, we've got a lot of things to look forward to, and we'll start off with the longest run. And if people want to jump over to Longest Run Australia Facebook page, for those unfamiliar with it, it's a day where we get out. Generally, we do seven parkruns across the day. These are unofficial. They don't count towards your stats, but you can list them all as freedom runs if you like. So far around Australia, we've got three events that are live and have events up. And I know Victoria's planning four separate events. But one of the things with this year is the dates haven't lined up across the states. So people have got the opportunity at this point to go four weeks in a row of doing seven parkruns on the Sunday.

01:03:41Melissa Ellis: Wow.

01:03:42Tony O'Connell: Okay. So that's 28 parkruns in four weeks. Yeah. That sounds fun. That's a long way.

01:03:50Melissa Ellis: We love our longest run. I can't believe that's coming up already. Hang on. Well, April, May, June. Okay, yeah, not too far away.

01:03:56Tony O'Connell: Coming up in June, the planning's well underway because it is only a couple of months away and people need to book it in. We're lucky in Victoria that we get to do it on the long weekends that we have Monday to rest and recover. But, yeah, across four states so far, four different dates. So every weekend in June's covered. Yeah. The other thing that's coming up, Mel, obviously is Palm. Palm is only two weeks away. I can't believe it is creeping up on us really quickly. I thought we had an age to go before it. It's only two weeks away. Numbers on the events have locked in. The seats have booked at the venues. A couple of things to remind people about. The Friday Frida at Picnic Point Parklands is going to start at 4.45. Very early on, we were talking about a five o'clock start, but We've just brought it forward 15 minutes because it's going to get dark up there. And apparently there's a bit of an escarpment up there and we don't want to see people going over the edge of the escarpment. So we've brought it forward a bit. Plus it gives us more time for our Friday night dinner out to get down to the dinner.

01:05:03Melissa Ellis: Okay. Well, I probably, I'm not going to make it to that Freedo. I am going to hopefully meet you all at the dinner. So yeah, look out for me there. I hope I can get there in time to join you for that.

01:05:18Tony O'Connell: Yeah, everyone should remember the Friday night dinners at the Southern Hotel. All the events are on the page. So if everyone wants to jump across to the parkrun listener meetup page. And then we've got the big day Saturday with our parkrun at South Toowoomba, the podcast recording at the Copper Bench Cafe. in the morning. And then across in the afternoon to the Toowoomba parkrun at Queen's Park, Saturday night. Mel, Have you got your costume ready? Are you ready to go? I've so got it ready.

01:05:52Melissa Ellis: I'm so excited. What about you?

01:05:55Tony O'Connell: I have my costume ready. I finally have it. It's sitting on a bed. It's flat laid, ready to go.

01:06:03Melissa Ellis: So one of the biggest things is we all generally keep our costumes as a surprise, the big reveal as we turn up at the event. So that's pretty exciting. Keep your eyes on the social media. Maybe we'll give you some sneak peeks as it unfolds. Maybe we could even go live from the party, TOC. What do you think about that?

01:06:23Tony O'Connell: We could do a Facebook Live and cover a bit. We could.

01:06:27Melissa Ellis: Yeah. Now, I just want to, as personally, I just want to say from experience over the years with these events, it is really important, guys, if you are coming to these events, please be mindful of the times that we say we are going to be starting. So when there are Freedom Runs, we will give you a time that we're going to take off. Unfortunately, we can't always hang around and wait for people that might be running late. We will take off at those times and we will generally do a photo five to 10 minutes before that start of time. So unfortunately, if you're not there within that timeframe, you may miss out on being involved in that photo. We apologise for that, but that is actually a really important thing to mention.

01:07:08Tony O'Connell: Yeah. Now, we do try to stick to a bit of a schedule, Mel, and especially on the podcast morning because the cafe that we're going to where we're having breakfast and recording is a little bit of distance away from the parkrun itself, and we do need some time to get set up. So, yeah, all in all, Mel, it's looking like an awesome, awesome weekend. Lots of people up and about for it, and I think it's going to be a ball.

01:07:34Melissa Ellis: I hope so. I'm excited. I can't wait. I'm coming up. I'm bringing my daughter, so it should be good fun. But we've still got another parkrun day, and I should say, Toc, we are not going to be doing another parkrun adventurers Podcast episode before Palm. This is our last opportunity to talk to you before we are there on the morning at South Toowoomba. So no episode next week. I just, yeah, I can't manage it. Sorry. I can't do the edit.

Sign-off

01:08:04Melissa Ellis: I can't fit it in.

01:08:05Tony O'Connell: No, it's very hard to fit it all in the week, Mel, and the Palm episode is a fairly big one. So, yeah, really looking forward to that and having a heap of fun with people on the day. Mel, where are you at this week? Where's Mel parkrunning?

01:08:23Melissa Ellis: Mel is staying in Victoria. Mel has an event to catch up on. There has been a recent launch, which we have told you about, at Trebeck Reserve, which is in the little town of Winchelsea, which is maybe about an hour and 20 from where I reside in Meltown. So, you know, pretty local for me. And I will be just heading off on the morning. I think I'm going to be having some guests and there will be lots of people familiar faces out there that particular day, Tony. There might even be, just saying, there might even be a significant event happening on the day.

01:09:00Tony O'Connell: There may well be, Mel. And as far as my plans, I'm not committed yet. I'm either going to be a local and might try to catch up on a p-index number, or if I can sneak across to Trebeck, I think we might do an early morning three-and-a-half-hour drive before parkrun.

01:09:23Melissa Ellis: Do it. Do it, Tony. Do it.

01:09:27Tony O'Connell: No, it'd be great. And there are lots of people heading there that we know that it'd be great to catch up with and a couple of big events. So I think it'd be a great day at Trebeck. And, 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, plus a little more as we lead into Palm. We'll see you all next week for more adventures and many of you soon at palm24 in Toowoomba.