Episode 379 - R2-RD

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

Welcome

00:00:23Simon Mackley: Welcome to episode 379 of the parkrun adventurers podcast, a podcast about life, if your life is all about parkrun. I'm Simon Mackley and I'm coming to you from Quandamooka Country.

00:00:34Melissa Ellis: And I'm Melissa Ellis and I'm coming to you from Wurundjeri Country. Hello Simon. Hi Mel, how are you? I'm good, how are you? Doing well, thank you. First time we've spoken to you post-Palm.

00:00:49Simon Mackley: It is indeed. It is because Palm took my recording away, I guess. It did. Which is good, yeah.

00:00:57Melissa Ellis: Yeah, one, two, skip a few. Exactly.

00:00:59Simon Mackley: So, yeah, like I've been to Tokyo and Toowoomba and all this sort of thing since we last actually had a good conversation.

00:01:06Melissa Ellis: We didn't get to hear about Japan.

00:01:08Simon Mackley: Yeah, it was interesting. It was really good to see. It was my first international one. It was good to see how it runs there. The ED is originally English. He went there. I think he said he went there for a month and he's been there since 1993, I think he said. So, yeah. But, yeah, it was really good. It was weird to see it in Japanese and in English. But it was their sixth birthday. I just so happened to be there on the sixth birthday. And, therefore, it was parkrun Japan's sixth birthday because Futakotamagawa is the – sorry, Futakotamagawa – is the first Japanese parkrun.

00:01:50Melissa Ellis: Nice.

00:01:50Simon Mackley: Um, but yeah, it was, it was very different. You had a good run. What was the weather like? The weather was overcast. Um, there was a lot of Japanese runners there in, in jumpers and, um, long pants and that sort of thing. Um, I mean, it was a little cool. I must say like our trip to Japan was cool, but it was the time of cherry blossom. So it was, yeah, the start of spring and yeah, there's a lot of colour around, um, Yeah. So, it was a good trip up there.

00:02:20Melissa Ellis: Did you choose that time of year for the cherry blossoms? Like, did your lovely wife want to go at that time?

00:02:24[crosstalk]

00:02:26Simon Mackley: It was school holidays and it just so happens that we, yeah, we fluked it. Cherry blossom was late as well. So, it was a week or 10 days late. They'd had unseasonable weather before it. So, Where the cherry blossom, you see lots of pictures of pinks and colour and that sort of thing. We saw a lot of white. So it was still cherry blossom, but it was white cherry blossom and not vibrant colours. Okay.

00:02:53Melissa Ellis: But, yeah, it was good. And tell us what observations you had of differences. Like is there running and walking?

00:03:03Simon Mackley: sort of ratios similar to what you would find here in Australia and like what do they have a brunch culture so they there were definitely walkers um there weren't as many walkers as um we have in Australia but there was a lot of tourists as well and like there was people from New Zealand there was people from Australia there was people from the UK there was even a guy from michigan um who was about the same pace as me um yeah there was less walkers um there was definitely not a lot of kids. I noticed that could have been weather-related, though, because, like, it was sprinkling with rain when I was going from the train station to where they meet, which is actually under a big highway bridge, which sounds horrible, but it is, like... Oh, I've seen that.

00:03:51Melissa Ellis: Yeah, we've used that photo, I'm sure. I think maybe when Eman went, I remember that.

00:03:56Simon Mackley: Probably. Like, under the bridge, it says, like, it's been painted on the... the pylons of the bridge. So, I mean, it's not the most beautiful parkrun I've ever been to, I'll be honest, but it was... it was a very Japanese cultural experience because you run around a lot of playing fields. There was kids there warming up for baseball. There was a private school there practicing rugby union, which I totally forgot that Japan was actually quite good at rugby union. There was tennis courts that you went around. There was soccer fields. Sounds like Curl Curl. Oh yeah, a bit like that, but like on a much bigger scale. Um, But, yeah, it was very interesting. Like there was lots of families that were riding their bikes to the fields. And, you know, some of the kids had a baseball bat sticking out the top of it. Some had a tennis racket. But it was a very family sort of thing. And even the parkrun was very family, even though there wasn't a lot of kids. But the kids that were there, it was multi-generational and that sort of thing. So that was, yeah, something I noticed. was less kids. There was probably less war because I hadn't thought about that until you asked. Brunch culture, hard to tell. I didn't stay around for brunch and I had actually planned not to because I need to get back into the city. And I'd passed three or four parkruns on the way there as well. Like I went specifically to Futakotamagawa because I was catching up with Vicky, who's a friend that I met through Mossman who was living in Dubai and she's friends with Danny from With Me Now. Oh, there you go. Yeah. So I didn't get to talk to her on the podcast, unfortunately. I tried to, yeah, I tried to get her to do it, but yeah, that just didn't happen. So I know that they go off to Starbucks and I know Starbucks to us isn't a massive thing in Australia, but Starbucks in Japan is actually, yeah, is somewhere that people do go to there's there's plenty of them I know they went there and did birthday cake and that sort of thing but I don't know what the what the brunch culture is there because I didn't get to experience it okay yeah and it might have just been because it was their birthday that they did it they might not do it every week so yes but like where they run is actually next to the river. So, the Futakotamagawa means something like two villages next to the river was the translation of it. So, when there was a, I think it was a tsunami a couple of years ago, it actually wiped out the entire river, took the banks out. So, there's a lot of remediation work going on there, which was supposed to be finished in March, but they've actually just extended it by another six months. They're putting in proper river walls and things like that. So, yeah, it wasn't as easy to try and get to it because there was all this construction going on. But, yeah, it was an interesting parkrun.

00:07:03Melissa Ellis: Yay. First international parkrun.

00:07:05Simon Mackley: Tick. Yeah. Oh, and I got to experience seeing the parkrun in a bag. The entire volunteer staff all goes in one big sort of backpack and And, yeah, one person brings it. So it's not like, you know, some events have a trolley or, you know, all this sort of thing. Everything they use fits in one backpack. And that was, yeah, it was an interesting thing to see things coming out of, you know, this backpack.

00:07:30Melissa Ellis: So you were aware of that? You'd heard about it?

00:07:32Simon Mackley: I'd heard about it, yeah. So I think – Heard a myth? No, no, no. I think I might have heard about it at an ambassador conference or something like that. And I think that it was – It might have been Sumitomo, which is their major sponsor. It might have been something that they were sort of saying to parkrun Australia or parkrun Asia Pacific that people use public transport or they walk and that sort of thing. So it needs to be something that can be brought quite easily. So I guess it's the keep it simple sort of thing that parkrun tries to

00:08:09Melissa Ellis: sort of stick by but obviously as events get bigger and you know more established that they bring more and more stuff yes I am very aware of that trying to fit the uh genius kit in my little car is always a challenge I can imagine it grows hmm Anyway, Simon, we'll give a little brief about what we've got coming up in the episode. We've got some roving reports. We've held on to them for a few weeks, so we've got some roving reports coming up shortly or not shortly, a little bit later. And the Consolidated Club Report I'm happy to announce is also operational.

00:08:52Simon Mackley: With a little help from our friends.

00:08:54Melissa Ellis: With a little help, yes. We've got some assistance there. And all the usual things like Dazza's and the launches that we've had in the last week. So all that to look forward to.

00:09:08Simon Mackley: And Rachel's back.

00:09:09Melissa Ellis: And Rachel's back. But firstly, why don't you give us a recap of your parkrun morning on Saturday, Simon?

00:09:16Simon Mackley: I will. So I went to Kedron. So Kedron is on the lands of the Ndumbi clan. That's what they called it. home. I hadn't heard of that before, but it's definitely like I've double checked that. So Kedron parkrun is an out and back course running along the Kedron Brook Greenway. It follows Kedron Brook up to a turnaround point for the return journey back to Brisbane Rugby Union Club. It was their event 374 with 314 finishes and 21 wonderful volunteers and ably led by Brooklyn, who was the RD on the day. So Kedron is a pretty quick course. Very little undulation, wide paths. Sometimes you're sharing that with bikes, but most of the time it has its own separate walking slash running path. Before I went, I had a look to see sort of how fast it really was. So the current record holders are both highly credentialed runners and definitely one of the quickest runners the quicker ones I've done recently. So the male record holder is Jude Thomas. So his record is the 13th fastest parkrun in the world at the moment, which I think was 14 minutes. It might have been 14.02. Did he hold the record at one point? That name rings a bell. He might have. I think he did. He's competed internationally and that sort of thing. It looks like he's a 1500, 3000, 5000 metre runner. Um, so he, yeah, he's only 17 seconds slower than the world record with that run at Kedron. Uh, and then, uh, Celia Sullivan, she holds the record at Kedron, the female record, um, and hers is in the top hundred fastest parkrun times in the world as well. So I think that says that it is, is quite a fast one. Um, yeah, so it was the morning. It was a little bit, um, you know, it was coming down with a little bit of light rain, but, uh, Yeah, it was a good run. Lots of people and, yeah, good mixture of people. Walkers, lots of kids. Yeah, really good morning. How about you? I hear that you've gone to the Apple Isle again.

00:11:37Melissa Ellis: I did get to the Apple Isle, Simon. I travelled to Bells Parade in Latrobe in the traditional lands of the Pinilla Panna clan of the North Nation, which means that this event is towards the north end of Tasmania with its closest event being Devonport, eight kilometres away. I travelled across from the mainland with Andrew and Martine, choosing this event to visit with Steve and Val Warwick, who were both volunteering. Steve is RD and Val is turnaround marshal and photographer. Bells Parade launched on the 6th of August 2022 as Tasmania's 19th event, which now Tasmania has a total of 22 events. All events remain open. None have ever closed, although Risdon Brook underwent a name change, having originally launched as Hobart parkrun. Now, as the name suggests, the event starts at Bells Parade, and runs out and back along the banks of the Mersey River via a combination of gravel pathway, concrete and boardwalk. There are gentle rises and falls which are made all the more worthwhile with the picturesque views. And on the morning of the event, attracted 74 participants for event number 93, including four participants completing their very first parkruns. The briefing area is easily visible from the car park at Bells Parade and offers toilets, barbecues and a shelter. There's also a large carving of a platypus at the entrance to the Australian Axemen's Hall of Fame, which also houses a Legends exhibition, Maker's Market and Thai Imperial Restaurant. It was a cool but clear dry morning with a chill in the air causing me to lament not thinking to pack my gloves. I did not shed any layers prior to the start, although I was definitely warming up by the time I hit the turnaround. Afterwards, we headed to Bally's in the main street for brunch with Val, Steve and adventurer Amanda Bales, discussing chicken farming, the local ag fest, the history of the Tasmanian ferries and how wonderful Collingwood played the night before. Okay, that last bit might be an exaggeration, but I will add my gratitude to our lovely hosts for switching on the TV so I could enjoy the final 10 minutes of the Collingwood Carlton game. This followed up by Steve offering me a Sydney Swans coffee mug the next morning to enjoy my daily constitutional. They thought that was funny. Now, I also wanted to add another way that adventurers can find fun in regular interstate tourism. And this is something that Andrew Johnston tracks for his own interest. It's called Jetstar Bingo. Apparently, all aeroplanes are identified by a registration number, which I'm sure you're aware, Simon. Yes. Which can be found using Flightradar. Flightradar24 tracking app, I think. And Andrew keeps a spreadsheet of every Jetstar plane he's travelled on.

00:13:30[background music]

00:14:26Simon Mackley: Oh, my gosh.

00:14:29Melissa Ellis: There are 76 in the Australian New Zealand fleet and Andrew has travelled on approximately 35 of them. There's also a certain amount of all orange planes which Martine hopes to ride in eventually as orange is her favourite colour. So there you go, adventurers. There is no limit to the things you can do to amuse yourselves. You're welcome.

00:14:51Simon Mackley: I thought Jetstar Bingo was going to be is the plane leaving or not.

00:14:57Melissa Ellis: So he has a little note in his phone with the planes and smiley faces if it's a new one, sad faces if it's one he's been on before. So, yeah, just another point of interest on your tourism travels. But I've got one. Final point, Calum Burrell commented to me that he wasn't aware Australia also has a Mersey River because it turns out Burnage parkrun is also along the Mersey in the UK. So there's potential for Burnage and Bells Parade to be parkrun twins.

00:15:32Simon Mackley: There you go. So I didn't know there was a Mersey as well. And the Mersey, I believe, is near Liverpool, I'm guessing, based on the Beatles' story. singing about it.

00:15:45Melissa Ellis: Is that the Journey Down the Mersey song? Something to that effect, yes. I always get that in my head whenever I'm in Tassie near the Mersey River. I'm not going to sing it now. But I'm assuming our Mersey is named after theirs.

00:15:59Simon Mackley: I would say so.

00:16:01Melissa Ellis: Yes. And the Devonport parkrun also runs along the Mersey because – Does it not? Yes, because that's where the spirit, Simon's. So for those who can't see at home, Simon's holding up his shoulders in a shrunk. Anyway, I think that was my eighth event in Tasmania out of the 22. Amazing.

00:16:26Simon Mackley: Excellent. That's a good segue about Jetstar as well, because unfortunately this week, or this past week, Bonza, who's been flying our adventurers around quite a lot, as Eman mentioned at Palm, have unfortunately gone into voluntary administration. So we're hoping that not too many plans have been thrown into jeopardy after that has happened. Maybe they'll be back. I don't know. But, yeah, after Compass and Compass 2 and Ausjet and – Tiger? Tiger. Well, Tiger became part of Virgin and, yeah, so Tiger sort of went a bit of a different route. But, yeah, I think it was a similar sort of thing.

00:17:10Melissa Ellis: But Bonza was doing a lot of the smaller – Yeah. What do you call them, Simon?

00:17:18Simon Mackley: Regional. Yes, regional trips. Yeah, or secondary airports. So, they were focused on things like I know that the Gold Coast Airport used to be a focus of some airlines because it was cheaper to fly into the Gold Coast than it was to fly to Brisbane. So, I know Bonza was based out of the Sunshine Coast. I know they were flying out of Toowoomba. They were doing a lot of regional stuff. So, they have left a big gap because they were starting to make some good inroads into those places that the major airlines don't use. We still got Rex though, don't we? We do have Rex and Rex is growing a little bit here and there. There might be some cheap planes on the market. Well, I think that's the problem actually. I think Bonza had problems with their, with the aircraft leasing. So, so the company that owns them, I believe is American or the capital venture capitalist company is American. And, Yeah, the leasing of the aircraft was the problem that they were having.

00:18:17Melissa Ellis: It would have been a little bit easier to remember the names of those aeroplanes on Bonza because they were named like Shazza.

00:18:25Simon Mackley: Yeah, and Sheila or something like that, yeah. They flew out of Avalon in Victoria. Okay, so that's, yeah, another. Yeah, another thing, a secondary airport and that sort of thing.

00:18:37Melissa Ellis: Now, Simon, I've got a question for you, seeing as this is the first time we've spoken to you since Parman. I asked this of Ollie and I've asked this of TOC. Did you make new friends?

00:18:49Simon Mackley: I did make new friends. I met quite a few people that I either know their names or people I'd never met before. So I finally got to meet Ingrid. And she came up to me and she looked at me and she started talking to me and then the Penny dropped as to who she was talking to. So she knew that she knew me, but she didn't know why. But, yeah, so I spoke to Ingrid for a little bit. I met Lee Cabarita and her friends.

00:19:14Unidentified speaker: That's her porn name. That's her porn name, yeah.

00:19:17Simon Mackley: I met Billo. So first thing I said to Billo, yeah, I said, show me this tattoo. I want to see this jigsaw tattoo. So he was like, oh, okay, yeah. Yeah. I'm sure there's other things. I know. It's on his arm.

00:19:34Melissa Ellis: Show me your tats.

00:19:35Simon Mackley: He has a lot, but I was very interested in the jigsaw one. I finally met Sam and Luke, the Office Lady. I'd never met them in person. Really? Never. So, yeah. And then just as we were about to record, I met Sarah Jantscher, who – was someone who was going to come to an event that I was at a couple of months ago. And then I don't know what happened, but she's a friend of Alison King from New Zealand.

00:20:06Melissa Ellis: Yes, I spoke to Sarah as well. I'm glad you pronounced her surname because I've given up.

00:20:12Simon Mackley: Well, I hope that's how you say it.

00:20:13Melissa Ellis: Maybe we should have Sarah 1 and Sarah 2 because we've got two Sarah Js.

00:20:17Simon Mackley: Oh, that's true. Jefferson and Jantscher.

00:20:20Melissa Ellis: Hmm.

00:20:21Simon Mackley: So, yeah, I'm sure I met other people. There was another couple I met, and I cannot remember their name, but I think that they were from Toowoomba. And there was a few people I obviously saw that I knew, like Roberta and Cherie Martin and Carmel, other people I can't think of. Yeah, so yeah, it was nice to meet names that I knew and people that I'd never met before.

00:20:47Melissa Ellis: And you were in place to do the quiz, so tell us, that went well, didn't it?

00:20:54Simon Mackley: It went well to a point. Peek behind the curtain, Simon scrolled down his phone and missed a few things, including a question, which is not going to be relevant next year, so I can't hold it over for next year. I missed pointing out that contestant Dave from WA is, as actually one hard quiz on the ABC.

00:21:18Melissa Ellis: We didn't know that until the morning.

00:21:21Simon Mackley: We didn't know that until the morning. And was his subject Saturn or Jupiter or? Saturn, I believe. Saturn, yeah. I thought it was Saturn, but then we're like, oh, is it Jupiter? But yeah, so that was his subject of choice and he ended up winning. Yeah, so Dave, hard quiz. I missed a question. I forgot to thank Mel. Lyndell and TOC for the previous years. I've been feeding those questions and answers out there, but I haven't been to Palms for like since the beaches actually where that recording was all lost. So yes, thank you to you Mel and Lyndell and TOC for being the quiz master while I was unable to go to TASI, SA and WA.

00:22:07Melissa Ellis: No problem. And little Lucy, so speaking of Dave and his topic of choice being Saturn. Yes. Dave and Chloe are obviously space enthusiasts, let's call it, and little Lucy at their dress-up dinner was reciting the Order of the Planets. Really? Yes. Wow. It was very impressive. So she's a little space nerd kid.

00:22:35Simon Mackley: Excellent. Excellent. Space cadet in the nice term, like as a cadet of it, not as in... Simon's pulling a crazy face for those listening at home.

00:22:48Melissa Ellis: Yes. Yeah, that's true. So there you go.

00:22:51Simon Mackley: Future astronaut.

00:22:52Melissa Ellis: Now, I've also got an update for everybody who has listened to last week's pod and heard Holly was going to be on the Derwent having a sailing adventure. That was hilarious. I laughed so hard when he was describing what he was going to be doing. So we have been being fed sailing photos, but I am sad to report, that Ollie did not make it to parkrun on Saturday morning. He did pop into Dazza's though and he said, the park faff minus the parkrun and the faff today and oh so close to Montrose for sure. But other fun to be had. Enjoy for me, please must you all. And there was a picture of Ollie's feet on the deck of the boat. Or the yacht or the ship or whatever its official name is.

00:23:42Simon Mackley: It was a yacht.

00:23:43Melissa Ellis: It was definitely a yacht. Yes, it's a yacht. But are you allowed to call them a boat? I don't know. Boat, I'm sure, is fine. Ship, no. No. Okay. So he didn't make it. Yeah. I would have swam. I would have.

00:23:59Simon Mackley: Or told Dad, could you wait an hour?

00:24:05Melissa Ellis: Just sail over that direction a little bit closer, Dad. Oh, you're a bit close. Running. Never mind. Anyway, okay, now that's probably long enough. 25 minutes. Wow.

00:24:20[background music]

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:24:20Melissa Ellis: All right. Time for us to go across and listen to our roving reports. Music

Roving report Alison Fraser (King) — Victoria Junior parkrun, Glasgow

00:24:34Alison Fraser (King): Kia ora koutou, it's Alison here reporting in not from across the ditch but from the far side of the world. I am in Victoria Park in Glasgow which is in Scotland where I am about to go and marshal for Victoria Junior parkrun. I was at Victoria parkrun yesterday for the 5k event and they have a juniors in the same park so I'm hopefully going to have a chat with the Event Director But first, let's go and cheer on some kids. [Te Reo Maori: "Hello / greetings to you all (spoken to three or more people)"]

Talking to Blythe — Event Director, Victoria Junior parkrun, Glasgow, Scotland

00:25:07Alison Fraser (King): I'm standing here at the finish with Blythe, the Event Director for Victoria Junior parkrun. Welcome to the podcast, Blythe. Welcome. Thank you for coming. Can you please tell us about Victoria Junior parkrun? How long have you been going?

00:25:21Blythe - Event Director, Victoria Junior parkrun, Glasgow: So we have been running almost 10 years. We were the third Junior parkrun in Scotland to start. It's our 400th event in two weeks time. So we're in party season at the moment. And yeah, it's lovely. We think it's the best thing ever.

00:25:40Alison Fraser (King): It's been a really big celebration today. Can you tell the listeners what we've been celebrating?

00:25:44Blythe - Event Director, Victoria Junior parkrun, Glasgow: So today was the 10th anniversary of the first Junior parkrun in Scotland to start, which was Helix Juniors, which is out by Falkirk. So it's their 10th birthday today, which means it's the 10th anniversary of Junior parkrun in Scotland.

00:26:00Alison Fraser (King): There were a lot of kids out running today. How many do you think you had?

00:26:05Blythe - Event Director, Victoria Junior parkrun, Glasgow: The last total I heard was over 140. I don't think we got to 150 today but that is quite a big turnout for us. We usually get more like 80 to 100 is more normal but I think... I think everybody just really embraced it coming out today. There was lots of tartan Scotland strips all over the place. So yeah, the kids love a party and we had promised them sweets.

00:26:29Alison Fraser (King): Anything for a lolly. What was the impetus behind this pack run starting?

00:26:36Blythe - Event Director, Victoria Junior parkrun, Glasgow: Were you involved with the beginning? So I wasn't involved in the beginning. I've only been here since 2018. I think it was just part of the big expansion of Junior parkruns. They wanted to get them in Scotland. This park had had a 5K event that started the year before. So this event started on the first anniversary of of the 5k starting and there was a lot of people that were just really interested in bringing an event to this park because it's it's an absolutely gorgeous park it's a really family orientated park and lots of families live in the area and so it's an ideal location for a junior partner and can you tell us about your parkrun background um I've been part running since 2017 I'm not a runner I came along to parkrun one time just thought it was the best thing I'd ever been to I plod around I've been faster I'm now in a kind of slow maintenance phase I like to tour, it takes me around Scotland it takes me other places in the world I don't spend a Saturday without doing parkrun and a Sunday either

00:27:52Alison Fraser (King): A question that we like to ask people on the podcast is, not naming your home events, which are your top three parkruns that you've been to?

00:28:04Blythe - Event Director, Victoria Junior parkrun, Glasgow: Oh, goodness. Okay. I've loved every single one of them, but if I'm going to pick ones out off the top of my head, I always say Alness, which is an absolutely stunning parkrun. Lews Castle is another stunning parkrun.

00:28:22Alison Fraser (King): uh and here is this your home parkrun though no this is not my home parkrun where's your home parkrun my home parkrun's Pollok. Pollok, that was the first one in Scotland. First one in Scotland. yeah well I ran Victoria parkrun yesterday and I have to agree with you it was a beautiful parkrun very much enjoyed it so thank you for coming on to the podcast and thank you just filling us in on on your junior event here yeah like see junior parkrun in New Zealand we would love to see junior parkrun in New Zealand but it's it's out of our hands at the moment so we'll keep our fingers crossed no I've got fingers crossed for that too thank you And that's a wrap from Victoria Junior parkrun. I was here yesterday for Victoria parkrun, which was three laps around the same park. The park is avenues of trees, there's a fossil Grove, rose garden, kids playground, and a pond where you will see some birds such as mute swans, coots, moorhens, and I saw a heron flying over above parkrun yesterday, which was pretty cool. I decided that I wanted to volunteer at juniors because we don't have juniors in New Zealand and my previous experience has been one where whenever you finish you you feel much better than when you started and today did not disappoint there were kids who were giving me high fives on the corner lots of smiles from the kids and from their parents and it was you know the celebration of junior parkrun in Scotland which made it even more special so if you are coming to Scotland and you're looking for a parkrun to do I can highly recommend Victoria parkrun in Glasgow I mean it's handy for those sneaky letters and the alphabet but it's also really really friendly and you would not be disappointed so that's it from me I will hopefully come back to you with another parkrun on my adventure and so happy parkrunning wherever you are

00:28:26[crosstalk]

00:28:54[crosstalk]

Roving report Johan Duvenhage — Walvis Bay parkrun

00:30:30Johan Duvenhage: I am back in my motherland, Namibia, land of the brave, and this morning I have had a short 35-kilometre drive south from my local home around Swakopmund to Walvis Bay, or Walvis Bay, meaning the Bay of Whales, to attend its namesake parkrun. The city is named for the bay on which it lies. It is the second largest in Namibia and the largest coastal city in the country. The bay is a safe haven for sea vessels because of its natural deep water harbour, protected by the Pelican Point sand spit, and it's the only natural harbour of any size along the country's coast. The waters are rich in plankton and marine life and draws a large number of southern right whales. The city is ensconced by the Namib Desert, believed to be the oldest desert in the world, stretching around 2,000 kilometres along the Atlantic coastline from the south of Angola through Namibia to the north of South Africa. Some magnificent not-to-be-missed desert experiences can be had around the area, such as a trip to Sandwich Harbour and climbing Dune 7, the world's highest sand dune. Walvis Bay parkrun is a flat and fast out-and-back course on the promenade along the Walvis Bay Lagoon, and these signature pink flamingos are a sight to behold. As you may have seen on social media, the parkrun World Tourist Group had their regional meetups on the 27th of April and the Africa chapter decided on Walvis Bay as their destination of choice, with a number of other South African and international tourists also joining the group. Today we had 110 finishers and 28 of the 31 first-timers were from outside Namibia. Thank you to the 17 volunteers who did a stellar job hosting the visitors. Now let's talk to a few of the attendees.

Talking to Isabe — Run Director on the day, Walvis Bay parkrun, Namibia

00:32:16Johan Duvenhage: Howdy parkrun adventurers, it's Johan. I'm here with Isabe. Isabe is the Run Director for today. Isabe, what did you think of the invasion of the parkrun World Tourist today?

00:32:26Isabe - Run Director on the day, Walvis Bay parkrun, Namibia: I love it. It's awesome.

00:32:28Johan Duvenhage: Have you heard of the parkrun World Tourist before?

00:32:31Isabe - Run Director on the day, Walvis Bay parkrun, Namibia: A few weeks ago the Event Director from Walvis Bay asked me to be the Run Director because she can't be here and that was the first time I heard about it.

00:32:42Johan Duvenhage: So I haven't counted but it looks like we've got about 30 to 40 visitors at the moment. That must be one of the biggest visitor groups you've ever had.

00:32:50Isabe - Run Director on the day, Walvis Bay parkrun, Namibia: Yeah definitely we've never had so many visitors.

00:32:53Johan Duvenhage: And today is quite a special day. I forgot to count but we had a whole number of milestones including some of the visitors.

00:33:00Isabe - Run Director on the day, Walvis Bay parkrun, Namibia: yeah four four became world tourists today and uh one two fifty a hundred and a fifty oh that's awesome and the weather played along nicely today it's cool but not uh no fog so we could have perfect pictures um how has the weather been in the last few weeks uh for parkrun most of the time it's it's lovely weather now and then we have east weather which is not so good But yeah, all together, parkrun has good weather.

00:33:32Johan Duvenhage: Thank you very much for you and the volunteers inviting and welcoming everyone today and all the best for Walvis Bay parkrun.

00:33:38Isabe - Run Director on the day, Walvis Bay parkrun, Namibia: Thank you very much and thank you for visiting, Johan.

Talking to Frank McLaughlin — parkrun tourist from Dublin, Ireland

00:33:42Johan Duvenhage: Adventurers? I'm with Frank. Frank, sorry, your surname I forgot? McLaughlin. McLaughlin. And Frank from, you'll hear now when he starts speaking, is from?

00:33:51Frank McLaughlin - parkrun tourist from Dublin, Ireland: Ireland, from Dublin.

00:33:52Johan Duvenhage: Dublin. Okay. So you are here in Walvis Bay today and on a whirlwind tour of Southern Africa.

00:33:58Frank McLaughlin - parkrun tourist from Dublin, Ireland: Correct. Yes, to do the three different countries in South Africa, in Africa, for a parkrun. That's in Namibia, South Africa and Eswatini. Yeah. So you've done already? I have done Zuurfontein in Johannesburg. Walvis Bay this morning and next Saturday Mbabane Mbabane Mbabane yes in Eswatini yes and so far what's your experience been in South Africa and Namibia it's been excellent it's actually definitely coming to come back I haven't been here long enough it's just given me a flavour of what it's like yeah and Frank is also very dedicated to another sport and he is leaving very soon to go somewhere else yes I'm flying back to Cape Town this afternoon to attend a rugby game this evening my team from Ireland Leinster playing the stormers in cape town and last week they played the lions in johannesburg but we'll probably forget about that one and frank is a very brave man his flight lands about an hour and a bit before the game starts that's correct so it's very very tight yeah but hopefully we make it oh we wish you all the best with your travels luckily the uh immigration in cape town is the breeze to get through yeah and luckily I'm in row one on the plane so I'll be quickly out of the plane and I've only got a carry-on bag oh fantastic all right and uh

00:35:07Johan Duvenhage: Compared to Ireland, how did you find the parkruns in Southern Africa?

00:35:12Frank McLaughlin - parkrun tourist from Dublin, Ireland: Very warm is the worst thing, obviously. But extremely friendly. But I think they are everywhere you go. But yes, I've been made so welcome at each parkrun I've been to so far. It's been excellent.

00:35:24Johan Duvenhage: And listen, Frank is the only one here in a vest and shorts. Much as it is not very cold in Walvis Bay at the moment, for the locals it is a little bit chilly. But the Dublin weather seems to have conditioned him to be very at ease.

00:35:39Frank McLaughlin - parkrun tourist from Dublin, Ireland: Yes, I very seldom run in anything more than that. So the course in Walvis Bay, how did you find it? The course is fine. It's a quick course. It's flat. It's along by the... coast. No breeze this morning, so yeah, pretty quick course.

00:35:50Johan Duvenhage: Frank, enjoy the rest of your time in South Africa and Eswatini and all the best for your team tonight.

00:35:57Frank McLaughlin - parkrun tourist from Dublin, Ireland: Thank you very much, Johan.

Talking to Ohna Wessels — parkrunner celebrating her 250th parkrun

00:36:00Johan Duvenhage: Adventurers, I'm with Ohna Wessels and Ona, you're here in Walvis Bay today to do a special thing. What happened?

00:36:07Ohna Wessels - parkrunner celebrating her 250th parkrun at Walvis Bay: I'm doing my 250th bargain.

00:36:10Johan Duvenhage: Congratulations. Awesome. What did you think of Walvis Bay as the place to do this special milestone?

00:36:16Ohna Wessels - parkrunner celebrating her 250th parkrun at Walvis Bay: Yeah, for me, it's my third country I'm doing and I just thought I wanted to do something special. When I did my 50th, I thought I'll never reach 100, not to say 250. So when I was so close and this opportunity came up, I decided let's come and do it in a special place.

00:36:34Johan Duvenhage: And Walvis Bay is one of my special places. I'm so glad you chose it. All the best and what's up next in terms of your next challenge?

00:36:44Ohna Wessels - parkrunner celebrating her 250th parkrun at Walvis Bay: No, I'm doing next week Swakopmund, then I'm on 75 different venues. So that's also a small personal milestone for me. And yeah, for the rest, I'm just participating as much as I can.

00:36:57Johan Duvenhage: And so has parkrun changed your life?

00:37:01Ohna Wessels - parkrunner celebrating her 250th parkrun at Walvis Bay: parkrun totally changed my life. I was a real couch sitter. When I started walking, I actually lost 50 kilos. at that stage by just walking and eating a bit better. So it changed my life in that sense. I'm a totally active person now to the frustration of all my friends who still wants to sit on the couches and also taken me to so many different places that I've never seen or would have seen if I didn't go there to chase parkrun dreams.

00:37:35Johan Duvenhage: All the best with your dreams and I hope they all come true. Thank you very much.

00:37:38Ohna Wessels - parkrunner celebrating her 250th parkrun at Walvis Bay: Thank you, Johan.

Talking to Graham and Evelyn — South African parkrun tourists on a road trip through Namibia

00:37:40Johan Duvenhage: and I'm here with Graham and Evelyn and they've been having a little bit of fun on their way to Walvis Bay.

00:37:46Unidentified speaker: Good morning. Morning. So where did your travel start and when did that happen? It started in Centurion on the 9th of April. And then we tabled, yeah sorry.

00:37:59Johan Duvenhage: Sorry, Centurion for those listeners that don't know is just outside of Pretoria, between Pretoria and Joburg in the Gauteng province.

00:38:06Unidentified speaker: Okay, so we left there and we went down through the Northern Cape to a tiny little town called Aggeneys. And they literally have a parkrun of a minimum of four people and the big parkrun is 20 people. And then from there we came up into Namibia through Oranjemund and we went up to Swakopmund and then up into the Skeleton Coast. And now we're back into Walvis Bay for the World Tourist and then we're going to Windhoek, to do the Windhoek parkrun next week and then we're going to hopefully come out in Lepelala and Dumola parkrun. Mogol. Mogol parkrun before heading home.

00:38:53Johan Duvenhage: Our listeners at parkrun adventurers know it's all about Mogol because I've been there a while ago.

00:38:58Unidentified speaker: Yes, and we're on a free time so we'll probably have to put in a few not parkruns in between our travels.

00:39:08Johan Duvenhage: So in terms of the parkruns that you've done now since leaving home, which has been your, let's call it, favourite?

00:39:18Unidentified speaker: Oh, it's so difficult. We speak about this all the time because they're all unique. So when we went to Aggeneys, there were so few people. You really bonded with everybody. And then in Swakop, the Run Director actually came and had coffee with us afterwards. And we did a tour of Swakop's, unexpected so and then here it's just meeting all the world tourists that we've seen on groups and we've seen on Facebook and we've never seen them and following your tours that you suggested while we're here so it's very difficult I don't know I like this one because of the spirit and I think this would be my favourite but only just just and I think it's also because of last night the get together last night was

00:40:07Unidentified speaker: for me, was unique. You met people from all different walks of life. So I think that was, for me, was what tipped it in in Walvis Bay's favour.

00:40:19Unidentified speaker: Now I think it's my annual PB. So it's my PB for... Oh, congratulations. Yes, and that was because Ria coached me the whole trip. So I knocked off two minutes of my previous PB for this year.

00:40:32Johan Duvenhage: So I think that's going to be my... Walvis Bay is an excellent choice for PBs. It's a flat course. Today the wind was perfect. And And unfortunately, I have a bit of back trouble, so I couldn't get to my PB, which is my all-time PB is also here as well. It's got a special place for me as well.

00:40:48[crosstalk]

00:40:52Unidentified speaker: It's beautiful.

00:40:54Johan Duvenhage: Thank you very much and all the best with your travels.

00:40:55Tracey Wood: Thank you.

00:40:56Johan Duvenhage: Thank you.

Roving report Tracey Wood — Warwick parkrun

00:40:58Tracey Wood: Good morning, parkrunners. It's Tracey in a Tutu reporting in for Warwick today. Myself and Mr. Tutu have taken a couple of days off and headed west out to Warwick just for a bit of a break in the countryside. Now, Warwick is on the lands of the Githubble people and it's approximately 130km southwest of Brisbane. It's a strong agricultural area. And we've been out touring the countryside and have seen lots of roses, waterfalls and summer cows. What are summer cows? Well, some are black, some are brown. Okay, boom tish. The RD's starting soon, so let's get over there.

Talking to Aidan — Warwick parkrun junior, 250th parkrun on the day; son of a Warwick RD

00:41:44Tracey Wood: Okay team, I'm on second lap of the course and I've picked up Aidan on the way. Aidan, what's so special about today?

00:41:52Aidan - Warwick parkrun junior, 250th parkrun on the day: I've done my 250th parkrun. That is awesome, mate. What was your time? 24.23.

00:42:02Tracey Wood: Cool. And what brings you back to parkrun every week? I think I know the answer, but you can tell the listeners anyway.

00:42:09Aidan - Warwick parkrun junior, 250th parkrun on the day: Because I enjoy running.

00:42:12Tracey Wood: Well, my thought was that his parents bring him, but that wasn't the answer I expected. So, yes, I believe your dad is an RD here? Yes.

00:42:21Aidan - Warwick parkrun junior, 250th parkrun on the day: Yes.

00:42:22Tracey Wood: Right, so Aidan's been coming here since he was about four, I believe. So, what would you like people at home to know about Warwick parkrun? It's a friendly course and flat. Yep, fantastic. And what other running do you do? Do you do running in schools? Do you do trail events? What do you do with yourself?

00:42:46Aidan - Warwick parkrun junior, 250th parkrun on the day: For school, I usually do the cross country.

00:42:50Tracey Wood: Yep, and I believe Warwick Pentathlon is coming up soon.

00:42:53Aidan - Warwick parkrun junior, 250th parkrun on the day: Tell me about that. Do you do that at all? Yes, I do the Pentath and I've been doing it ever since I've been running parkrun.

00:43:05Tracey Wood: Right, okay, so our listeners at home don't know what the Pentath Run is. I will tell you it's in late May and it's held over a weekend, but you can tell me more.

00:43:15Aidan - Warwick parkrun junior, 250th parkrun on the day: It consists of... running all these little events, and it adds up to a full marathon.

00:43:22Tracey Wood: Yes, that's right. I think parkrun still happens on that weekend, but it's not part of the event. I think there's a 5K, a 10K, a half marathon, something else, and I don't know. Add that all up to a marathon, and that's what you get for Warwick and Tesseron. Okay, cool. All right, what's happening today, Aidan? You going to get cake or anything to celebrate your 250?

00:43:47Aidan - Warwick parkrun junior, 250th parkrun on the day: Um, I'm not sure. I think we might get Maccas, but nothing else.

00:43:54Tracey Wood: Sounds cool. Well, thank you for chatting with me, Aidan, and you have a good day.

Talking to Michaela — Warwick parkrunner, eight years old, Aidan's sister

00:44:01Tracey Wood: Okay, I'm out on Warwick parkrun course and I've got another star here. This is Aidan's sister, Michaela, and she's got some great stats for me as well. Michaela, what can you tell me?

00:44:13Michaela - Warwick parkrunner, Aidan's sister: I've done 146 parkruns in 43 locations.

00:44:18Tracey Wood: That's pretty awesome. And what about volunteers?

00:44:22Michaela - Warwick parkrunner, Aidan's sister: I've done 25 volunteers.

00:44:25Tracey Wood: And how old are you? I'm [age removed]. [age removed]. That is great stats. Congratulations. Well done. You've put your 150 coming up pretty soon. Now, we're out on the Warwick parkrun course. It looks pretty nice and flat. Can you tell me about the Warwick parkrun course? What should I expect to see out here?

00:44:47Michaela - Warwick parkrunner, Aidan's sister: Maybe some baby ducks and some horses in the paddock. Right.

00:44:53Tracey Wood: And we're not going bush, are we? We're not going to find any yowies or wild things out here? I'm not going to get lost, am I?

00:45:00Michaela - Warwick parkrunner, Aidan's sister: No, it's a concrete course, so you won't get lost because you just follow the path in the river.

00:45:07Tracey Wood: Excellent. Yes, as Michaela says, we're right next to the Condamine River, which is the longest river in Australia. Please get that fact checked. It's out and back... No, sorry, it's a two-loop course, and on both sides of the river, we've got some beautiful trees. As my caller said, birds, very scenic, very pleasant, very nice.

00:45:25[background music]

00:45:40Simon Mackley: And we are back from Dazza's. So this week we heard from Alison, who is at Victoria Juniors in Glasgow. So she was talking to Blythe, the ED, and it looks like it was their 10th anniversary of juniors in Scotland, which is, that's very exciting. Then we heard from Johan at Walvis Bay in Namibia, and he was hosting the parkrun World Tourists. That was back on the 27th of April. So we are holding a few of these over after Palm. And lastly, we heard from Tracey, who was at Warwick. And I believe you have some information on what Tracey was talking about with the rivers, Mel.

00:46:19Melissa Ellis: Yes, well, there was a comment about the Condamine being the longest river in Australia, but calculations have confirmed that Australia's longest single river is indeed the mighty Murray River, 2,508 kilometres. So that's probably all we need to say about that. Cool.

00:46:42Simon Mackley: All right.

Dazza's

00:46:47Simon Mackley: Out of the 177 comments we've had so far, we first of all heard from Gemma Kajewski. Well, I'm back at Darwin Airport already, awaiting my flight back to Brisbane. Enjoyed a lovely day and a half, made lots of new parkrun friends and accomplished what I came for. I visited Nightcliff parkrun for my 400th parkrun and I've now fulfilled other personal achievements. So she finished the Peel Club, she finished the Oberg Club and she finished the Compass Club. There was a picture of Gemma with her back to the camera with her black 100 shirt on that said 100, 200, 300 and 400 on the back of it.

00:47:38Melissa Ellis: Well done, Gemma. Yeah, congratulations, Gemma. Now, we also heard from Chris Gore coming to us from WA, and he said, May the force be with you, Dazza. Karen and I landed at Bibra Lake parkrun this morning along with a few friends, including our nephew Trent and his kids from a galaxy far, far away. It was dress-up day for May the 4th and it was a fun morning. It was also a pacer day and I ended up with one of the slower paces, which was good because the Jedi outfit is not the easiest to run in. That pesky cape keeps getting in the way. Unfortunately, we could not join the others at the cantina afterwards as I had to head off to work, but we enjoyed our start to the day and look forward to further adventures. Now, here's a photo of Minnie dressed up in Star Wars outfits and... I might just add that it looks like WA is still enjoying some very warm weather over there on the West Side, as Sarah Jefferson likes to keep pointing out to us.

00:48:39Simon Mackley: She certainly does. And I saw she was in there with a picture of three people having a swim after parkrun. So really rubbing it in for you, Victorians and Tasmanians, because it's still nice up here too. So rude. Okay, we also heard from Anne Frye, blue park walk shirt, starry tutu and Tatooine Suns jersey to celebrate Mount Barker parkrun's 500th. And there was a photo of Anne in the selfie frame with both sides of her outfit shown.

00:49:10Melissa Ellis: And Tatooine, I don't know what that is. What's with the suns? Give me some context.

00:49:16Simon Mackley: So what it is, it's part of the Star Wars. It's one of the planets that Star Wars is related to Star Wars.

00:49:22Melissa Ellis: Yeah.

00:49:24Simon Mackley: So the shirt that she was wearing looked like a basketball jersey, but it was a Star Wars themed. So Tatooine is a planet in the Star Wars universe.

00:49:37Melissa Ellis: Clarice Mudd. Okay. And I believe Anne was representing SA over there this week. She was indeed. Okay. So now we also heard from Heather Morgan. She was in the UK while she is. We know she's there for an extended period of time. She said, people I am staying with live very close to Queen Elizabeth parkrun in Hampshire. Couldn't persuade any of them to run some hills with me though. And she shared a photo of herself looking regal behind the Queen Elizabeth pop-up.

00:50:07Simon Mackley: And we heard from Ryan Stoddart. So this will be Ryan's last one from Queensland for a while. So he was at Jeune Park parkrun. He became a Queensland statesman once again. And he was interviewed by Channel 7 News crew. He was wearing his parkrun adventurers T-shirt when he was being interviewed. So he said, now driving down to Victoria to get the spirit over to Tasmania for five months of adventure down there. And he shared the video's of his appearance on Channel 7 Queensland, which I saw that night as well.

00:50:41Melissa Ellis: That was getting shared around everywhere. I had it sent to me from quite a few different people. Thank you to all those that tipped us off to that. And thank you to Ryan for giving us some publicity.

00:50:53Simon Mackley: Exactly. I hope you enjoyed Jeune because it's, yeah, that was the one I helped launch two weeks ago. So, yeah.

00:51:00Melissa Ellis: Yep, and he's going to be down in Tassie. So enjoy that, Ryan. Now, we also heard from Johan over in Sudafrik. Why did you write that? Like, Simon?

00:51:13Simon Mackley: I thought you'd just say South Africa. LAUGHTER

00:51:17Melissa Ellis: Okay. Back at my other home run swap, swak, swap, swap, swap, swap, swakopmund. Back at my other home run Swakopmund, parkrun Namibia we had glorious weather all week but woke to cloud and fog this morning but as we started parkrun the clouds disappeared like magic for an awesome parkrun I was tail walking today to keep me from galloping about the course we had some visitors from South Africa Australia the Netherlands Germany the UK and Angola and there was a photo of Johan looking ready to volunteer with the Oh, what's a beach path?

00:52:00Simon Mackley: I was supposed to say path. Simon. Jeez, you really read everything. Do you want to say that bit again?

00:52:15Melissa Ellis: And there was, and Johan shared a photo of himself looking ready to volunteer with the beach path.

00:52:27Simon Mackley: So he's standing on a path and the path goes down to the beach. So he's on – yeah. It's okay. You can say on a beach path. That's fine.

00:52:36Melissa Ellis: Cut. And there's a photo of Johan looking ready to volunteer on the path with the beach behind him.

00:52:49Simon Mackley: Wonderful.

00:52:51Melissa Ellis: This is why I often ask Johan to read his own –

00:52:59Simon Mackley: Fair enough.

00:53:00Melissa Ellis: Over to you.

00:53:01Simon Mackley: We heard from Tim Robbins, who was in the USA. Now, he didn't actually say anything. So we didn't hear from him at all. We didn't hear from him. Well, he sent us a photo. We saw from him. We saw from him, yes. So Tim was standing with the pop-up sign at Byxbee, plus he had two signs in his hands that he ran and volunteered.

00:53:05[crosstalk]

00:53:19Melissa Ellis: Good job, Tim. We know someone at Byxbee. We certainly do. So he was going to get good. Now... Dawny. Dawny's representing over in the Netherlands. So Dawn Branton said, completed my second alphabet at Zuiderpark Den Haag in the Netherlands and sent us a photo of herself and three friends behind the Zuiderpark pop-up. Yeah, so well done to you, Dawn. Two alphabets, Simon. Phenomenal. People do like collecting those alphabets.

00:53:54Simon Mackley: They do. They do indeed. Next, we heard from Renata Koch. So she said, it was so worth getting to the super friendly Werrington Lakes Reserve parkrun this morning. I finally completed stopwatch bingo. So Renata was in the Werrington Lakes selfie frame and showing off her shiny new stopwatch badge on the app.

00:54:18Melissa Ellis: And she was representing New South Wales. She was. Now, our Victorian representative this week was Marg Prowse, and she said, Trebeck Reserve parkrun for me today finally got my Wilson number nine. And there was Marg with the selfie frame at a jaunty angle, jaunty angle even. Stop throwing words in, Simon.

00:54:40Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:54:41Melissa Ellis: And I also wanted to mention we had another Victorian pop into Dazza's and it was Vicky Smith. Now, Vicky claimed she was volunteering at Wyndham Vale parkrun. Vicky, you can't volunteer at your home parkrun. I know Adrian has already pointed this out to you.

00:55:00Simon Mackley: That's a fair statement. That's just volunteering. It's just volunteering. Yeah. And there was a photo of Pa, not Nana. Oh, okay, right. Yeah. And we heard from Jackie Hancock from New Zealand. So she was R2-RD today. She managed to get 20 Star Wars quotes into the Star Wars run briefing, and she was looking resplendent as R2-RD. That's clever. Very. That was a good outfit. It was very good. She always has a good outfit, though.

00:55:35Melissa Ellis: Yes. Looked like a bit of arts and crafts involved in that one. Definitely. Yeah. And last but not least, down on the Apple Isle, we heard from Linda Coombes, who said, a beautiful, crisp morning touring at Launceston for me. And there was a picture of the parkrun flag with a great outlook over the water. Thank you, Simon. I didn't have trouble with that one.

00:55:59Simon Mackley: It was simple.

00:56:03Melissa Ellis: Excellent. Well, that's it this week from Dazza's. There were many more and there are still a lot of adventures ahead.

the Obi Award — Jackie Hancock

00:56:08Melissa Ellis: adventuring all around the globe and we love hearing about them so keep popping in exactly and chat to your fellow parkrunners in our virtual cafe and if you see the shirt go and say hi to them in real life exactly yeah there's a few out there now now time for an Obilope Simon oh you better get your camera ready I'm getting it ready all right This is Simon's ovulope version. Okay. Would you like to announce the winner?

00:56:45Simon Mackley: The winner for this week is R2RD, Jackie Hancock.

00:56:58Melissa Ellis: Yay. Well done, Jackie. Yay. See what happens when you go to all that effort. You get kudos. You get the high awards. Recognized. Recognition. You can put that on your signature block. Obi Award recipient. Now, that's it. That'll do for Dazza's. I've had enough tongue twisters for one day.

Club Corner

00:57:23Melissa Ellis: Let's have a listen to what Rachel's got to tell us.

00:57:25[14 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:57:39Rachel - 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. Do you know what existed before tracking apps? Good, old-fashioned spreadsheets and tracking documents. And maps, physical maps. Ah, the memories. So let's explore some more niche that's likely not on the apps. Today I'm going to talk about a quirky, and previously contentious club, the Compass Club. This was named in Oz by the other Mel, back in 2017 from memory, and it was about attending the more geographically extreme events in Oz. The most north, most south, most east and most west. Gee whiz, did some people like to argue and comment about extremities of a course versus the starting point of another, etc etc etc. This was resolved to simply be the official starting point from parkrun HQ for an event, mapped as longitude and latitude. Even then, some people needed to learn how to read a map lol. So, ignoring all of time immemorial, and the fact that Main Beach once held all four points of the compass in Australia, gee, wasn't that joke funny for the first five or six hundred time dot dot dot. Sorry. Currently, that is in early 2024 in Oz, we have north as Nightcliff, south as Geeveston, east as Kingscliff, and west as Marina. Now, the alternate, and less argumentative iteration of the Compass Club is what here in Oz was called the Explorer Club, as you had to explore to all points of the compass. You did this by collecting event names with the words North, South, East and West. See, much easier, and less confusing for most. Back in 2017 in the unofficial tourism group for Australia, there was a poll to name someone who had collected all points of the compass, and they were to be called Cardinal. It never caught on. In fact, most names for people having collected a club have not caught on. People seem to prefer to identify with the club name itself. I will let go of my history lesson now and remember, in parkrun life, all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun, so stay tuned for our future club corners.

00:59:38Simon Mackley: Okay, and Rachel with another group of clubs. So this was, let's call it Many Clubs Part 4. So she was talking about the Compass Club, the Explorers Club and a few others there. I've actually got a bit of an idea for another club. So Mel, I want to run this past you. We might need to spitball the name a bit, but what I'm thinking it could be called is the Aussie Milestone Club. And what it would be is doing all of the events that relate to the Milestone shirts. So the 10th event being Balyang Sanctuary in the Greater State, 25 being Rockingham in WA, 50 being Bunbury in WA, 100 being Calamvale in Queensland, 250 being Railton in Tassie, and 500, which we launched a couple of weeks ago, is Jeune Park in Queensland. So it's a mix of states, young, old, all that sort of thing. What do you think about that one?

01:00:37Melissa Ellis: Oh, that's a good idea, Simon. I like that. And I think the Aussie Milestone Club is a good idea. Each country could have its own version of that. There could be, you know, a UK Milestone Club as well with their corresponding event launch numbers. Is that an easy thing to identify there?

01:00:57Simon Mackley: I did it with the help of this new spreadsheet that is around at the moment, but I'm sure that there's people in the UK that... would have access to a list. So they would obviously have – well, I'm guessing they have 1,000 events in the UK? I don't think so. Okay. Well, once they get to 1,000, they can add the 1,000 milestone shirt to it. But, yeah, so I just thought that, yeah, I mean, obviously that's going to be – for them that's going to be some very old events like – 10, 25, 50 is going to be parkruns. Yeah.

01:01:31Melissa Ellis: And so, what about the custodial and...

01:01:36[crosstalk]

01:01:36Simon Mackley: So, it doesn't include the private events. So, the custodial and the... And juniors? No. And doesn't include juniors. No. Okay. So, that's literally based on publicly accessible parkruns because, yeah, the numbers would be a little bit different on that. But that would... Yeah, I went with publicly accessible because... if we had something in there that wasn't, then that wouldn't really be able to exist.

01:02:01Melissa Ellis: Well, it gives me another reason to get to Rockingham because that's also on the Successors Club. So I've got that in my sights.

01:02:08Unidentified speaker: Okay.

01:02:08Melissa Ellis: Which reminds me, no, Bells Parade didn't help me out. No, I've still got to get to Risdon Brook in Tassie for the Successors Club. Yep. Yes. Okay.

01:02:19Simon Mackley: Yeah, so good work, good thinking. Yeah, I thought that was a, yeah, it was a little idea. Obviously, yeah, having launched the 500th event, 500th publicly accessible event, I should say, because I believe the one in Seymour would have been the 500th, including all of the custodial and, yeah, and Puckapunyal.

01:02:43Melissa Ellis: So does parkrun, because they award a...

01:02:49Simon Mackley: an event a a number they do but that number is is based on when the when what's the word I'm looking for when they're approached to start a parkrun so they're assigned a number based on when they the next one in the in the list so Jeune Park has been on the on the cards for a year There's other ones that haven't taken as long to launch. So they might have a higher number that parkrun gives them, but this is all based on the launch dates.

01:03:26Melissa Ellis: Does that mean that there's events that have been proposed that never quite made it over the line that would have been allocated a number and so then in effect that number's never been used?

01:03:39Simon Mackley: Yes.

01:03:40Melissa Ellis: So that means that whole numbering system is an inefficient way to figure out

01:03:45Simon Mackley: Oh, yeah, definitely. Because that is all based on the approach. And, yeah, peek behind the curtain here. Railton was one that I was trying to work out because there was actually three launches on that day. And because of daylight savings time, there was Cloncurry in Queensland, there was Kangaroo Island, and there was Railton. And the three that launched on that day were numbers 248, 249, and 250. So Railton was the last one to launch, because of their eight o'clock starts in, was it nine o'clock starts? Nine o'clock. Nine o'clock starts in Tasmania. So they got the 250.

01:04:24Melissa Ellis: They did. Yay, because I've been there. So that means I've got that one.

01:04:29Simon Mackley: Yeah, yeah. I know you've got Calamvale because we did Calamvale together. Yay. And I'm sure you've got Balyang Sanctuary.

01:04:36Melissa Ellis: I've forgotten what you said they were.

01:04:37Simon Mackley: So Balyang Sanctuary. Yes, I've got. 10. Rockingham is 25 shirt. Bunbury is 50 shirt. Calamvale is 100. 250 was Railton and 500 is Jeune Park.

01:04:51Melissa Ellis: Looks like I'm going back to WA. Looks like it.

Consolidated Club Report

01:04:56Melissa Ellis: All righty. Well, I think it's time we move on to the Consolidated Club Report, Simon. Perfect. And this week, the adventurers Consolidated Club Report for Saturday, the 4th of May, 2024, says of a total of 630 members, 454 took part on this day in 10 countries across 254 locations. In the UK, there were adventurers at 52 events. There were seven in South Africa, Sudafrique. And there was three in the USA, two in Finland and Sweden, and one each in Canada, Netherlands and Norway. Our Dawny was in the Netherlands. Locally, we had adventurers at 51 events in New South Wales, 42 events in the greater state, 38 events in Queensland. There was not 154 in South Australia. Whoopsie. I think that is supposed to be 15. There was 12 on the West Side, six in Tassie. The ACT and the North Island were tied on five. There was two in the Northern Territory and one on the South Island. Wow. Now, yes, bowling strike. Now, the UK topped the leaderboard this week. They did. How's that? 52 events, pipping New South Wales by one. So that's pretty impressive. So good work, guys. And South Australia got ahead of the West Side again this week. Swinging back and forth. The southwest battle. So, yes, that goes backwards and forwards each week.

the Frond — James Avery (spoken variously as James Very / James Ferry), Andy and Debbie Airey and Rhiannon Taylor at Henley-on-Thames

01:06:38Simon Mackley: So I see that our largest fronds this week was at Henley-on-Thames parkrun where we had James Very, or is that James Avery?

01:06:47Melissa Ellis: Oh, I don't know. I don't think it was me that put that in there.

01:06:51Simon Mackley: Fair enough. Let's say James Ferry, Andy and Debbie Airey and Rhiannon Taylor.

01:06:58Melissa Ellis: Now, a new stat that I thought I would add in.

The Pilgrimage — Andrea Booth and Anne Croydon

01:07:01Melissa Ellis: Singers, lately we've had a few adventurers popping up at Bushy parkrun. So this one, The Pilgrimage. This week we had two adventurers do The Pilgrimage and it was Andrea Booth and Anne Croydon. Now... Andrea popped into Dazza's and she said, this morning I lived out my Bushy parkrun dream. It took a bit of logistics to get there, luggage and storage the night before and three buses. But I went, I ran and I saw deer. And there was a photo of Andrea in zoomy pose with a bushy pop-up. So good job, Andrea. And yes, and I believe Anne, Anne hails from up your way. Is that correct, Simon?

01:07:41Simon Mackley: She does. She's local to me. Capalaba, Cleveland, Scribbly, Fodder. She's doing them all.

01:07:50Melissa Ellis: And the Mecca. Now, largest fronds locally. I scrolled through, Simon, and all the top contenders were ones we hear regularly and names we know very well. So I looked a bit further, I delved deep, and I found six adventurers at Cooks River, and they were Bill and Yvette Turner, Bill Troy, Andrew Blanda, and Peter and Michael Thomson. Shout out to those fronders.

01:08:17Simon Mackley: Yay. And remember, you can add the Adventurers Club as one of your five affiliations on your parkrun profile. If you need help, let us know. Indeed. Get in contact.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

01:08:30Melissa Ellis: Now, we had more launches worldwide this week. Simon, five, I believe.

01:08:35Simon Mackley: Unbelievable.

01:08:37Melissa Ellis: And two of those being in the US of A. Now, to start that off, there was one, in said US of A in Purcell. Haven't heard of Purcell before, but apparently it's located in Harrisonburg, Virginia. And it launched with 34 finishers and five volunteers. 18 of those finishers were first timers.

01:09:02Simon Mackley: That's a great ratio, more than half. Okay, and the next one to launch in the US was Morrissey Park. So heading west to the state of Illinois, Morrissey Park also launched. 68% of the finisher list of the 44 were first-timers and there were nine volunteers. The course is a four and a half lapper, so it must be quite a small park.

01:09:24Melissa Ellis: Ooh. That's a challenge. Now, let me get myself prepared for this one. There was a launch in Norway, Simon, and it looks like Loftsgardsbrua. And it's located, no? Oh, I'm getting the okay sign. Located roughly in the middle of Norway, this is an out-and-back course along a riverbank cycleway. It hosted 29 people and it was supported by six volunteers. Yay. Yay.

01:09:54Simon Mackley: Then we're going back to North America. There was a new one in Canada. So that was Ottawa-Carleton Trailway. So it was the fifth event in the Ottawa area. It's a flat course along the Ottawa-Carleton Trailway, which is the Trans-Canada Trail, and Robert Grant Avenue. It's a large loop with a smaller loop within it along both trail and pavement. Week one saw 11 volunteers support 109 finishers.

01:10:24Melissa Ellis: Lastly, we have Glenfarne Wood, Ireland. And this was this week's largest launch. And it had 194 first finishers. What? I don't know. TOC. Our launch fair is confusing us. Anyway, 194 finishers, finishers, helped by 24 volunteers, and it's an out-and-back on forest roads, an out-and-back trail on forest roads even. So yay, Ireland, Canada, Norway, and the USA.

01:11:02Simon Mackley: So if there were 194 first finishers, that's a very wide finish funnel.

01:11:07Melissa Ellis: Maybe it's their first ever parkrun. Maybe they were all first-timers. Oh. No, not in Ireland. No. Maybe they all got 59.59.

Sign-off

01:11:23Simon Mackley: Oh, that's true. That's a possibility. Where are you going next parkrun day, Mel?

01:11:31Melissa Ellis: Did you see what I put in the show notes? I did. I put NFI. Does that stand for something, Mel? Is that a parkrun, NFI parkrun? It's indicative of the day I've had, Simon. No, let me break this down. I'm on my at-home week, so I won't be travelling far. I will probably be looking at my P index locations and targeting something to get one of my eights up to a nine.

01:11:41[crosstalk]

01:12:03Unidentified speaker: Mm-hmm.

01:12:04Melissa Ellis: I haven't decided how far from home I want to travel, which will obviously make the decision on which event I go to. So I could be swayed if there was something interesting else happening somewhere, like a party, if anybody wants to invite me. My social life's pretty sad. Cake. I don't eat cake. You know that. Oh, of course you don't, yes.

01:12:27[crosstalk]

01:12:29Aidan - Warwick parkrun junior, 250th parkrun on the day: What if it's a special cake? Keto cupcakes I could be jibed.

01:12:34Melissa Ellis: Yeah. Maybe I just need to make my own. Maybe. Here's a violin.

01:12:42Simon Mackley: What about you, Simon? I think that I'm going to Greenbank. So that will be another new one for me. Greenbank has been closed and opened up a couple of times in the last couple of months due to inclement weather. I think it gets a bit flooded out. So yeah, that's where I May hit this week or I may stay more local. I will work that out on Friday.

01:13:10Melissa Ellis: I think Greenbank would likely be in a club, a colour club. Do we have a rainbow one? I think we do. I think we do do you have any other colours in your collection Blue Gum Hills oh you do do you have any whites I can only think of white mark oh no I'm thinking that white cliff is there a white no that's Nightcliff yeah I can't think of another white that probably is the quiz master should know this Do your research and come back to me next time.

01:13:47Simon Mackley: Okay.

01:13:48Melissa Ellis: Or maybe not me.

01:13:49Simon Mackley: Do your research anyway.

01:13:51Rachel - Club Corner contributor: Ooh. Ooh.

01:13:54Melissa Ellis: Anyway, thank you for joining me again, Simon. It was good to catch up. Thank you for putting up with me. My pleasure.

01:14:01Simon Mackley: And it wasn't putting up with you. It's listening.

01:14:05Melissa Ellis: Now, as always, everyone, you can contact us via parkrun adventurers on Facebook or our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. That's it for another week. We'll see you all next week for more adventures.

01:14:10[outro theme playing]

01:15:13Unidentified speaker: Bye.