Episode 380 - In a twist

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

Welcome

00:00:23Tony O'Connell: Welcome to episode 380 of the parkrun adventurers podcast, a podcast about life, if your life's all about parkrun. My name's TOC and I'm coming to you from Boon Wurrung Country.

00:00:35Melissa Ellis: And I'm Melissa Ellis and I'm coming to you from Wurundjeri Country. Maybe this week's episode can be the tongue twister episode, Tony. Welcome.

00:00:43Tony O'Connell: Welcome. Mel, looking at some of the names that we have in the notes down further, I think this could be not only the tongue-tied but the tongue-in-a-triple-knot contest episode.

00:00:56Melissa Ellis: Or it could be the Aurora episode. I'm so glad I'm recording with you this week, TOC.

00:01:06Tony O'Connell: Mel, how good for the people in the southern climate, how good was Saturday night and that aurora that just popped and kept popping? And I started getting some interest in it about 6pm just as it went dark and at 3.30 in the morning it was still going. Mel, you got out and you got good pics.

00:01:28Melissa Ellis: I did and I wasn't as keen as you. I didn't stay up all night. I was happy with... heading down the coast and being there for dusk and sunset and just hoping and with fingers crossed that the timing would work for me and I wouldn't have to sit there for hours and hours. And I was so lucky because by 7pm it was going off. So I got to see the lady dancing finally and a lot of people know that that's something that I've wanted to witness for a very long time. I just missed out the week before in Tassie. My timing wasn't good the week before but I've

00:02:04Tony O'Connell: certainly got to witness an amazing spectacular on Saturday night and Mel you got to witness the really family friendly version of aurora we'll get notifications at 11 p.m or 2 a.m that it's on and you've got to go this thing's at seven o'clock it's not even fully dark yet and the thing's popped it's um

00:02:28Melissa Ellis: It's like the fireworks at New Year. You have the family version at 9 o'clock and then you have the midnight ones. So, yeah, well, apt that I did take my teenager with me even though I did drag them out of the car at one stage and say, you have to see this. This is a once-in-20-year event. So, yeah, and I was very rapt that my little iPhone 11 did manage to pick up all the colours.

00:02:53Tony O'Connell: I think normally the southern climes like Tassie gets to see a lot more aurora, the South Island of New Zealand. This time the photos were coming thick and fast, almost up as far as Queensland. In fact, I saw one photo from Yeppoon where they had colour in the sky at Yeppoon, and that's a long way north into Queensland. And our friends in Europe had a set of lights as well, so there were pictures everywhere from Europe. So just about the world was lit up.

00:03:21Melissa Ellis: I believe that it was visible from Uluru. And Sarah from the West Side managed to get some colour in her photos from her driveway.

00:03:31Tony O'Connell: It was magic. It was a magical night, and I think not only that, we had Starlink go through halfway through it, so we had pictures going everywhere of Aurora with beams and colours, and then Starlink satellites going through the sort of like the end of the world, the war of the worlds was happening.

00:03:48Melissa Ellis: That's the first time I've seen Starlink, actually, and only because I was sitting there staring at the sky for as long as I was, but... It was extra special to be at the coast, I will say. So I was glad that I made that effort. And then I did drive home. When I got home, the second sort of the 9.30-ish show was starting and I saw beams from my back doorstep. So, yeah, that's also awesome.

00:04:14Tony O'Connell: Amazing. Beans colour the works. Was it just a brilliant night?

00:04:19Melissa Ellis: Yeah, great Mother's Day present. I'll take that. But, Tony, anyway, coming up in this episode, we've got some more roving reports. We've held on to one from a couple of weeks ago from Lyndell, or was it from last week? And we've got a new voice to bring some UK flavour to our ears. But like I said, we've had an excess of roving reports lately, so we are still staggering them and we'll bring you more in the coming weeks. But having said that, we've got some feedback from last week and there was a comment in last week's CCR. We heard from Erin Phillips who said, ''An extra outing in my parkrun adventure is top at the Toowoomba Marathon yesterday.'' and even got a parkrun adventurers shout-out from South Toowoomba parkrun RD, Eman, as I ran to the finish line. Made my day. And she shared a photo of herself, a Zoomy race pic, in her adventurers shirt. So thanks for sharing that, Erin. Love it.

00:05:20Tony O'Connell: Mel, you've got to agree, the adventurers T-shirts just stand out a mile. That particular colour blue that they are, you can pick them out in a crowd. They're great for people that just like being out and about. Yep, the party's at the back. It absolutely is. Mel, also commenting was Tim Robbins who said, Also a Number Checker at Bushy Junior's where I met a certain someone. And the photo showed Tim and the troll pointing to the V1000 shirt wearer, which is none other than Nicky Clark.

00:05:53Melissa Ellis: Uh-huh. Also a shirt that stands out in a crowd.

00:05:56Tony O'Connell: It certainly would, and it'd certainly draw a lot of attention, Mel.

00:05:59Melissa Ellis: Yeah, you'd feel pretty special getting around in that one.

00:06:02Tony O'Connell: So, Mel, what did you get up to on parkrun Day just gone?

00:06:07Melissa Ellis: Well... I was saving my petrol. I was. I decided I would stay local, not venture too far. So I just went down the road. It's not my closest. Obviously, everybody knows Toolern Creek is my home and my most local parkrun, but not very much further is Peppertree parkrun. So I decided to make a special appearance there. And I thought I'd also be a little bit lazy with my recap because And I interviewed Peppertree's ED, Adrian Hillyer, and I thought I'll let him do all the work. So let's have a little listen to Adrian.

Interview Adrian — Event Director, Peppertree parkrun — Event Director, Peppertree parkrun (Bacchus Marsh, Victoria)

00:06:46Melissa Ellis: And now I am speaking to Adrian Hilliard, the world-famous ED of Peppertree parkrun. Oh, well.

00:06:54Adrian Hillyer: Good morning, Adrian. Good morning, Mel. Good morning, listeners. So you didn't know I was coming today? I did not, no. I pulled in the car park and saw the Miduri with the number plates and went, what's going on here?

00:07:06Melissa Ellis: Oh, you remember the name of my car. I'm impressed. Okay, how did this morning go?

00:07:10Adrian Hillyer: Yeah, not too bad. I ran pretty much with you most of the way, so a bit of talking, a bit of listening. No, it was good. I haven't been posting good times lately, but no, happy with what I did.

00:07:23Melissa Ellis: Okay, so firstly, let's talk about your journey. How long have you been parkrunning?

00:07:28Adrian Hillyer: Today was number 226.

00:07:33Melissa Ellis: Yeah, something like that, yep. Peppertree hasn't been going that long. We're event 155 today. So where did you start?

00:07:39Adrian Hillyer: I started at Wyndham Vale with Clark Norris. Many, many moons ago. And then when I moved to Bacchus Marsh, I started doing Toolern Creek. And while I was there, I got sick of the constant drive, so... All that way 20 minutes. All that way 20 minutes, yeah. Um... Well, when I was in Wyndham Vale, I was like three minutes from the start line. So, big difference. So, yeah, then clicked on the Start a parkrun button on the website and here we are.

00:08:14Melissa Ellis: Here we are. So was it long before COVID that you launched Peppertree?

00:08:18Adrian Hillyer: Three weeks. Three weeks.

00:08:19[crosstalk]

00:08:20Melissa Ellis: Yeah, you just made it. We didn't at Eynesbury. Okay. And the community, we were talking earlier, the community, it's a small parkrun, but your numbers seem to be building.

00:08:33Adrian Hillyer: Yeah, this year we've had some, I guess most parkruns will find that January, February, New Year's resolution period, the numbers grow, but they seem to have picked up a bit here and stayed um so we had another I think it was about 47 48 runners again today which is typically better than this time usually past years yeah yeah and again the last few weeks we've still had lots of first-timers um lots of first-time tourists still so but yeah the but still plenty of locals and still the locals have You know, they're not week by week regulars, but they're regulars. They're coming through, you know, you sort of see them every two to three weeks or four weeks or so you see them.

00:09:20Melissa Ellis: Okay, I'm going to be lazy. Do my job for me. Describe the course.

00:09:26Adrian Hillyer: It's a double out and back, predominantly on granitic sand with the two turn... turnaround point close to the start line not near the start line so you're not crossing the start finish multiple times uh follows the Werribee river and it's only got about 12 metres of elevation so it's pretty flat and you don't see that many houses either it could be anywhere yeah so we're sort of in a green what would it be like a

00:10:00Melissa Ellis: It's a park. It's an off-lead dog park.

00:10:03Adrian Hillyer: It is an off-lead dog park as well, yes.

00:10:04Melissa Ellis: And so the green space follows the Werribee River, obviously.

00:10:07Adrian Hillyer: Part of the Lerderderg Track, which goes from Bacchus Marsh through to Dallas via Blackwood, which is an 86-kilometre track, I think.

00:10:16Melissa Ellis: You get a few of the MCR locals coming down?

00:10:19Adrian Hillyer: Yeah, good support from MCR and Bacchus Marsh Run Club as well. So MCR being Melton City Runners.

00:10:25Melissa Ellis: Who's your event ambassador?

00:10:29Adrian Hillyer: That's all I have to say. She doesn't listen anyway. I know. Tanya. Tanya Baker, yes. We share the same event ambassador. We do. Yeah, no, she's good support.

00:10:39[crosstalk]

00:10:44Melissa Ellis: All righty.

00:10:44Adrian Hillyer: She doesn't listen, so it doesn't matter what I say. But word will get back to her.

00:10:47Melissa Ellis: Don't tell her. Don't tell her we rate her. Shh. And so we're off to the cafe now. And you get good support down there at Lola's?

00:10:55Adrian Hillyer: We do. We do. We've got a very big table. It seats about 10 or 12 people or something. And we're often adding extra tables to the end of it. And well known and, yeah.

00:11:09Melissa Ellis: And we're running late, so let's go. All right, we'll see you down there. Thanks, Adrian.

00:11:10[crosstalk]

00:11:13Adrian Hillyer: Thank you.

00:11:17Melissa Ellis: Okay, so I have found Marita. Good morning, Marita. Good morning. Now, it's your very first parkrun today, isn't it?

00:11:24Marita: It is, yes. Very first, yes.

00:11:26Melissa Ellis: Now, did I overhear you saying you actually registered a very long time ago?

00:11:30Marita: I did, yeah. And a few reasons, but probably nerves, I'd say, has been the biggest reason for not coming. Just... You know, something new, very nervous about coming. Obviously, you know, I'm bigger in size, so I suppose conscious of that. So, yeah, it's taken me a while waiting for people to come and join me. And that never happens. So last night I decided to bite the bullet and come alone. You're brave and we don't bite. No. Look, the support has been incredible. I can't believe how supportive. Not that I wasn't expecting it to be, but it's such a welcoming community. It's amazing.

00:12:02Melissa Ellis: So parkrun is actually very interested in what are barriers for people to come along to their very first parkrun. And a lot of people do register and then just never turn up. So I guess that's why I identified you and speak to you and get your opinion. Are you local here to Peppertree? I am, yes. Yeah? So did you walk down? No, I drove.

00:12:18[crosstalk]

00:12:20Marita: Sorry, I live in Bacchus Marsh. I've lived here my whole life. But, yeah, I drove down. And I suppose even just little things like that, I was very nervous as to, you know, do I bring a bag? What do I do with my keys? What do I do with my phone? Just simple things like that. But just, you know, I suppose part of joining something new and just all those unknowns. So had you looked at the website for Peppertree?

00:12:40Melissa Ellis: Were you aware of the website?

00:12:42Marita: No, I must admit I wasn't aware of the website. I had looked at the Facebook page. So I'd looked at some photos and that sort of thing on there, but I wasn't aware of the website or hadn't looked into it anyway.

00:12:51Melissa Ellis: Okay, but you had registered.

00:12:52Marita: Yes, absolutely. So that was probably through the website, was it? It would have been. Yes, but yeah, quite a while ago.

00:12:57Melissa Ellis: Yeah, okay. And when you arrived today, did you attend the first time as welcome and did that help?

00:13:03Marita: Oh, absolutely. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. That was really great to settle nerds and to know that there was other people, you know, that were first timers as well. So that was great.

00:13:11Melissa Ellis: And were you aware before you came down that there was somebody that would do that brief?

00:13:14Marita: I must admit, yes. I wasn't sure how it would work, but I noticed I looked at the volunteer roster and did notice that there was a first timer welcomer, which I thought that was great. Yeah. Good.

00:13:15[background music]

00:13:23Melissa Ellis: Okay. So obviously that probably played a part in making you feel a bit more at ease. Absolutely.

00:13:28Marita: That it's a common thing that there's obviously people starting for the first time all the time to have that person appointed.

00:13:33Melissa Ellis: Yeah. Great. And how did you find the course? Great.

00:13:35Marita: Yeah. Look, I'm familiar with the course. I walk it regularly with my husband and my children. So, yeah, but it's a great course because it's, you know, relatively flat and, you know, very, yeah, easy to, you know, obviously easy to navigate and everything. Great. Are you going to come back next week? Yeah, absolutely. Yes, I am. Yes. I have children that do little aths, so that restricts sort of spring and summer. But yeah, I'll certainly be back next week and hope to do it over this period until September, October when they recommence. Okay, so little aths. Are you familiar with Junior parkrun? No, I'm not.

00:14:13Melissa Ellis: Okay. So there's a junior parkrun that runs on a Sunday. Okay. And it's only 2K. Right. It's from kids from 4 to 14. Do your kids fall into that category? They do, yes. It's at Eynesbury. Oh, okay. It's not too far from you. No, not at all. No. I'm the Event Director there. Okay. Yep. So we're not actually on... Sadly, we're not on tomorrow. We had to cancel because we didn't have enough volunteers. Okay. But we also have a Facebook page. Okay. Please follow us. I will, yes. And consider coming down. Absolutely, I will. Are you at Bacchus Marsh Little Apps? Yes, I am. We have some of them that come as well with the kids. Yeah, great. And because you run on a Saturday.

00:14:25[crosstalk]

00:14:38[crosstalk]

00:14:47Marita: We do cross country, yeah, at this time.

00:14:48[crosstalk]

00:14:49Melissa Ellis: Which means you can come to... Yes, Sunday. Sunday. Anyway, so just a little plug there. Yeah, no, that's great. But, Marita, thank you for talking to me today. Thank you. I hope you come back.

00:14:57Marita: Thank you.

00:14:58Melissa Ellis: Please feel free to come to Lola's for coffee. Sure.

00:15:01Marita: And all the best. Thanks so much, Melissa.

00:15:04Melissa Ellis: So that was my audio. And obviously, I spoke to first-timer Marita, and I had overheard her talk speaking before the event to other people and indicating that it was her first time at parkrun. So my ears pricked up. And I heard her say that... She had registered a very long time ago and I thought, oh, a great opportunity to grab a first timer and get a bit of information about what was the barriers for them taking so long to finally come to parkrun. So a little bit of insight there from Marita. You're welcome.

00:15:42Tony O'Connell: Thank you very much, Mel.

00:15:43Melissa Ellis: Now, you had a big day too, an extra special big day. You were the man on the scene. Would you like to tell us about that?

00:15:51Tony O'Connell: Yeah, Mel, a lot of our listeners know that for a long time I was a parkrun regional ambassador and I stepped back away from the role, probably 12 months ago, lasted a little bit of time out of the system. And I really started missing not having anything to do with events. So I put my hand up to rejoin as an event ambassador. And one of the things that I've been given is a number of prospects to help develop them and get them to the point where they can launch. And I'm rapt to say that Saturday, I had my first launch as a new event ambassador. So we're up at Nagambie Lake on the lands of the Taungurung people, at the Nagambie Lake. The Nagambie Lake was formed in 1891 when the Goulburn Weir was built and it's currently the home of one of the state rowing courses. So they have a lot of state rowing titles set up there. One of the things that the rowers need is a bike track clearly long for the coaches to ride along. You see them in the movies, they ride along yelling at stroke and all that sort of thing. Over COVID... The Strathbogie Shire built this boardwalk, and it's about three and a half metres wide, and it's got a handrail that's about one and a half metres high the whole way, and it's just gun barrel straight, most of this. So you take off at the Nagambie Lake parkrun, and there's two sections of this boardwalk where it's just like almost a kilometre of dead straight sand. that's brilliant. It's a marvellous community facility. Nagambie Lake parkrun starts just outside of a water park. So over summer, there's water slides and all sorts of, you know, things for the kids to play in. The shop sells ice creams and all that sort of thing there. The team that set it up, Part of the Go Nagambi and Active Avenel crew, really community-minded people, jumped in and they've got this event up and running. It's just going to be a cracker of an event. I really enjoyed it. We had 133 people there for the launch. And I don't know what else I can tell you, Mel. It was just a great night. We went up Friday night. Jack won a meat tray in the pub raffle. So, yeah, we come home loaded with gifts as well. How good is parkrun?

00:18:18Melissa Ellis: How good is that? Now, I have to say that I did get a message through before the launch from, again, from Calum Burrell in the UK, who actually Facebook algorithms made him get a suggestion from, what was it, GoNagambi?

00:18:34Tony O'Connell: GoNagambi, yeah.

00:18:35Melissa Ellis: About the launch?

00:18:36Tony O'Connell: Yeah. Yeah, the day before, Go Nagambi put a map out of the course. Of course, we try to advertise a launch locally and we try to get that local enthusiasm going. And Go Nagambi is just a little community Facebook group. I've got to say, I have noticed that it is followed by a hell of a lot of parkrunners. Not me. But, yeah, it was rather interesting to see it's been prompted in the in people in the UK's feed.

00:19:06Melissa Ellis: I also wonder in the risk assessment, do they have to have a risk assessment to include bikes? I mean, if they've got rowers there, what if they could just tell the rowers they can't row during eight, nine o'clock on a Saturday morning? Because wouldn't that be a problem?

00:19:20Tony O'Connell: It's one of those events, Mel, they're pretty lucky. A lot of the bigger rowing events don't kick off till a little bit later. There's going to be an event that does close down for a couple of weeks of the year when the state title's from. We were up there a month ago and I think there was 11,000 people at the lake for the rowing. And so on those weeks, they just won't be able to run because the number of bikes that we use in that boardwalk and coaches, you know, you get eight boats rowing. So there's eight, lots of coaches on bikes all trying to ride in a pack and yell at their rowers and that. So it's a safety issue. So when the major rowing events are on, we'll be telling people to go down to Euroa or to Goulburn River at Seymour or up the ship and

00:20:05Melissa Ellis: Interesting. Yeah, they have their loud hailers. You see them along the Yarra too.

00:20:10Tony O'Connell: Yeah, Yarra.

00:20:11Melissa Ellis: Very good.

00:20:12Tony O'Connell: And you got to run? I got to run. I helped with the setup and everything sort of helped when they took off. I just sat around, made sure the timing was working fine and everyone was settled in their roles, had a pretty quick run, came back in reasonably quickly and then just sat around the finishing line, just helped the new Run Director and some of the volunteers just with some of the roles.

00:20:42Melissa Ellis: Very good. Now, some more excitement that we had midweek, which we didn't mention in last week's pod because we forgot, was Ascension Day over in the Nordics last Thursday, the 9th of May. Now, this is the first time that the Nordic countries have combined their special days and we actually had 22 adventurers taking part in 10 locations across four countries. So I'm going to have a crack.

00:21:08Tony O'Connell: And this is where our tongue ties come in now.

00:21:10Melissa Ellis: Yes. So in Finland, I have tried to Google how to pronounce this word to no avail. So I'm just going to try it as it is phonetically spelt, which looks like Vääksyn kanava. Well, so sorry, Finland. So they had, there was five adventurers out of a total of 67 at that event. Then there was Pokkinen, where there was two adventurers out of 32 participants, Tampere, with one adventurer out of 66, and Tokoinranta, with four adventurers, which I think one might have been Alison, out of 298. Then over in Sweden, there was... Billdalsparken with one adventurer out of 90 and Uppsala with three out of 92. Norway had Ekebergsletta with two out of 210 and Tøyen with two adventurers out of 202. And then Denmark with Amager Fælled with one out of 239 and Esbjerg or Esbjerg.

00:22:15Marita: It's one out of 50. I'm so sorry. Oh.

00:22:20Melissa Ellis: we posted a photo of a group of adventurers from that first unpronounceable Finnish parkrun. Their largest frond was Wendy Pearce from Kingsland, Helen Davison, Heather Morgan, who are Victorians, Roberta Winters from Kingsland as well, and Tim Robbins from New Zealand.

00:22:40Tony O'Connell: Great effort at that, Mel. I was just waiting for you to... To run through those and I was really happy when I looked at the show notes and saw it had Mel not talk.

00:22:53Melissa Ellis: Oh, well, it is funny though. The more that we hear them mentioned, especially with roving reports and people bringing us audio with the spoken word, you do get an understanding of how it's said. Like I look at Amager Fælled and I at least know how to pronounce that first bit. I think, slightly correctly.

00:23:16Tony O'Connell: Mel, it's really good looking over that list of names and just, I guess for me, just casting my mind back. It was only 12 months ago we hit Europe for our big holiday and I've run two of those different events. So it's really nice to see them popping up again. Excellent. And the number at Amager Fælled, 239 this year. Last year, I think they had 446 for their special day. So it's good to see the numbers are probably a little bit more manageable and probably a little bit better distributed this time.

00:23:50Melissa Ellis: I was looking at that and I was hoping that the combination of the Ascension Day has worked and been a positive thing. And also, though, I guess all the people that went that 600 or 400 odd that went to that event, well, they'll be going back, but they'll be looking for a different event. They won't be repeating or different people will go this year than went last year. So, yeah. Yeah. Swings and roundabouts, I guess.

00:24:20[background music]

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:24:20Melissa Ellis: But that will do us for our intro, and it's time now to throw over to Lyndell and Calum with our roving reports.

00:24:30Unidentified speaker: MUSIC

Roving report Lyndell Murray — Cleveland parkrun

00:24:38Lyndell Murray: G'day parkrun adventurers, it's Lyndell and today I have travelled out to the lands of the Quandamooka people and I am at Cleveland parkrun's 11th birthday. Now tomorrow is May the 4th, today is May the 3rd, so the folks out here have gone a day early and gone with a May the 4th theme for their 11th birthday. So I'm out here with all the, I don't know what to call them, If it was Star Trek, they'd be Trekkies. And, of course, we've got Swifties for Swifty. What do you call a group of Star Wars fans? I do not know. Anyway, I am going to go and check in with the first-timers briefing. I have been here before, but as a visitor, it's a good courtesy to go and check in and make sure I know where I'm running. And I think Darth Vader's going to be telling me where to run today.

00:25:38Lyndell Murray: Alrighty, parkrun adventurers, I am here with today's Barcode Scanners, Sally and Chris. How are you going today? Yeah, fine, thank you.

00:25:46Chris: Yeah, good, thank you.

00:25:47Lyndell Murray: Now, Chris, you are one of these super people who run and volunteer. What position did you come today?

00:25:53Chris: I think it was six, maybe. Six, yeah.

00:25:57Lyndell Murray: So you get out there, flash around the course. I'm just trying to think of a Star Wars joke, but I know nothing about Star Wars, so I'm just going to give that up now. And then come back and scan barcodes.

00:26:07Chris: Yeah, it's best of both worlds, I guess, yeah. Yeah, I love running, but at the same time, I love kind of giving back to the community as well, so, yeah.

00:26:16Unidentified speaker: Great.

00:26:17Lyndell Murray: And now this parkrun podcast is about people who go to different parkruns. Do you do much touristing or do you really stay close to home here in the Redlands?

00:26:25Chris: It's actually something I've actually started focusing on in... probably last year because I'm just such a creature of habit and I live like literally two streets away yeah so I think um I recently done did my 200th and um I think I've done 185 at Cleveland so I'm like I need to see what else is out there and stuff so yeah what I do every second week I try and do a different one just hop in the car and um go do some random ones so

00:26:57Lyndell Murray: All right. So how many different ones have you done now, Chris?

00:27:00Chris: I think different ones. I think I've maybe done 20 or around 25 all up. Yeah, different ones.

00:27:08Lyndell Murray: Brilliant. So you're starting to venture to galaxies far, far away. Yeah.

00:27:12Chris: Sometimes, like, for example, at Easter we went to Ballina camping and stuff, so I did Ballina parkrun and stuff. I do that every year at Easter and stuff.

00:27:21Lyndell Murray: Awesome. And do you have any either a fun story about something, a place that you've been, or do you have a couple of courses that you just really enjoyed? Have you got a top three for us?

00:27:33Chris: Um... I do like, um, the trail run parkrun. So, um, I think people are aware they're really hard and stuff stay, stay away. So I do like, I don't think many people know about, um, the Sirromet parkrun. So yeah, that's just the one at the winery. That's pretty tough. And, um, Yeah, there's Scribbly Gums, which is Alex Hills. That's opened pretty recently. That's a good course as well. One I do want to do, I haven't done it yet, I heard it's pretty tough, is Bunyaville.

00:28:06Lyndell Murray: Get out there. That's my home.

00:28:07Chris: Is it? Yeah, yeah. So that's actually on my list to do this year. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to that one.

00:28:13Lyndell Murray: Yeah, brilliant. And look, there's so much choice out here in the Redlands, isn't there? There are lots of parkruns and they're all a little bit different.

00:28:22Chris: Yeah, exactly. So... Yeah, in terms of proximity around here, I like doing Capalaba or Redland Bay. And I don't know, we try and just incorporate parkrun just into the general weekend. So we go to like a cafe afterwards or something, like try a new cafe or something like that.

00:28:42Lyndell Murray: Brilliant. Well, welcome to adventuring and to many more ahead.

00:28:46Chris: Great. Thanks for having us on.

00:28:48Lyndell Murray: No problem.

00:28:49Lyndell Murray: Now, Sally. Yes. When I crossed the line and scanned in with you, I was immediately taken not only by your big smile but your earrings. Tell me about your earrings.

00:28:58Sally: Well, we have a lovely little market locally and the lady there will make earrings for you. And she had some that a friend was wearing and said, be kind. And I thought, that's lovely, but could you make me parkrun? And she said, yes, of course I can. And now that she has, there's quite a few people wearing them. So hopefully it's done a good lot for her business.

00:29:17Lyndell Murray: I'm sure it has. And they look smashing. Oh, thank you.

00:29:21Sally: Now, Sally, you are one of the stalwart volunteers at this event. Is that right? Yes, I am. It's only because it's easier than running. Yeah, but I got into parkrun through my daughter, who's a volunteer. Sorry, she's a Run Director out at Gatton. And, you know, I've done a few parkruns with her and we did a couple in Italy together. which was absolutely fantastic. So she pushed me to do it. And then when I said, you know, I didn't really want to run anymore, she said, well, why don't you volunteer? So I do. I'm here every week and I love it.

00:29:53Lyndell Murray: And do you always scan the barcodes or do different roles?

00:29:55Sally: No, no, no. I try to do something, but I try not to take the same job every time because I really prefer to do the timings, but I like other people to have a go as well, so I just move around and do whatever is needed.

00:30:03[crosstalk]

00:30:09Lyndell Murray: Timekeeping's so fun.

00:30:11Sally: It is. Everybody seems to think it's really hard, but actually it's my favourite job.

00:30:15Lyndell Murray: Yeah, me too.

00:30:16Sally: I'm happy to do it every week, but I like to give other people a chance.

00:30:20Lyndell Murray: And look, it's good to have that, isn't it? It's good to build... One of the things that people get from volunteering is building their confidence and trying things they haven't done.

00:30:27Sally: Yes, absolutely. The thing I really didn't want to do was the tokens to start with. I thought, what if I drop them? Yeah. I didn't but anyway yes and that's what everybody seems to worry about dropping the tokens but yeah like taking terrible photos um I don't do photos all right so one thing I haven't done and I should oh no no don't do photos I'm not a good photographer all right now in amongst all of that I heard parkruns in Italy yes um my daughter and I went to Italy for a month last year and we did Caffarella in Rome and we did Lucca, which was just beautiful. It was pouring rain in Italy. There were only, oh, I think there were so many volunteers and there were no more than about six or seven runners and two of them four of them were Australian yeah it was just absolutely wonderful it didn't care it didn't matter that it was raining loved it brilliant so you're an international parkrun tourist on top of being a wonderful volunteer well thank you to my daughter because she asked them if I could tail walk in Lucca and they said yes of course so here are two international volunteers how's that that's brilliant

00:30:35[crosstalk]

00:31:31Lyndell Murray: All right. Now, I am going to have a chat to the Run Director in just a moment. But is there anything that you would like the people to know about Cleveland parkrun?

00:31:42Sally: Oh, of course, the best in the Redlands, of course. It is a lovely parkrun, and straight out and back. I don't like going round in circles. But it's the people that bring you here. Honestly, they're just lovely. And I'm here because... I love seeing the kids. When they see that finish line, their faces light up and they just go for it. Yes, it's just wonderful. And we're getting more and more children, which is lovely.

00:32:08Lyndell Murray: There's a few little gangs of, I shouldn't say gangs, little groups of teenagers as well. Yes. So you've got a younger demo coming through?

00:32:16Sally: We have. It's absolutely wonderful. And I'll be here until I'm 100.

00:32:20Lyndell Murray: brilliant I bet you will all right well thank you Sally and thank you Chris for volunteering today and for talking to me on the podcast thank you thank you all righty I have tracked down Paul um who I mistakenly thought as the Run Director was darth vader but he informs me that he is in fact the mandalorian I have no idea what that means but anyway do you know no it was the cheapest outfit from kmart what can I say brilliant now the other question that I had which you probably can't answer either is if it was star trek we'd all be dressed as trekkies or we would be trekkies and Taylor swift has swifties do you know what they call a group of star wars fans I don't I've never watched a movie of star wars no No, well, I don't know much about it either. Anyway, thank you for having me here today. Tell me a little bit about Redland Bay parkrun.

00:33:18Paul: It's Cleveland parkrun.

00:33:19Lyndell Murray: Cleveland parkrun.

00:33:21Paul: Cleveland parkrun is the first one in the Redlands. There's six now. The 11th in Queensland and the 26th to open in Australia. I'm not sure worldwide. I haven't done the stats on that yet.

00:33:31Lyndell Murray: Oh, well, there's your homework, Paul. Now, 11 years running here.

00:33:38Paul: No, I've only been, I started at Event 94 in 28th of February 2015. And, yeah. With my daughter and, yeah, so.

00:33:52Lyndell Murray: And started running. What did you get straight into volunteering? Tell me about your parkrun journey.

00:33:56Paul: Yeah, it took me about two months before I first volunteered, and then they recruited me as a Run Director in 2017, and I think I've done 40-odd Run Directors since then. I enjoy it immensely. I have a great time every weekend.

00:34:11Lyndell Murray: You certainly keep the crowd in line while you're doing your briefing.

00:34:14Paul: Yes, one of the most annoying things is people chatting. I was going to have a chatterbox about 50 metres down the track, but I didn't get time to draw it, so I had to pull Zorinka in line a bit because she was a bit loud, but that's the most annoying thing when being Run Director is people not paying attention. I know that people think they've heard it a thousand times before, but a lot of people haven't, so I think it's important that they listen to the briefing and all the warnings and stuff like that. Indeed.

00:34:42Lyndell Murray: And there were milestones to celebrate as well, and that's something that doesn't happen every week.

00:34:46Paul: No. I mean, we had our first Cleveland parkrunner who did his 500th at event 505, I think, in March, which was very exciting. He became the oldest person in the world to accomplish that milestone, so that was amazing.

00:35:04Lyndell Murray: I think that made national or even international parkrun news.

00:35:06[crosstalk]

00:35:07Paul: Yeah, absolutely.

00:35:08Lyndell Murray: Right here at Cleveland.

00:35:09Paul: Yes, it was fabulous.

00:35:11Lyndell Murray: Brilliant. All right. Now, this podcast is for people who like adventuring. Do you do much parkrun adventuring, Paul?

00:35:19Paul: I've only done 47. That's it.

00:35:22Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:35:23Paul: That's a lot. My most recent one was my first ever volunteer at a junior parkrun. There's only two in Queensland.

00:35:30Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:35:31Paul: That was pretty good. But I was blown away that the one at Ashgrove gets over 300 or 400 every week.

00:35:37[crosstalk]

00:35:39Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:35:40Paul: So they must be coming across the finish line at an immense pace. Yes. Because it's only two kilometres, so the range is, what, seven minutes through to 18 or something? Yes.

00:35:50Lyndell Murray: It's just nuts. They travel around like a big swarm. I bet they do. It's wild.

00:35:56Paul: Yeah. I mean, the one at Southport is excellent. Just run around the oval three times and yeah, it was about 50 kids there. It was great.

00:36:03Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:36:04Lyndell Murray: Now you were telling me a little bit earlier that you like to ride your bicycle when you park on adventure. Tell me about some of your adventures on your bike.

00:36:11Paul: Oh, well, I mean, I just ride down to the train station, into the city, and then go from there. St Lucia, Kedron, those sort of places.

00:36:21Lyndell Murray: Yep. Have you had any mishaps on the public service, public transport system, or it's all been smooth sailing?

00:36:27Paul: All smooth sailing. Catch the first train from Cleveland in the morning, so can't miss that, 5.09, away we go, yep.

00:36:33Lyndell Murray: And do you plan it out in advance, or do you just jump on the train and figure it out on the way?

00:36:39Paul: Oh, no, I've got it planned well in advance, like getting letters for challenges and stuff. I mean, you know, I'm working on that.

00:36:45Lyndell Murray: So how far away from your alphabet are you? You've still got Z to go, don't you?

00:36:49Paul: Yeah, Z, J, all the usual ones, I, O and E. I know I've done E up at Elliott Beach, which is a spectacular course up there, Bundaboo.

00:36:59Lyndell Murray: All right. So out of that 47 then, do you have a top three courses that you've done? Before we get on to a course description here, do you have a top three events?

00:37:08Paul: Oh, I'd have to say Elliot Heads, Cleveland, of course, and Scribbly Gums over here is pretty good too.

00:37:14Lyndell Murray: All right, you can't count your home, so you're going to have to sub in another one.

00:37:17Paul: Okay, okay, let me think. Dubbo, I'd say, yeah, that was pretty good.

00:37:22Lyndell Murray: Yeah, what was interesting about Dubbo?

00:37:26Paul: Oh, it was just, I have never been that, that was my furthest way, one away from, you know, furthest distance away, so that was interesting.

00:37:34Lyndell Murray: And it was your D?

00:37:35Paul: Yes.

00:37:36Lyndell Murray: And there's a zoo there?

00:37:37Paul: Yeah. Yeah, went to the zoo, rode my bike around there. That was pretty good, yeah. Best way to get around Dubbo Zoo is on a bike, that's for sure.

00:37:43Lyndell Murray: That's brilliant. That's so great. All right, now, back to Cleveland parkrun. What I haven't done in my interviews this morning is a course description. So can you tell me about the course here at Cleveland?

00:37:55Paul: Well, I love this course because it's out and back. So you see every parkrunner. Other parkruns, you know, you might see the faster guys once and that's it. But this one, you see everybody coming back. You get to know their names. It's fabulous. 2.5k out, obviously. 2.5k back. A little bit of shade here and there. And, yeah, just love it.

00:38:15Lyndell Murray: Lovely forest and a bit of a glimpse of the bay on the way back as well.

00:38:18Paul: Yes, on the bend at 1.5, yes, it's very good, yes. Excellent.

00:38:20[crosstalk]

00:38:22Lyndell Murray: It's a lovely parkrun. Now, what else was I going to say? Star Wars theme, so you're the Mandalorian, there are a few Mandalorians around, and I just wanted to make a mention of the Stormtrooper who was in service today as the Tail Walker.

00:38:37Paul: Yes, Steve, yep, great job. He was looking good, he dragged that out for the first time in 10 years, so that was good, yeah.

00:38:43Lyndell Murray: Absolutely brilliant. I thanked him for his service. And so you've got a nice little volunteer community here, Paul.

00:38:50Paul: Yes. I mean, yeah, we've got, well, every parkrun needs a core team of volunteers because that's the most stressful thing about being Run Director is filling that roster before the end of the weekend. So, you know, luckily we've got people like Sally who's done, you know, 140 150 volunteers and it's only done 25 parkruns so she's here every week so it's great to buy at least one slots filled but you know getting those other those other ones filled sometimes it causes a little bit of stress because I don't like calling out on the morning because that's that's a bit tough yeah it is all righty well I'm gonna leave it there is there anything else that you would like anyone to know about Cleveland though before I wrap up no I think just about Cleveland

00:39:34Lyndell Murray: Great course.

00:39:36Paul: Come on down. We welcome you with open arms.

00:39:39Lyndell Murray: Brilliant. Well, thank you, Paul, for talking to me today.

00:39:42Paul: You're very welcome.

00:39:43Lyndell Murray: Thank you for everything that you have done for Cleveland parkrun and parkrun and your community.

00:39:47Paul: Thank you very much.

00:39:51Lyndell Murray: Alrighty parkrun adventurers, I have returned home from Cleveland parkrun and realised that today is May the 4th, not tomorrow. Yep, nothing more to say on that one, moving swiftly on. I've also done a Google search and I have ascertained that indeed there is no collective noun for Star Wars fans. Now apparently there was a bit of a movement to call them Warsies and But that didn't quite take off, so apparently they're just called Star Wars fans. Go figure. And finally, last thing to wrap up, the costumes. Now, I did touch on this a little bit. There were several Mandalorians or Darth Vaders, something. I'm not sure. Our stormtrooper friend was the Tower Walker. And there are a few Luke Skywalkers and baby Yodas. I don't know, something like that. Anyway, the one I really wanted to bring to the parkrun adventurers' attention was a parkrunner, who quite frankly would give Ollie's Jasmine a run for his money in the, well, let's just say, give him a run for his money. I would challenge you if you're interested to find out more, go to the Cleveland parkrun Facebook page and check it out for yourself. Alrighty, that is it from me. This is Lyndell signing off for the Channel 5 News crew.

Roving report Calum Burrell — Burnage parkrun

00:41:21Calum Burrell: Good morning parkrun adventurers. You won't recognise my voice unless you heard one of the earlier parkrun adventurers episodes where Mel asked me to open the Obilope. So it's been a while. Yeah, my name's Calum, Calum Burrell, and today with my wife Lindsay we are co-run directing Burnage parkrun now Burnage parkrun is on the banks of the River Mersey and today is our event 532 it's also the day of the Eurovision Song Contest so I've got my Eurovision Song Contest hat on I've also got my shirt I think Lindsay's got her cap which she got from when we both visited Liverpool last year we both went to the Eurovision Song Contest semi-final or one of the semi-final rehearsals so we've really enjoyed that and look forward to the programme for Eurovision later on but today what I thought I'd do we've got some interesting volunteer people with us today. One of which is a very well known in tourist circles for doing parkrun tourism. She has how I forget the stats but basically she's never repeated a parkrun so and beginning last year she joined the Bailey Club so yeah I'm hoping I can speak to her later on but at the moment I'm just doing the Event Day Course Check along the banks of the Mersey might be able to hear the birds in the background and yeah look forward to continuing this conversation all being well with Deborah Cassar later I should also point out, Burnage is, I'd say, on the banks of the River Mersey, close to Stockport. Mel, in the second to last episode, did make reference to the Mersey River, whereas Burnage is on the River Mersey. So, subtly different, but obviously still Mersey, where obviously the other one in Tasmania is Mersey. Mersey River, this one's River Mersey. But yeah, the River Mersey starts at Stockport and then works its way west towards Liverpool. So yeah, we're based in the northwest of England and Stockport is located roughly six miles south of the centre of Manchester in the United Kingdom. And if you want my predictions in relation to Eurovision, I think Oli Alexander is going to come about, let's say, 13th. I predict Switzerland to win.

00:44:15[background music]

Talking to Deborah Cassar — UK parkrun tourist and Bailey Club member; Timekeeper at Burnage parkrun on the day

00:44:16Calum Burrell: Okay, so parkrun adventurers, it's Cal again, and I'm here with someone who is volunteering as a Timekeeper today at Burnage parkrun, we have Debra Kassar. So first of all, welcome along to the parkrun adventurers. Do you know anything about the parkrun adventurers?

00:44:32Deborah Cassar: No, nothing, first of all.

00:44:34Calum Burrell: Alright, okay. Well, I'll do the introduction after. It's a parkrun podcast, and so I think the key thing is, what did you get out today? What was today all about?

00:44:49Deborah Cassar: It's the volunteering and I think everybody has to do it and give up a run to understand what actually goes on behind the scenes. Because it isn't a case of just people rocking up and give you a time. You know, I was on timekeeping and I've never been so nervous because I'd already pressed it wrong once, but it was rectified. But it is nerve-wracking.

00:45:13Calum Burrell: Yeah.

00:45:16Deborah Cassar: It's been warm today, so I've actually been glad I'm not running.

00:45:20Calum Burrell: Yeah, it was a really hot day today, and there was one or two people who struggled a little bit because of the hot weather. We were in quite a lot colder conditions. We had puddles here three or four weeks ago when we were run directing. Thank you so much for helping today. I know part of the reason I wanted to interview you is because you're... And certainly on UK solos, people know you from the UK parkrun Tourist Group and the adventures that you go on and especially you do things in a certain unique way. So if you could maybe elaborate on your touring strategies and I know that you're part of the Bailey Club, maybe explain the Bailey Club as well.

00:46:03Deborah Cassar: Yeah, so the Bailey Club is for any parkrunner that's done 100 parkruns without repeating. So it's 100 unique events and it can be anywhere in the world as long as they're unique events.

00:46:16Calum Burrell: Cool. And tell us about getting, well, you kind of, because you use different locations in the UK, but there seems to be a set pattern in terms of, because in the UK we have the postcodes, which the post office and the Royal Mail use to break up the UK. And I think, isn't there like a plan, grand plan of yours?

00:46:37Deborah Cassar: That's right. It's to visit every county in the UK. And it's also to visit every postcode. And that, for me, ensures that I go to every part of the country. So if I was focused on a Wilson number, I could do them all in a local area. We're blessed in Manchester that we've got so many parkruns. So for me, visiting different areas is the key thing for me.

00:46:50[crosstalk]

00:47:04Calum Burrell: OK, and tell us how you get to and from and how long it can take sometimes.

00:47:09Deborah Cassar: Well, I mean, last week's was the most epic trip, but that took 46 hours from leaving home. And that was done with two overnight coaches down to where I was going. So it wasn't until I'd got home and I'd realised actually I've never had any, I've not actually been in a private space until I'd got home. It was literally, everything was done. You know, you sleep on the couch, then you eat quickly in McDonald's. But I was also going to watch Old City as well. And that's what I tried to do, I tried to tie in something else. With the visit. But, yeah, very, very big into parkrun tourism and public transport.

00:47:15[background music]

00:47:51Calum Burrell: Yeah, and I think you've managed to find loads of good deals with trains and things. Do you like getting up to Scotland dead cheap and things?

00:47:55[crosstalk]

00:47:57Deborah Cassar: Yeah, OK, so the other week I went up to Scotland. I went and did the Thurso parkrun, which is right near John O'Groats, and I got there for £29.50 using five different train and bus deals.

00:48:11Calum Burrell: Wow.

00:48:12Deborah Cassar: You do have to have the time, though, Calum, to look for these deals.

00:48:13[crosstalk]

00:48:15Calum Burrell: Yeah, because I think we should maybe point out that you are now retired, aren't you?

00:48:19Deborah Cassar: Yeah, well, Lloyd, my partner, stood opposite. He says it's between jobs. Fair enough.

00:48:25Calum Burrell: But, no, you are an inspiration to lots of people, and some of the stories you can... I mean, everyone looks forward to reading about your stories on the parkrun Tourist Group on a Sunday.

00:48:37Deborah Cassar: And I have to add, Calum, most of them are true. LAUGHTER But tell us about, is it Harry? Oh, Harry the Haddock, yeah. So last year, Grimsby Town, 4th Division, well, League 2, the old 4th Division football club, they'd got to the quarter-finals. They'd had a really good run in the FA Cup. And they brought back the inflatable fish. And it's a three-foot haddock, which is a symbol of Grimsby Town, the Mariners. And they'd last done them in the late 80s when it was a big thing in the UK. So I thought, I'm going to buy one of those. So I bought this haddock. And then I thought, well, what am I going to do with it? So I thought, I know what, I'll take it to parkrun. So I took it to Girvan Prom. And I took it, and I thought, I then had the idea, I ran with him, it got such a positive response from people. And I thought, every time I go to visit a parker in Barnaby Sea, I'm going to take Harry with me. And to the point whereby, I did Durlston Country Park last year, right down in Dorset, there was about 90 runners, and over 20 people recognised that had happened. I mean, she's bonkers.

00:48:40[background music]

00:48:59[crosstalk]

00:49:44[crosstalk]

00:49:45Calum Burrell: Absolutely superb. So in the parkrun adventurers, they do like to ask the question and feel free to answer it in any way, shape or form. But what would you say was in terms of parkrun events, what would be your top three parkrun events? And I appreciate if you don't want to say Burnage, it's fine. I don't want to feel the pressure. Apart from Burnage, and I suppose you haven't got a home parkrun, have you?

00:50:03[crosstalk]

00:50:12Deborah Cassar: No, I won't be repeated. What I would say, though, is before I give you my top three, is what's really nice is I've visited Burnage a couple of years ago. The only reason I came back was because a parkrun friend was visiting. So I thought, right, I'll go volunteer. And it's great because I see it as a runner and a volunteer. And they're two different beasts. In terms of parkrun, top one, Girvan Prom, because of Harry the Haddock at the sea. Yes. 20 runners. Second one, Cotsford Fields. Again, low numbers. Remind me where that is. North-east, near Hartlepool. Ah, yeah. So again, low numbers, about 25, something like that. Third, Marshall Drive. Again, north-east, not far from Middlesbrough, between Middlesbrough and Scarborough. Marshall Drive is literally three or four laps of a playing field next to a housing estate. There is no toilets, there is no cafe, there is no view. What makes this unique are the people that volunteer there. Same for Girvan and same for Cox.

00:50:28[crosstalk]

00:50:38[crosstalk]

00:50:45[crosstalk]

00:51:16Calum Burrell: Brilliant. Thank you very much, Deborah.

00:51:18Deborah Cassar: And I'm going to, sorry to overrun this, but the other one I did that is totally unique on its own and can't even be put on a scale is running one at the Open Prison.

00:51:26Calum Burrell: Ah, Black Coon. Yes.

00:51:28Deborah Cassar: I have to say that was the most life-affirming experience I've ever had in parkrun. And it wasn't a case of, look at me, I've done a parkrun in prison. I found it, I got so much from it.

00:51:38Calum Burrell: Brilliant. OK, well, thank you, Deborah. I think that winds things up for me. And I have to say, this is my first ever interview for parkrun adventurers, or Roving Reports, as I like to be called. So what better way for me to start than to be at my home in Burnage. The run itself, I think, went reasonably okay. It was a bit hot for people. We did have one person who struggled at the end and we had to make sure that they kind of got back into recovery because there was a little bit, maybe... well he did his first parkrun and uh he'd only done runs on uh treadmills before today so I think today was a bit of a shock to him but he was fine my dad was volunteering for as a Marshal for the first time he volunteered before but never actually um done it as a Marshal so he was able to help that particular chap back to his car and he's fine um but yeah no it's good it's the it's the community it's uh it's the people and uh And great to speak to you today, Debra. And thank you for everything you've done today.

00:52:36[crosstalk]

00:52:38Deborah Cassar: My pleasure. And thank you. You're more important than anybody.

00:52:41Calum Burrell: And there might have been some singing at the parkrun, which I don't know if we'll get. Maybe do a version of that for the podcast as well. But thank you very much, Debra. Thank you.

00:52:49Deborah Cassar: My pleasure.

00:52:52Calum Burrell: So there was a mention of a song today. So yeah, I did actually sing a song as part of my Run Director brief today. And it's to the tune of Dizzy by Olly Alexander, which otherwise known as the UK's Eurovision Song Contest entry. So it was alluded to the people and the spirit and the community of Burnage, but also a little nod to Eurovision. So it went something a little bit like this. Burnage parkrun for the people, Burnage parkrun for the walkers, Burnage parkrun for the joggers and runners. Maybe get yourself a PB, maybe get a bacon butty at the rugby club after the events. So that wraps up Burnage parkrun Event 532. So we had 225 finishers with 33 volunteers. Amazing thanks to everyone involved. And thank you for affording me the opportunity to do a roving report. So maybe I can do another roving report actually away from home at some point. But I would love to know what everyone thought. Calum, over and out. Thank you.

00:54:05[background music]

00:54:22Tony O'Connell: And a big thanks to Calum for bringing us his roving report and giving us his Eurovision predictions. Interestingly, Calum was spot on with predicting Switzerland to win with Nemo and Alexander came in 18th, so a bit lower than Calum thought. Also, thanks to Calum for sharing a video of himself doing an impromptu ode to burnage to a Eurovision song. That's very brave, Calum. And thanks for bringing us some UK vibes. This year, Mel, I think we've had a decidedly lack of Eurovision with Ollie not being in the chair this week.

00:54:55Melissa Ellis: I know. See, Australia got voted out when he made the finals. So we're being very Aussie and like, what Eurovision?

00:55:05Tony O'Connell: Yeah, I think it'd be fair to say, though, that I'm very Aussie every year with Eurovision. I can get on board with all these kick, yeah, but Eurovision, that might be a New South Wales specialty, I think.

00:55:21Melissa Ellis: So Eurovision's going to end up being a bit of a blue moon. But, yeah, Calum brought us Deborah Cassar. Interestingly, she's created her own challenge, Tony, to do every postcode in the UK to cover the country. So I thought that was really interesting. And then we had Lyndell over there at Cleveland. Now, referring to Lyndell's question about what is the term for a Star Wars fan, nobody's really had any luck. So I thought, you know what? When you've got an AI in your back pocket, you just go, hey Rachel, what's the term for a Star Wars fan?

00:56:00Rachel: Hmm, what is a Star Wars fan called? A good question that is. See what I did there? Seriously though, in one of the all-time quirks in a very nerdy part of the world, there is no collective noun for a group of Star Wars fans. Sorry. Rachel out. Oh, well, we can't say we didn't try, TOC.

Dazza's

00:56:17Tony O'Connell: Yep, you can't say we didn't try, Mel, but on the trying front this week, we had a lot of people commenting on Dazza's. And this week, Dazza said, the UK celebrated Mother's Day back in March, but for the rest of us around the world, this weekend is an opportunity to say thanks to all the people who fill motherly roles. Did you parkrun with a mum today? Come on in and tell us all about it.

00:56:41Melissa Ellis: And we started off with Johan and he said, back in Afrique de Sud, or more appropriately, Afrika Borwa, on a beautiful autumn morning where Levi and I were mothering the tail end at Inibos parkrun in ZA. What's that the abbreviation for, Tony?

00:57:02Tony O'Connell: A long way away.

00:57:04Melissa Ellis: Levi was out of his skin to be back at parkrun for the first time in months. All my fault for travelling to events or accommodation where he couldn't tag along. And there was a photo of Johan and Levi with beautiful blue skies. Moving south...

00:57:18Tony O'Connell: From South Africa, or over in that general vicinity, Ryan Stoddard, our perpetual traveller, has finally hit Tasmania. And Ryan commented, my first parkrun on my Tassie adventure. I knew I was in the right place when I saw a car with this number plate with a big love heart emoji. And the pic was Ryan pointing to a number plate which says, I love... parkrun on the number plate.

00:57:45Melissa Ellis: And moving to Italy, we heard from Andrea Booth. And she said, sadly, I'm a long way away from mum this Mother's Day, but she's enjoying hearing about my parkrun adventures. I've arrived in Italy and did Milano Nord parkrun. They were very hospitable to a large tourist group, a bit of... But it was also lovely to meet some local Milan parkrunners and a photo of Andrea looking very happy in front of the Milano. Nord, pop up. Your turn. Thank you.

00:58:18Tony O'Connell: And coming to us from New South Wales, Fiona Mullen. A bit of a palm reunion. Travelled to Jubilee parkrun, which is located in New South Wales in Tenterfield, with Rex Gream, Samantha Skinner and Clancy Skinner. A bit wet, but really enjoyed it. The volleys were awesome. And there was a pic of the group in the selfie frame.

00:58:39Melissa Ellis: There was, and I stole that photo for the Consolidated Club report this week. Now, over in Finland, Helen Rutter, and she said, what a beautiful location at... Ah, Puolarmaari, Finland, in the forest. Unfortunately, Andy took a tumble and it's very painful. I think he's got a broken arm. But being abroad, A&E is a hassle and he doesn't want to go. I'll make him go when we get home. And there was a photo of Helen and Andy in the selfie frame, most likely before the accident because Andy is smiling. I hope you're okay, Andy. Let us know.

00:59:17Tony O'Connell: And I did see a follow-up photo, Mel, of Andy with his arm in a sling, looking a little bit less comfortable than he did when they were in the selfie frame.

00:59:26Melissa Ellis: Oh, so there was photographic evidence. Has he got a plaster?

00:59:30Tony O'Connell: I don't know. I don't know if he's back yet, but I just saw a picture of him with his arm in a sling. So I hope you get well, Andy. Oh, dear. Speaking of falls. Our very own Steve Warwick had a fall tonight too. So, Steve, I hope you get better. He fell over on a trail and broke his glasses.

00:59:45Melissa Ellis: Oh, yeah, I saw that photo too. Hope you're okay, Steve.

00:59:49Paul: Nasty looking cat.

00:59:51Tony O'Connell: Mel, Georgina Devine was coming to us from New South Wales where apparently it's not as sunny as Inverloch. Georgina's comment was, I hate rain. Rain makes me grumpy. And she posted a group photo of the volleys on the beach with umbrellas, arms crossed in grumpiness. And actually, that was just Georgina. Everyone else was smiling. But Georgina, no context in your photo or your comment. We know it was the beaches, but... We know she's at the Beaches.

01:00:25Melissa Ellis: Now, Georgina was all in yellow. I don't know if it was some sort of rain suit that she was wearing with her orange volunteer vest over the top. It's what it looked like. And from a distance when I glanced, I thought, oh, she's dressed as Winnie the Pooh. Grumpy Winnie the Pooh. Sorry it was rainy. It's not so sunny, is it, up there? Anyway... We also heard from Christine Imbert and she was in Denmark and she said, I was at sunny Vejen parkrun in Denmark. Nice route out, three laps in a forest and back. And Christine was there in the selfie frame wearing her adventurers shirt. Thank you for wearing that all around, Christine.

01:01:04Tony O'Connell: Jumping across the ditch, Mel. We heard from the lovely Bec Bailey. Happy Mother's Day, birthday weekend, new age category in brackets, and 150th run to my mum. Surprise visit across the ditch, landing in the early hours, 1am on Saturday morning. Then a covert operation of airport hostel and rental car to sneak out to Pegasus parkrun. Stayed hidden until I could announce Shellharbour in the RD brief. Mission accomplished. There were tears. Love you, Mum. And the pic was Bec and Tanya on course at Pegasus, showing Tanya with a huge smile and doing a zoomie.

01:01:45Melissa Ellis: Oh, bless her cotton socks. She's a good daughter, isn't she? She likes doing those surprises.

01:01:50Tony O'Connell: Yeah, Mel, I remember when she popped up at Batemans Bay to surprise someone when they were running a milestone as well and snuck up through a car park.

01:01:55[crosstalk]

01:01:58Melissa Ellis: Oh, no, we'll have to do that for her one time, but don't tell her, shh. Now, next we heard from David Bravos coming to us from WA, and he said, every day is Mother's Day, right? Joined a reasonably large frond at Cottesloe parkrun and even had a quick dip in the Indian Ocean afterwards. Here's Lucy and Raja. So Princess Jasmine knows the tiger is in good hands. And there was a cute picture of cute little Lucy on the beach with Raja in her adventurers top.

01:02:28Tony O'Connell: Yay, that was a cute pic. Now, next we're going to head way, way, way across to the UK and Andy Airey's written in. Andy said, first outing of the adventurer's Buff on Deb today at Squerryes Winery in the UK, followed by an hour's wine tasting for 24 of the 50 Airey's Airways Posse. 5.13am sunrise start. We achieved a new attendance and volunteer record too for the event. Deb was a bit surprised by the lovely dress that I bought for her. And the pic was a funny one. It was Deb in a purple grape costume with the Squerryes Winery behind her and the parkrun pop-up, and she's showing off the adventurer's buff on her wrist. And I think they only arrived in the UK this week through Mr Burrell, so that was great distribution there. Wow, good work, team.

01:03:21Melissa Ellis: Now, lastly, we heard from Jan Yates. She was in Cornwall and she said, Eden Project parkrun for me this week, undulating two and three quarter laps. And the photo of Jan with the pop-up and the Eden Project domes in the background, that one is on my list. Tony?

01:03:38Tony O'Connell: It certainly does look like an interesting one with those domes and I believe it's quite an interesting day to actually spend the day walking around that area.

01:03:46Melissa Ellis: So, yeah. Yeah, the history of those domes. One worthy of adding to the list. Yeah, yep, yep. And that parkrun has been discussed before on the adventurers podcast when there was a certain Cornwall pasty competition and the parkrun was cancelled. For that reason.

01:04:09[crosstalk]

01:04:09Tony O'Connell: Are you sure it's a pasty or is it a pasty?

01:04:10Melissa Ellis: No, I'm pretty sure it's pasty.

01:04:12Tony O'Connell: Yeah, I agree.

01:04:16Melissa Ellis: Well, okay.

the Obi Award — Lucy Bravos

01:04:18Melissa Ellis: And it's time for the Obilope. Yay. Have you got it?

01:04:24Tony O'Connell: I have the Obilope.

01:04:25[background music]

01:04:25Melissa Ellis: Okay. Getting the camera. Wait one.

01:04:29Tony O'Connell: There we go. And this week our winner is... Lucy Bravos. And that is one of the cutest little photos I've seen forever. Well done, Lucy. You just deserve to be our poster girl.

01:04:54Melissa Ellis: Okay, fabulous.

Club Corner

01:04:56Melissa Ellis: Well, from one poster girl to another, it's time for us to throw to Rachel.

01:05:05[background music]

01:05:15Rachel: This is Rachel with Club Corner, where we talk about the what and why of parkrun clubs, and I am coming to you from Arrernte Country. Today I'm changing the guard and looking toward a rainbow. There is a parkrun club where you can become a rainbow runner, kind of. As we know, a rainbow is made up of the seven colours, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. The rainbow runner is one who has run all the rainbows in Australia, except that not all of the rainbow colours are available. We have Redcliffe and Redland Bay, orange, no yellows, Gainsborough Greens, Greenbank and Greenway, Blue Gum Hills, then no indigo and no violet. Some people don't like this, because you can't do the whole rainbow, but really, that restriction was to prevent people arguing about whether, Port, was a colour, winky face. As for the changing of the guard, yes, this next club is to do with royalty. You can become a monarch by completing the full set of Australian royalty-related parkruns, we have prince of Wales parkrun then Kingscliff and Kingston Park we have queen's domain and then finally Queen Elizabeth parkrun Casino this is a simple direct club to achieve and we are just waiting on a princess for a full set of the core roles there is a princess marina track about 45 minutes north of Shellharbour but it would be a keen soul to create an event there and I cannot conceive of a world where we get the full set of extended monarchy titles which are fyi Emperor slash Empress, Grand Duke slash Grand Duchess, Duke slash Duchess, Marquess slash Marchioness, Earl slash Countess, Viscount slash Viscountess, and Baron slash Baroness. Do you know what the king does after burping? He issues a royal pardon. And remember, in parkrun life, all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun, so stay tuned for our future club corners.

01:07:02Tony O'Connell: And thank you very much to Rachel for another very interesting Club Corner. I'm just trying to work out both how we go about adding some more colours to our rainbow, whether we can do that through some park names and monarchs. And I'm just trying to work out how would we go about getting a combination of a monarch with a colour in there and what would be the the preferred combination that we'd have there.

01:07:28Melissa Ellis: Well, you need indigo and violet. So, I don't know, tricky. But I've got a couple of colours. I've got orange and green bank, I've figured out. Well, how about you?

01:07:43Tony O'Connell: I've got Greenway in my rainbow club. But in the Monarchs Club, I'm actually doing significantly better. I've got Prince of Wales, Kingscliff. Queen's Domain and Queen Elizabeth Casino. So I've almost got a royal flush.

01:07:59Melissa Ellis: Oh, wow. Good work. I am doing not so good. I only have pow. Pow.

01:08:04Unidentified speaker: Pow.

01:08:05Tony O'Connell: You have the Batman parkrun.

01:08:08Melissa Ellis: Yes.

Consolidated Club Report

01:08:09Melissa Ellis: But, Tony, the adventurers Consolidated Club report for Saturday, the 11th of May, 2024. Of a total of 633 members, 462 took part on this date in 10 countries across 254 locations. Give or take a few because we're having a bit of trouble still. In the UK, there are adventurers Act 34 events. Eight in South Africa. South Africa is growing. Good job, Johan. Four in Finland and Norway, three in the USA, two in Denmark, and Italy, and one in Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, and Sweden. Locally, we had adventurers at 47 events in Kingsland, 43 in the greater state. There was 40 in New South Wales, 16 in South Australia, pipping the West Side again, which only had 12. There were seven in Tassie, five on the North Island, ACT had four, the Northern Tree had three, and there was two on the South Island.

01:09:14Tony O'Connell: And, Mel, I think we can really see the effects of the Ascension Day holiday on the numbers. The UK is down a little bit on its record-breaking efforts last week, but all the Scandinavian countries and through the Nordics, they're all up. So it's great to have adventurers out and about so far. But by far the biggest group that we had internationally was we had a frond of eight at one of the events, and that was at Squerryes Winery in the UK where we had Matt Miller and Denise Evans, Pauline Wardner, James Avery, Annie and Debbie Airey, Rhiannon Taylor and Cass Castleton.

01:09:52Melissa Ellis: Yes, and we did hear from Andy Airey earlier in Dazza's. But doing the pilgrimage this week, TOC, was Dawn Branton and Janet and Dave Tozer. Now, Dave Tozer also posted in Dazza's and he said, we headed to where it all started and he shared a photo of himself and Janet in their adventurers shirts with her the Bushy pop-up. And I'm just picturing if Dawn, if our Dawnie was there at Bushy and happened to see Adventurers in adventurers shirts, that would have been amazing, wouldn't it?

01:10:24Tony O'Connell: How cool would that be? I hope she saw them. I hope they stand out.

01:10:26Melissa Ellis: Yeah, hopefully she spotted them. Now, the largest frond in Australia or locally this week, we had 11? at one event, and we had seven at another event. But there were six at Cottesloe on the West Side. So I thought I would highlight them this week, and that was Matt Stephens, Sarah Jefferson, Eman Vergara, David and Chloe Bravos, and Andrew Yeatman. And Sarah Jefferson visited Dazza's too, and she said, Cottesloe parkrun for the win this morning, Dazza. One fabulous mum, Chloe Bravos, in attendance. Chloe, Eman and Andrew ticking off Cot parkrun for the first time. A seal was swimming and flapping around in the water. We all enjoyed... Oh, I can't say that word either. Akasi bowls? How do you say it, TOC?

01:11:16Tony O'Connell: Casey, I think. Casey bowls? I wouldn't listen to me, though. I don't know.

01:11:17[crosstalk]

01:11:20Melissa Ellis: I can never say it. Anyway, they all had those funny bowls. And a swim in the ocean afterwards. We are still swimming over here in WA. Just saying. Hashtag West is best. And there was a great pic of the Cottesloe frond, all in adventurers shirts, except Eman, who was never seen in anything other than his South Toowoomba shirt. Yeah.

01:11:39Tony O'Connell: And now that brings us to remind everyone that you can add the Adventurers Club as one of your five affiliations on your parkrun profile so that you can be included in our weekly consolidated club report. And the other thing we need to remind people is on Run the World, you can add the adventurers as your primary club there and that helps us out and it helps our club grow and run the world.

01:12:03Melissa Ellis: Yes. Now, I believe on Run the World, our club's actually called parkrun adventurers. Is that correct?

01:12:09Tony O'Connell: That is something that we're going to look up in a real hurry because it's my primary club and I really should know that now.

01:12:15Melissa Ellis: I've got a feeling I've asked you and you did confirm it was parkrun adventurers.

01:12:18[crosstalk]

01:12:18Tony O'Connell: It is the parkrun adventurers, lowercase.

01:12:21Melissa Ellis: Definitely. So get on to that. If you are an adventurer out there and you do run the world, support us in a little way if you can, if you don't mind. Thank you.

01:12:29Tony O'Connell: And it also looks really great and helps highlight that we're out and about there as well, Mel.

01:12:35Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

01:12:36Tony O'Connell: Mel, going around the world, this week we had a grand total of seven launches. That's one of the biggest launch weeks in a long, long time.

01:12:44Melissa Ellis: We did. And first up, we bring you Otago Central Rail Trail parkrun in Alexandra, New Zealand, new to the South Island and about an hour southeast. No, about an hour east-southeast of Queenstown. The course is out and back on trail paths with a pine forest loop on the return leg. Now, this event starts near the Molyneux netball courts and saw 144 finishers at event one with 13 volunteers and 59 first-timers. Yes, I counted them.

01:13:15Tony O'Connell: That is huge, Mel. Wow. On to another one that was very close to my heart, Nagambie Lake in Victoria. The Great Estate grows. We're at 110 events. Nagambie's just north-west of Seymour and south of Shepparton, so it's on the road that connects between those two, and it joins the Great Estate as our newest event. We had 133 finishes this week, Mel, and 14 awesome volunteers.

01:13:44Melissa Ellis: Next, we had Bungendore Common in New South Wales. Now, located in New South Wales, it is actually in the Queanbeyan region and it is a double out and back on formed paths, grass and trails and starts close to the skate park. There were 94 participants for event one with 18 volleys and 17 first-timers.

01:14:04Tony O'Connell: Mel, the biggest launch that I've seen in quite some time this week goes to Ōrākei Bay in New Zealand. The Auckland area maintains its title as the park runniest area of New Zealand with the eighth parkrun in the Auckland area joining into the family. The actual course is an out and back along a boardwalk and there were 615 finishes at the launch and they were supported by 38 volunteers and I believe quite a few of the Auckland parkruns that surrounded it were well down on numbers this week, surprisingly.

01:14:38Melissa Ellis: I know. I just don't know where New Zealand found all those parkrunners. Wow. Big numbers. Anyway, over in Canada, we had Tynehead Regional and it joins parkruns in the Vancouver, Canada area this week. 75 people attended event one with seven volunteers and 16 first-timers. This is a course... This course is one counterclockwise loop with a 500 metre out and back on the Tynehead Perimeter Trail.

01:15:08Tony O'Connell: Now, our next one, we go across to Ireland to Athlone RSC parkrun. This is on the road between Dublin and Galway, so it's sort of halfway across Ireland. It's sort of almost a good spot to stop and have a break if you're travelling across to Galway. It's a two-lapper around the RSC, which stands for Regional Sports Centre, and this week they had 115 people take part and they were supported by 17 fabulous, friendly volunteers.

01:15:40Melissa Ellis: And last but not least, we had a launch at the Fisherman's Walk in the UK. Now, this is located in Northern Ireland. The course is along a river path, along a river... ..and... Ending as I started, aren't I, with the tongue trested.

01:15:59Unidentified speaker: I can't even say trester.

Sign-off

01:16:02Melissa Ellis: The course is along a river path to a forest, then two laps of the forest, then return. It's a bit like Roughton in Tassie, apparently. They had 87 participants and 14 volunteers. Moving along. Mel, where are you at next parkrun day? um I am adventuring I am jumping on an airplane I'm gonna pop up at Armidale we've got some adventurers out at Armidale Rex Gream I'm coming to visit and Clancy um and what is clancy's lovely partner's name Samantha yes I'm coming to see you are you home are you going to be home hope so so yeah that's where I'm headed what about you Tony

01:16:51Tony O'Connell: Now, I have the big undecided question. It's Monday night as we're recording and I have absolutely no idea where I'm going.

01:16:59Melissa Ellis: You've got the unifies.

01:17:03Tony O'Connell: Well, I'm going to do a little run on Friday night. I've got a big event coming up, so we're doing a little practice. And it's going to be somewhere close and handy. Might work on a P index and travel somewhere close, but maybe not Inverloch. But we'll probably just end up at Inverloch Saturday morning.

01:17:20Melissa Ellis: I know you, Tony. You'll be tempted by a party. You get whiffed that there's something happening somewhere local.

01:17:26Tony O'Connell: Yeah, and all of a sudden we're an hour and a half, two hours from home, driving to a parkrun for a bit of cake.

01:17:33Melissa Ellis: Yeah, that's what we do. Anyway, well, thank you very much for joining me again, sir.

01:17:38Tony O'Connell: It has been wonderful again and I have enjoyed our night of tongue twisting.

01:17:44Melissa Ellis: I will try and get my game face on for next week. But anyway, adventurers, 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 and we'll see you all next week for more adventures.

01:17:55[outro theme playing]