Episode 381 - Ah-sigh-ee

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

Welcome

00:00:23Sarah Jefferson: Welcome to episode 381 of the parkrun adventurers podcast, a podcast about life if your life's all about parkrun. I'm Sarah Jefferson and I'm coming to you from Noongar Country.

00:00:35Simon Mackley: And I'm Simon Mackley and I'm coming to you from Quandamooka Country again. Welcome back Sarah.

Level 2 with a View

00:00:42Simon Mackley: We hear from you quite a lot on the pod but not actually in the level two with a view.

00:00:48Sarah Jefferson: Thanks for having me back.

00:00:50Simon Mackley: That's okay. And I'm so glad you haven't lost your voice this time.

00:00:54Sarah Jefferson: Yes. Well, we were supposed to record last year sometime, weren't we? And inconveniently, I did lose my voice for about two or three weeks. And thanks, Simon, for your patience, because I could have let the team down again tonight with my IT issues, but lucky you're incredibly patient. So around three, we should be okay.

00:01:15Simon Mackley: We will be fine now that we're actually recording. Yeah.

00:01:18Sarah Jefferson: And thanks Mel for trusting me to jump back in the host seat. It's really exciting for me to be back. But Mel, I do need to correct you on my breakfast of choice from last week. And it's an acai bowl. So acai, and actually Simon, I think that when I saw you in Brisbane, when we caught up late December in New Farm, I actually had an acai bowl as well.

00:01:43Simon Mackley: You and Matt definitely had one each. So I was, yeah, I was having a bit of a giggle at both Mel and TOC stumbling over the pronunciation. Yes. Are you still swimming in WA?

00:01:55Sarah Jefferson: Still swimming on the West Side. I think the end is near. The weather or the ocean temps are about 22 degrees officially. But I think it's like your phone, you know, when it says, oh, it's 30 degrees, but it actually feels like 40 degrees. So it's 22 degrees, but it actually, I think, feels like about 16 degrees in the ocean. So the dips are getting much shorter, but definitely, yeah, still enjoying it. while it's here.

00:02:25Unidentified speaker: Cool.

00:02:25Sarah Jefferson: Yeah. And hey, Simon, did you know that this week is actually National Volunteer Week here in Australia? So it's actually Australia's largest annual celebration of volunteering.

00:02:36Simon Mackley: I only heard that today, actually. So, yeah.

00:02:39Sarah Jefferson: Pretty exciting to talk about that with parkrun, because obviously we know that it relies heavily on volunteers for this to run. And I was having a look at the theme earlier today and it's something for everyone. So I think that's incredibly fitting for parkrun. There's so many different volunteer roles on offer. And I know for me personally, there's so many that I still haven't completed as yet. I'm sure there's a few for everyone, really. There's so many, aren't there?

00:03:09Simon Mackley: Oh, exactly. So what haven't you done that you want to do?

00:03:12Sarah Jefferson: Oh, that I want to do.

00:03:14Simon Mackley: And that you can do, because I understand that the Sign Language Support is a bit of a harder one.

00:03:22Sarah Jefferson: I would like to do that one day, though. I would like to learn Auslan, but I certainly don't have the skills. At Canning River, we have a car park marshal. So I thought one day I'd try that out. But I haven't been there for a little while. So what about you?

00:03:40Simon Mackley: I think I've done pretty much everything. I need to go to a juniors and do the warm-up later. I definitely want to give that one a crack. And I haven't been to a juniors, so I've got, yeah, I haven't experienced the joy that is juniors.

00:03:53Sarah Jefferson: You haven't at all?

00:03:54Simon Mackley: Not at all, no.

00:03:56Sarah Jefferson: Do you have your blue card in Queensland?

00:03:58Simon Mackley: I do. That's a good start. It is a very good start, yes. It is. Yes. And my blue card in or my working with children check in New South Wales has now expired. So I would need to apply for that again. But yeah, I definitely have the Queensland blue card, which also allows me to work at my son's school when there's some sort of event on like athletics carnival or that sort of thing. So.

00:04:22Sarah Jefferson: Well, that's handy. I think I've actually got working with children checks in five states at the moment, which is crazy. Well, I should trust you as a teacher. Well, that's right. And they're all systems. If they just connected and spoke to each other, that would be easy, but that's okay.

00:04:28[crosstalk]

00:04:37Simon Mackley: Exactly. Yes. There's something to be said for that.

00:04:41Sarah Jefferson: Definitely. Anyway, so yes, going back to National Volunteer Week, I guess, thank you to everybody who does volunteer in parkrun. And I guess this week, I'm sure we'll be hearing a little bit more about National Volunteering Week. But yeah, thank you very much for all of your efforts.

00:04:59Simon Mackley: Yeah, I know parkrun are putting out a video each day. I saw that this morning that they're putting out a video each day this week about people volunteering all around Australia. Yeah.

00:05:09Sarah Jefferson: Well, that's great. I haven't actually been online today. There you go. On Facebook. So I'll have to jump on and have a look later on.

00:05:17Simon Mackley: By the time this comes out, there should be, yeah, there should be a few of them out by then.

00:05:21Sarah Jefferson: All right, Simon. So how was your last parkrun day?

00:05:25Simon Mackley: Well, I stayed local. I went to Sirromet, which is the winery not far from here. It's on the lands of the Quandamooka and the Gorampool people. It was their event number 341, there were only 23 people who scans their barcode and nine volunteers ably led by the rd Liam we were all standing on the start line and he actually surprised himself how quickly the run brief went because there was no milestones there was no tourists there was no newbies um yes and so I believe they knew everyone that was there. Like, I rarely go there, but I knew a few people there. So, yeah, no one put their hand up for any of those things anyway.

00:06:09Sarah Jefferson: Yeah, that would make for a quick briefing, that's for sure.

00:06:12Simon Mackley: It did, because, yeah, there was no first-timers brief. So, yeah, we were actually standing there two minutes, like two minutes before seven, going, okay, can we just go? Yeah. But, yeah, no, it was good. It's, Sirromet's quite a hilly one. And it was really muddy because they're doing some work and the tractors and graders and all that sort of things have been all over the path. So in parts it was sticky, in parts it was really slippery, especially the turnaround point was slippery.

00:06:39Sarah Jefferson: And is this far from your home in terms of getting to a shower?

00:06:42Simon Mackley: Oh no, like I didn't get, I didn't fall over or anything like that. Okay, didn't splash mud everywhere? Oh no, no, no. It wasn't like, it was quite sticky, like hard mud. It was kind of like running on clay, um yeah so it was sticky in parts like my shoes were sticking to it like like while I was running it was sticking it wasn't like they're getting stuck in the mud okay but um yeah anyway what about your parkrun day thanks for asking so um I headed south to check out um the 408 480th parkrun event in Australia

00:07:19Sarah Jefferson: I headed down to Ridley Place Foreshore parkrun on the lands of the Pidgerup people. So the word Pidgerup refers to the people of the wetlands, coastal estuaries and the wetlands. So I left home about 6am with a car full of adventurers including Matthew Stevens by default. Andrew Yeatman and Brenton Pullman. This left us plenty of time to enjoy Park Faf before the event. We arrived at the start line with plenty of time to warm up and have a walk around. Although Perth had a 20 degree day on Saturday, the morning was still quite chilly as we arrived down there. Upon arrival, I spotted another adventurer, David Messenger. David will bring you an interview about the event set up with the passionate Event Director, Tony Roberts, a little later on. The parkrun starts and finishes at the same location. There are public toilets, a boat ramp, the Carragup play space, which appeared to be quite new, and there was a coffee van in close proximity. The run takes place through the park with views of the Leschenault Peninsula throughout the run. After the run we decided to keep up with the post parkrun swim streak by heading in for a dip albeit a really quick one in the Leschenault Estuary. Andrew Yeatman thinks it was about 16 degrees. The area is named after Jean Baptiste Leschenault who was a botanist who visited the area on a voyage exploring the coastline nearby rivers and the estuary between 1802 and 1803. Afterwards, the five of us adventurers headed to the breakfast at Treendale Cafe. There was not an acai bowl in sight today, but lots of hot faff with Tony Roberts, followed by an hour and a half trip back to Perth by midday. So it was a busy morning.

00:09:10Simon Mackley: Sounds like it. Yeah. A chance encounter with David Messenger.

00:09:15Sarah Jefferson: Yeah, which was nice. And David told me that he teed up the event team for an interview. So I was like, by all means, go for it. So he took the reins on that, which was great.

00:09:26Simon Mackley: Awesome. I believe we've had some special events today.

00:09:30Sarah Jefferson: We have had some special events. So today in the Netherlands, being Monday, day of recording, was their special day. And it's Whit Monday, a day celebrated after Pentecost, which is a religious celebration. There were 16 events that ran, with the largest event being Beatrixpark, with an attendance of 248 people, just beating out Kagerzoom with 244. We had 10 adventurers at Beatrixpark and eight at Zuiderpark Hoogeveen. So 16 out of the 23 Dutch events running today from Tapijn in Maastricht in the south to Stadspark in Groningen to the north and west to Delftse Hout in the Haag. I hope I pronounced those okay.

00:10:30Simon Mackley: Delfts or Helts.

00:10:32Sarah Jefferson: Sounds great.

00:10:34Simon Mackley: And I have actually had a text this afternoon, or sorry, just very recently from a friend of the pod, Roberta Winters. Okay, so she went to Beatrixpark and she said it was amazing. Two laps, six bridges, decent amount of people, over 200 again. So we now know it was 248. Paths were nice and wide, caught up with the Waggie Bridge troll and friends, made new ones, so unlike the shy Roberta that we all know and love.

00:11:04Sarah Jefferson: Yes, definitely the shy Roberta. But six bridges, how cool is that? Exactly. Sounds like a stunning course.

00:11:06[crosstalk]

00:11:10Simon Mackley: I don't know if it was six bridges per lap or whether it was six bridges...

00:11:14Sarah Jefferson: Six bridges all up?

00:11:15Simon Mackley: Well, I was thinking, but... Yeah, I think actually she said two laps and six mini bridges, so it must be... Yeah, wow.

00:11:22Sarah Jefferson: Sounds like a great way to start the week, Simon, unlike all of us who've been slaving out at work today.

00:11:27Simon Mackley: Exactly.

00:11:28Sarah Jefferson: Yeah.

00:11:29Simon Mackley: Oh, we haven't had this adventuring to Europe for all these extra days.

00:11:34Sarah Jefferson: No, and just like TOC last year making us jealous with all of his adventures, I'm starting to feel it.

00:11:40Simon Mackley: Yeah, yeah. With all those Nordic events joining together this year, I think it's had the desired effect of spreading the load, which is good. Definitely. Because then we don't lose out on them in the future. Well, we may not lose out on them in the future.

00:11:53Sarah Jefferson: Yeah, it's more sustainable.

00:11:55Simon Mackley: Exactly. Staying in Europe, we actually had an update from parkrun Global on France. So, as I'm sure you're aware, that France has been on hold for quite a while. So, There's been some recent updates published by French Athletics Federation and parkrun have unfortunately concluded that parkrun events in France will remain suspended for the foreseeable future. They've said, we know that this decision will be extremely disappointing for many people and therefore we wanted to publish a full and detailed update on our position and the reasons that justify it. So we'll share the link to that full comms in the show post. But some of the things I took out of it was that they'd sought advice from both French and UK based legal representatives about what the changes were entailing. It still seems that you need a valid medical certificate to be presented before running at parkrun in France. They're still considering it to be an athletic event. And had there been an incident, this would have put way too much risk on the volunteers and parkrun themselves. So it wasn't, it isn't to go ahead at this stage. So, I mean, I know that the community in some of the parkruns are still meeting up, both to run and for the park FAF and that sort of thing. So that's amazing, but officially it is on hold.

00:13:29Sarah Jefferson: And I think that was great to read. I didn't read all of the official comms as well, but I was pleased to see that the community were still meeting up and they were still growing for croissants and coffee after. And as we know, for most of us, it's community that parkrun is all about. So hopefully it's still, even though it's unofficial, hopefully it's still serving that purpose for those people in those communities.

00:13:51Simon Mackley: Yep.

00:13:52Sarah Jefferson: So I feel quite lucky. I was over in, I had a look back in my app and I was there in 2019 on the 13th of July and managed to get a parkrun in France, which I feel quite fortunate for. But yeah, I'm pleased. The community thing, I think is a big, big thing that it's great they're still doing that. Yeah, definitely.

00:14:16Simon Mackley: And I noticed in there, yeah, like the communication was really good. It was very clear as like, There was a lot of information there, but it was very clear as to what was going on. Yeah, I thought it was really well done.

00:14:31Sarah Jefferson: Well, that's great to hear that communication has been transparent and out there. That is refreshing to hear.

00:14:36Simon Mackley: That's exactly right. Exactly. Yeah, I've got to say that if it wasn't Tom Williams, it was someone else who has heeded the advice that we've all been feeding back recently. Which is good. Yeah, exactly.

00:14:47[crosstalk]

00:14:52Sarah Jefferson: All right, well, before we throw to the roving reports, I just wanted to give some feedback to Calum Burrell from last week. I really enjoyed listening to your roving report and slipping in some Eurovision banter, certainly been missing from the pod, and a great interview with Deborah. And I actually hadn't heard about the Bailey Club, so I really enjoyed hearing all about that as well. So yes, Calum, it's a yes from me. I'd love to hear more, um from you over in the UK yeah I think you did a really good job and I was the same I knew of a club but I didn't know it was called the Bailey club um and Deborah just seemed so passionate and yeah and that's something it was a shame that she'd never heard of us maybe now that she's been interviewed she'll start listening that's right listen to herself and then keep on listening after that yeah so and I think the the first time um with your roving report I think that's always the hardest you know once you've done it once then you just keep on going so I look forward to more in the future, Calum.

00:15:50[background music]

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:15:53Sarah Jefferson: So on that note, it's now time to throw to this week's sweater of roving reports.

Roving report Lyndell Murray — Glass House Mountains Conservation parkrun

00:16:06Lyndell Murray: G'day parkrun adventurers, it's Lyndell and today I am on the lands of the Cubby Cubby people just north of Brisbane at Glasshouse Mountains Conservation Park, parkrun or just parkrun?

Talking to Phil — Run Director, Glass House Mountains Conservation parkrun

00:16:20Phil: Just parkrun.

00:16:20Lyndell Murray: Yeah, okay.

00:16:22Phil: We're going to possibly change it because up until about six months ago we were the longest named parkrun in the world. And then with 31 letters, someone overtook us. So if we add it and make it Glasshouse Mountains Conservation Park parkrun, we'll get it back.

00:16:39Lyndell Murray: Oh, you heard it here first, parkrun adventurers. A little parkrun just north of Brisbane going for a world record. Now, I have been to this parkrun before. I came to your launch five years ago. It's your birthday today.

00:16:53Phil: Apparently. Apparently it is, yeah. We were a little bit slack and we didn't realise until about six o'clock this morning I noticed someone put a post on saying it was. So yeah, yeah, it's five. So it initially started out at Woodford and then they closed that one down. It was a very high, you needed a lot of volunteers there. So they moved it out to here and yeah, we've been here ever since. Yeah.

00:17:16Lyndell Murray: That was the one at the showgrounds, yeah?

00:17:17Phil: That's right, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, so this has been here for, yeah, five years now, and it's, yeah, a nice little one. Very nice, as you know. As you've seen, it's a really nice track. A lot of little bits of rainforest out there. Best marshalling position in the country, I would say. Where you marshal, there's palm trees and all rainforest. I had a whipbird down there with me this morning, so, yeah.

00:17:40Lyndell Murray: All right, so you were marshalling today out at the turnaround.

00:17:42Phil: Yes, yes.

00:17:43Lyndell Murray: And you're also a Run Director here. Tell me a little bit about your journey with parkrun and how you got involved.

00:17:50Phil: Well, pretty much a friend of mine got me involved in 2014, so it was 10 years this year, at North Lakes. Started at North Lakes. I think there was... I was probably one of the only ones in the area, really. And then I... The Caboolture one started, so I changed over to there. Central Lakes. Central Lakes, yeah, yeah. Met up with some people from Caboolture Roadrunners there, so I ended up joining Caboolture Roadrunners as well. And then we started running through this area, because as you see from the sign over there, if you saw that coming in, there's three trails in here, and the Caboolture Roadrunners run in here a bit. So from there, I found this parkrun, so I started coming up here.

00:18:31Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:18:32Lyndell Murray: Brilliant. Now, the Caboolture Road, we'll get back to this parkrun in a moment, but the Caboolture Road runners, I'm going to put you on the spot here. I see them around at lots of different parkruns. They tend to do a bit of adventuring. Do you do any adventuring?

00:18:46Phil: Yes. Yeah. So even though we're Caboolture Roadrunners, it's probably there's a lot more trail stuff going on. So, yeah, we're always really involved in the Blackall 100. And we've always got people in like the Noosa, the Noosa.

00:19:03Lyndell Murray: The Noosa Ultra Trail.

00:19:05Phil: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then there's a few marathons. We've got, you know, people are in the Brisbane Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast are really popular. We have the runners do those as well. But we do a lot of trail stuff, yeah.

00:19:16Lyndell Murray: And a lot of parkrunning. Have you been to many different parkruns?

00:19:19Phil: Yeah, I'm up to 40-odd, I think. I do like touristing a bit. Makes it a bit hard being a Run Director here, though, to do that, because you're either Run Director or volunteering most of the time. As you know, there's small parkruns like this. But, yeah, I get around a bit. I've only got D and T to get for my alphabet. All right. So I'm working on that.

00:19:41Lyndell Murray: Working on that. And any highlights from your adventuring? Do you have a top three parkruns that you visited?

00:19:47Phil: Yeah, last year we did one in, we've done a few in Africa, my wife and I. We did one in a game park last year that was basically there was wildlife in amongst the parkrun. So yeah, it was good. Yeah, very hot and dusty though. Eight o'clock start, 30 degrees. That was a tough one.

00:20:07Lyndell Murray: And with the wildlife, that would absolutely have to be a highlight. Now, getting back to Glass House Mountains Conservation parkrun, as we said earlier, it's an out-and-back through the forest. Best marshalling spot in the world. You heard it here first. If you're looking to do some volunteer touring, this is the spot to go. Is there anything else that you would like the parkrun adventurers to know about this little parkrun? Yeah.

00:20:31Phil: So it's also on the old rail trail. So there's only a few parkruns in Australia that are on an old rail trail. So we're certainly one of those. So you're basically running two and a half k's downhill because this part of the rail trail comes up the D'Aguilar Range. So you're pretty much running downhill, for two and a half Ks and then two and a half Ks back. So when you're Marshall, you'll sometimes see people getting down there at like eight minutes or nine minutes thinking it's going to be a good time, but you come up and they're in the 22 or something like that.

00:21:03Lyndell Murray: And they're still puffing by the time you get back from Marshall. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:21:05[crosstalk]

00:21:07Phil: This is a tough run back, but no, it's very good.

00:21:10Lyndell Murray: Brilliant. And now we're about to go for coffee. There's a couple of, this parkrun is situated in amongst a few different communities here on the D'Aguilar Highway.

00:21:19Phil: Yeah, so you've pretty much got Wamuran to the east and then pretty close to D'Aguilar to the west. A lot of the locals are from Woodford as well, which is a little bit further out west. So, yeah. But yeah, there's a few different cafes. If people are heading back into Brisbane, they'll go to, you know, CJ's or something. But there's a little one out here that we normally go to. Yeah.

00:21:42Lyndell Murray: That sounds like a plan. I might call it a wrap so we can go for coffee, Phil.

00:21:46Phil: Yep.

Roving report Alison Fraser (King) — Tokoinranta parkrun

00:21:46Phil: Sounds good. Let's go.

00:21:47Alison Fraser (King): Kia ora koutou adventurers. It's Alison here. And today I am coming to you from a completely different European time zone. Do you remember how last year TOC went on a great adventure and caught up in the special days in Denmark and Sweden? Well, I am now in Finland for their special day. After last year with the completely different special days in Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland, parkrun have changed the Nordic special day so they all now celebrate on Ascension Day, which this year fell on Thursday, May the 9th. And so I travelled over from the UK to Helsinki and I'm going to be going to Tokoinranta parkrun. I'm sure I'll get the proper pronunciation on that later, but just, yeah, just checking in before I head on down there. It's looking like a lovely morning. It's about six degrees outside. I think for parkrun time, it's clear, not too chilly, but let's just see how it goes. [Te Reo Maori: "Hello / greetings to you all, adventurers (koutou addresses three or more people)"]

Talking to Oskar — Run Director, Tokoinranta parkrun, Helsinki, Finland

00:22:57Alison Fraser (King): I'm here with Oskar, who was our Run Director for this morning. So welcome on to the parkrun adventurers, Oskar.

00:23:03Oskar: Thank you so much for having me. Really excited to talk to you.

00:23:05Alison Fraser (King): How does an Englishman end up being a Run Director of a Finnish parkrun?

00:23:10Oskar: That's a great question. I'm a PhD student here, so I moved here to study in Finland. I'm doing paleontology, so I moved over here to do my phd and when I moved I thought hey you know what uh parkrun is the best place to build a community here I started coming um I'd done a few events in in England with with my parents but um I came here to to meet people to get involved in the community um did about 50 runs volunteering running and then eventually started uh doing the doing the journey so far can you tell us how we actually pronounce this parkrun because I'm sure I've butchered it already well I mean my finnish is not good but I say and that has never been shouted at before um it's I appreciate it's not not maybe the easiest but we it's probably easier than the other bay we run around which is

00:24:14Alison Fraser (King): And today with Ascension Day, before I came out this morning, I looked at the record attendances for this parkrun. So your record attendance was set last year, 168 on Ascension Day. How'd you go today?

00:24:27Oskar: Well, we think it's 297. We haven't processed the results yet, but as far as I can work out from the Barcode Scanners, 297. So not quite the 300, but it gives us something to work towards next time. And we've absolutely smashed our attendance record. So unless Tampere has had a bigger week than us this week, we think it's the biggest parkrun ever in Finland.

00:24:49Alison Fraser (King): It's amazing.

00:24:49Oskar: So we're really chuffed with that. And it goes to show how many people want to come and do parkrun with us, can you just give us a quick a brief description of the course like you gave us in the run direct run run report oh what's it run brief yeah absolutely no I understand um so the course is it's an out and back course around two bays so where we're standing right now is uh Tokoinranta bay um Beautiful, a patch of water looking over the train tracks and some of the old sites of the city. We run around that, up a little bit of a hill. A few of the tourists complained about the hill this morning. Across the train tracks and then down a hill and around another bay, Turunlati, all the way around, reach the U-turn, turn around and do it all again. I think it's a difficult course to get lost on but we did have a couple today so But they came back. They did. They did came back. We managed to we managed to hold fire on the Tail Walker. We got everyone through. So everyone, I think, has ticked off their finished parkrun this morning.

00:25:03[crosstalk]

00:25:56Alison Fraser (King): Awesome. And you say you run over the train tracks. I'm just going to clarify. It's a bridge. Yes. Sorry.

00:26:02Oskar: Yes. Sorry. We're not we're not crossing the rails. Yes. It's a little bit of a it's a it's a bridge over the train track. A little bit. That's why we have the hill.

00:26:09Alison Fraser (King): Yeah. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Oscar. And let's go get some coffee.

00:26:12Oskar: Yes, absolutely. I need a coffee.

Talking to Nicola — parkrun YouTuber ("Nicola Runs") and With Me Now podcast contributor

00:26:17Alison Fraser (King): With me now is a popular parkrun adventurer and one who does some amazing videos. So, so lovely to see you, Nicola.

00:26:26Nicola: Hello, Alison. I'm so excited to be here and so excited to meet you. I cannot believe we haven't met in real life. It's blown my mind.

00:26:33Alison Fraser (King): It's amazing.

00:26:34Nicola: Yeah, well, I thought we had, but it's the power of social media.

00:26:37Alison Fraser (King): It is. And I knew you were going to be in Finland, but didn't know where and saw you this morning. So, yeah. And where are we, Alison? We are... I believe it's Tokoinranta parkrun. Tokoinranta? I don't know.

00:26:43[crosstalk]

00:26:50[crosstalk]

00:26:52Nicola: We don't know, do we? We're in Helsinki, let's say that. We're in Helsinki.

00:26:55Alison Fraser (King): What did you think of that parkrun?

00:26:57Nicola: Oh my goodness. It's beautiful, isn't it? And for being in a city centre, it's just amazing. Running around the bays, but also right next to the train lines. So much to see, so much nature. And what a parkrun buzz this morning.

00:27:10Alison Fraser (King): It was. And I'd looked before I came out. The previous record here was 168 parkrunners. Can you tell me about your token this afternoon?

00:27:18Nicola: Oh, well, I was number 279 and it was a paper barcode printed out. So, yeah, we've obviously smashed their attendance record, but they were ready for us.

00:27:28Alison Fraser (King): Yeah, totally ready. Didn't feel like almost 300.

00:27:31Nicola: Oh, do you not think? No. I think it did at the start. The parkrun buzz was second to none. It was like, yeah, we're here in Finland, Ascension Day. Just, yeah, the buzz. And I felt like it was 500. You know, the levels of excitement were high, weren't they? Yeah.

00:27:48Alison Fraser (King): Does this go in your top five?

00:27:50Nicola: Oh, you can't ask me that. Right now, in this moment, absolutely. I think there's probably about 20 in my top five, so there is room for it, yeah.

00:28:01Alison Fraser (King): And I know that you were running around with your camera, so do you want to just mention your YouTube channel?

00:28:06Nicola: Oh, yes, shall we have a shameless plug? Yeah, I will do the video for Nicola Runs, so check out Nicola Runs on YouTube for parkrunadventurers. But also I'll be chatting about it on the With Me Now podcast.

00:28:19Alison Fraser (King): Yeah, awesome. Thank you very much. And just mentioning your YouTube channel, I re-watched the Yarborough Leisure Centre parkrun visit recently because I was there a couple of weeks ago and made sure to go and get some ice cream afterwards.

00:28:33Nicola: Yes. Oh, it was so good, wasn't it? It was.

00:28:35Alison Fraser (King): We went twice.

00:28:37Nicola: Did you? Oh, you did it even better than we did. You see, that's proper adventuring.

00:28:41Alison Fraser (King): Yeah, so onward to your next adventures.

00:28:43Nicola: Yes, so we've got an overnight ferry to Stockholm and then we're running Haga parkrun tomorrow. So I'm sure it'll be tomorrow on Saturday. What day is it? The time difference and the lack of sleep is getting to me. We only arrived in the early hours of this morning. But yeah, can't wait for Saturday. And I'm sure the buzz will be much the same as today. Lots of tourists, lots of excitement. It's what we're here for, isn't it? It's why we adventure. So thank you. Thanks, Alison.

00:29:12Alison Fraser (King): And that's a wrap from Tokoinranta parkrun, my first parkrun in Finland and my first parkrun on a Thursday. So I'm going to go and get on a train and do it all over again on Saturday. So I'll see you with a report from there.

Roving report David Messenger — Ridley Place Foreshore parkrun

00:29:26David Messenger: Hello, fellow parkrun adventurers. This is David from Western Australia. Today I have travelled two hours south of Perth to Australind to attend my 49th different WA event, at Event 6 of Ridley Place Foreshore parkrun. They've been getting attendances between 100 and 130 runners each week since starting. I will talk to the event team and other runners after my run. Well, the run's now been done. That's my 197th location and my 49th in WA. It's an interesting course. It's about two thirds on concrete and one third on grass. You start off and you do a U-shaped loop on the grass just to make up the first kilometre. And then there's two loops, sort of two thirds on concrete and one third on grass. And then you come through the finish where you started. And it also turns out that I've sort of gate crashed a frond. Sarah Jefferson and about four or five other parkrun adventurers are here. So I've accidentally joined a frond. And Sarah tells me that she'll be the host of next week's podcast. So that's something interesting. I'm here with Tony Robertson, who's the Run Director for this event and also the Event Director. And he's going to tell me about his parkrun story and also how this event was set up.

00:30:50Tony Robertson: Tony. Good morning. Yeah, so Tony Robertson, I'm from Australind in WA. And yeah, probably six months ago, I decided to try and start up a local parkrun here in Australind, been a bit of a journey it took took six months which they tell me is is pretty fast in the grand scheme of things but yeah there was a few hiccups along the way but we got there and it's it's all we just had our sixth event this morning and 108 people so good turnout yeah so we've we've averaged um I think first event was 131 129 and then it's been yeah between 120 sort of 130 yeah

00:31:30David Messenger: And you said to me that it was important when you set up that you set up your own sort of group first to try and get a core group of people together.

00:31:38Tony Robertson: Yeah, correct. So I thought probably the most important thing is to have the volunteers to make it work and to generate the interest. I created a Facebook page and just called it Australind Runners and put it onto the local community pages. So that generated some interest there and then said, let's meet on a Monday and Wednesday night down at the... Ridley Place Foreshore Park, you know, 5.30 or 6 p.m. So we all started gathering and doing a walk and run on those nights. And from there started discussions on starting up the parkrun with different people, getting ideas and then heading off to, on Saturdays, going to the Bunbury parkrun, talking to Kathy, the Run Director, Event Director there, getting some ideas and things like that.

00:32:32David Messenger: Are they very helpful?

00:32:34Tony Robertson: Oh, they were extremely helpful, yeah. They showed me all their documents and provided them to me and I sort of volunteered in most of the roles there to get a feel for what you have to know and do so I could help out people once we started.

00:32:48David Messenger: Yeah, your volunteers today were all really positive. They were easy to talk to and they were all happy and smiling and everything went well, so a well-run ship.

00:32:55Tony Robertson: Yeah, look, I've got a core group now, probably 15 or 20, and everyone's really helpful. Yeah, they're all really cheerful. They turn up each week and we're getting a flow through. So on the table where they hand back their barcodes and things, we have the roster there for the next week and try and generate some support. So we're getting that flow through.

00:33:18David Messenger: of the core 15 or 20 we're also probably got another 10 that put their name down and you know do it from you know every every few weeks or whatever yeah and you're still getting first timers coming out there was a couple of ladies that I was talking to who had done their first parkrun and they were really happy that there was a Tail Walker and the Tail Walker was engaging conversation with them so there's a few more positive people that may be coming back and found the parkrun journey

00:33:44Tony Robertson: Yeah, we seem to be getting a lot of first timers from our local area, which is really good. That was sort of what I wanted is to include the walkers as well as the runners and things like that. So to try and generate that interest within the community to get out and do some exercise and meet others and, you know, form friendships and, you know, engage with each other in the community.

00:34:08David Messenger: And you were saying that apart from just understanding all the rules you had to abide by for the actual course, was there a challenge in the initial time in terms of trying to work out what the course should be or just trying to make things fit away from roads and away from car parks?

00:34:26Tony Robertson: Yeah, I guess, you know, I come into it, as I was saying to you before, is pretty naively thinking, you know, here's a good course. This is where we're going to run from. This is, you know, this is how it's going to work out. But, you know, the parkrun booker rules are there to make it safe for everyone. And I agree totally with that. But that sort of clashes with the reality on the ground. And then when our event ambassador came down and had a look at what we thought we'd run, realised that, you know, you can't run along paths right alongside of the road or through car parks and across boat ramps. So that sort of made us have to come back and rethink And we sort of walked through some areas we thought we could run and looked at different areas as well. But we kind of landed on the park we're currently in, the Ridley Place foreshore park. But it requires us to sort of do a couple of laps of that and go to a nearby road along a path where the path isn't right alongside the road. So we've managed to make a pretty good course.

00:35:32David Messenger: we're sticking within the rules and the rules are there so people aren't hurt so that's good yeah you made good use of the available space that you've got and when you went off and did your research I agree I've been to other parkruns that don't seem to comply with those rules but that was they all set up five years ago so the rules are there for everyone's safety but it's also unusual when you see other parkruns that have courses that don't seem to comply but yeah

00:35:58Tony Robertson: Yeah, I agree with the stringent rules that they've got because ultimately you want it to go for a long time and you want it to be safe for everyone. So good rules. It's just what we probably will do in the future for our parkrun is work with the Shire on getting some paths moved away from roads and around little car parks along because our parkrun is along the estuary here in Australind and so it's a beautiful place to run and so the path goes alongside the estuary so we can move there is a bit of space on the grass where it can be moved away from the road a bit and around the car park so in the fullness of time we'll probably resubmit a risk assessment and the paperwork and have like an out and back two and a half k's rather than sort of two and a half laps and sort of hemmed in a little bit but it's still a beautiful place to run through the park and alongside the estuary and you said once you got past the initial stage of the council not really understanding what parkrun was about and the forms that they were supportive once they got on board Yeah, so it was a bit hard to sort of have the conversation initially because they wanted the form filled out before they sort of talked to you or anything like that. Once I got the form in and put in the, I submitted the map that I'd submitted to parkrun and the parkrun application as well so they had an idea. They were extremely supportive from that time on and, you know, their CEO turned up for the second event and said a few words and, you know, And they've been really encouraging. So it's been really, really good.

00:37:35David Messenger: Yeah, that's great. Yeah. And you said you managed to get one sponsor to essentially for the fundraising.

00:37:40Tony Robertson: Yeah. So there's a local company. So Simcoe Operations here in Kemerton near Australind. And they come up with the entire seven and a half thousand, which was really, really good.

00:37:52David Messenger: Yeah. That's excellent because that's certainly one of the hurdles that lots of people face trying to scrounge around small amounts of money to get that initial start up.

00:38:00Tony Robertson: Yeah and we had their management come along to the first event and say a few words which was really good.

00:38:05David Messenger: And how about you? What's your parkrun journey? What got you started on parkrun and what's your goals now that you've got your own event set up?

00:38:13Tony Robertson: Yeah, so I sort of do my own running. I'm a bit of a solo runner, long distance runner. Got into sort of trying to do a few ultra marathons and things like that at Margaret River, that sort of thing. I've been sort of interested in getting people out running rather than solo type work uh solo running so I've been thinking about starting up like a local running group and things like that and then um I was over in singleton a couple of years ago and I was there last june and I went to the singleton New South Wales parkrun yeah so I've done that one too yeah yeah so it was really really good uh good people there you know the great event And I thought, well, this kind of fits with what I sort of envisaged doing. And, you know, it's getting people out that haven't run before or walked before as a group and, you know, just that whole community spirit type thing. So I figured I did my research, had a look online and sort of submitted the online thing to try and start the parkrun.

Talking to Tony Robertson — Event Director and Run Director, Ridley Place Foreshore parkrun, Australind WA

00:39:19David Messenger: And how about, this is a podcast for parkrun adventurers. Have you been to many other parkruns?

00:39:25Tony Robertson: Yeah, so the only ones I've done so far is Bunbury and run and helped out a lot there to learn the rope, so to speak. And I've been to Collie and they've got a really good event there and that's nearby. Obviously the Singleton one in New South Wales and I've done the one south of Fremantle.

00:39:46Oskar: Okay.

00:39:47Tony Robertson: Yeah, so which was really good because that goes along the beach and great bunch there. And they showed me how they run it as well. So everyone's been super helpful in the big parkrun family. I mean, it's such a good vibe. Everyone's happy and helpful and, you know, wants to help you start up.

00:40:05David Messenger: All right. Well, thanks for talking to me, Tony. I really appreciate it. And you've got a great event here. So congratulations on all the trials and tribulations you get here. But congratulations on getting your event set up.

00:40:15Tony Robertson: Thanks very much.

Roving report Melissa Ellis — Armidale parkrun

00:40:16Tony Robertson: Yeah.

00:40:17Melissa Ellis: Good morning, adventurers. You couldn't get rid of me that easily. I am out at Armidale parkrun. I am here with Rex Gream and Belinda Taylor. I will start with Belinda, giving us the traditional lands that we are running on today.

00:40:32Belinda Taylor: We are here on the Unawan People's Country.

Talking to Rex Gream — Armidale parkrunner and parkrun adventurer

00:40:35Belinda Taylor: Thank you, Belinda.

00:40:36Melissa Ellis: Now, good morning, Rex. Morning. We met you out at Palm this year, because I've met you previously at Centennial. We came to visit you. Thank you for being home. Oh.

00:40:46Rex Gream: Thank you for coming here.

00:40:47Melissa Ellis: Would you like to describe the course for the listeners?

00:40:50Rex Gream: Well, funny thing, it's 5K. It's over all different surfaces, grass initially when we run around the oval, a bit of trail here and there, and then bitumen and concrete. We've got a couple of little hills, especially the main one, which is about 40 metre elevation, but it's fun to come down.

00:41:10Melissa Ellis: And it's a good time of year to come to Armidale, I believe, because of the autumn colours. Yeah, you're most probably a week late. Story of my life.

00:41:20Rex Gream: But still cleaning around. Yeah, it's a great, it's a really good time of year to come to Armidale.

00:41:28Melissa Ellis: And you are an adventurer yourself. Would you like to tell us how many events you've done?

00:41:32Rex Gream: This is my 121st at 30 different ones.

00:41:35Melissa Ellis: Very good. So, and there isn't a lot of tourist opportunities for you close by. You've got to travel, don't you, quite a bit?

00:41:45Rex Gream: The closest one to us is Walcha, which is about 40 minutes down the road. And then we have the Australian Standing Stones that are now up going north, yes.

00:41:56Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I do believe Linda's been to visit you before here too.

00:41:59Rex Gream: A few years ago, except I was away at Fingal Bay when she was here.

00:42:02Melissa Ellis: Okay. All righty. So, okay, so a tourist, what is your top three that you've done?

00:42:10Rex Gream: Top three? Studley. Really?

00:42:13Melissa Ellis: Yay, great estate.

00:42:15Rex Gream: Absolutely love Studley. Stunning Studley. Yeah, especially going over that bridge first time. It's quite unusual, the feel of that going over when 100 different people are tramping along. And then second one is... One I did last week up in Tenterfield. Volunteers were just excellent. They were just superb. Very pretty up there, two lapper. And my third would be, I'd have to split it between Fingal Bay and Karkarook. Karkarook.

00:42:47Melissa Ellis: Oh, Karky Parky.

00:42:48Rex Gream: Yeah, Karkarook because my PB's there. Yeah, so...

00:42:53Melissa Ellis: Excellent. Now, this is a course that is part of an unofficial club, Dizzy Heights.

00:42:59Rex Gream: It is. It's this one plus Walcha plus Australian Standing Stones.

00:43:05Melissa Ellis: Would you like to explain?

00:43:06Rex Gream: They're the three highest altitude runs in Australia.

00:43:11Melissa Ellis: Which one's the highest?

00:43:12Rex Gream: Australian Standing Stones in Glen Innes.

00:43:16Melissa Ellis: Okay.

00:43:17Rex Gream: And then it's us and then Walcha.

00:43:18Melissa Ellis: So I've got one tick.

00:43:20Rex Gream: Yes.

00:43:20Melissa Ellis: Hooray. Well, thank you, Rex.

Talking to Belinda Taylor — Brisbane-based parkrun adventurer

00:43:23Melissa Ellis: Now let's talk to Belinda. Let me turn the phone around. Belinda, would you like to explain to everybody why we came to Armidale today?

00:43:31Belinda Taylor: So when Melissa said she was coming, we went, all right, where can we get in about a six-hour drive from Brisbane, an event that I hadn't done, and that is on iIndex. So first 100 events in Australia. Yeah.

00:43:45Melissa Ellis: Yeah, so I jumped off the plane into Belinda's car and we drove for six hours south. Yeah, south. Crazy, but we both had an adventure, didn't we? Yes, yes. Excellent. And have you been, you haven't been interviewed on the pod before, Belinda? Yeah, twice. Oh, you have? Yeah, both by Lyndell. Oh, there you go. And you came and joined us at Palm. You were my chauffeur. I was, yes. So it's probably a bit of a time since Lyndell interviewed you.

00:44:14Belinda Taylor: Yeah, I was in my 100 different events in a row challenge.

00:44:18Melissa Ellis: Oh, yeah, right. Okay, so excluding Palm because we've done that to death, what's been the most exciting parkrun adventure you've had in that time since? Since Palm?

00:44:31Belinda Taylor: No, since you were last interviewed on The Palm. Going to Walcha was quite an adventure. That was this time last year. So that was about an eight-hour drive for us from Brisbane. So staying in Armidale and then getting up very early to go to Walcha. Gosh.

00:44:48Melissa Ellis: You've got one booked. I know you do. Are you going to divulge that? No.

00:44:51Belinda Taylor: Oh, I can't. We'll keep it under my hat. We'll keep those things under wraps. Okay, no worries.

00:44:55[crosstalk]

00:44:56Melissa Ellis: There's a few adventures coming up, yes, that are booked this year. Okay, well, we're pretty lucky this morning. We've got beautiful blue skies. The start and finish is on sort of, is it local football or hockey ovals? We're at a university. We're at a university, yes. So I guess that means Armidale's part of the university challenge as well.

00:45:07[crosstalk]

00:45:14Rex Gream: You can tick it off, yes. Except it hasn't got uni in it.

00:45:18Melissa Ellis: It doesn't have university in the name. It's on a uni ground. Maybe Rachel needs to give us a recap of that club. We'll see if we can arrange that. Anyway, that's it from Armidale. Back over to you, Sarah and Simon. Thank you.

00:45:25[background music]

00:45:38Simon Mackley: And we're back from the roving reports. We have had so many reports from across the country and from Finland's Ascension Day. So we started off with Lyndell, who was returning to Glasshouse Mountain Conservation parkrun after five years. She was at the launch and she was speaking to Phil. We had Nicola from With Me Now as well, which was interesting, the crossover of the podcasts. So Alison ran into her at Toko in Ranta parkrun in Finland, where she also spoke to Oscar doing his PhD in paleontology. So he might be the new Ross from Friends. Then we had David at Ridley Place Foreshore parkrun, which you were obviously at. And he was speaking to ED Tony Robertson. So they launched about six weeks ago. And then we had Mel. So we couldn't get rid of Mel for the week. She had to put herself in there. Joking. Joking. She was talking to Rex, where he was sucking up to her with his love affair of Studley, and also talking to Belinda, who was returning to the pod after quite a while, and they were talking about her travels. And I don't think that you will be entering the university challenge, Mel, because it has to have, as Rex said, university in the name to be in that challenge.

00:47:01Sarah Jefferson: And yes, I need to make an apology to Tony Robertson. I think I referred to him as Tony Roberts before, but I've since looked it up. And yes, it is Tony Robertson. So apologies there, Tony. But yes, I did enjoy all of the roving reports as well this week, Simon. Ascension Day was actually on my birthday this year.

00:47:23Simon Mackley: This year?

00:47:23Sarah Jefferson: So, this year. So, imagine how amazing it would be to get a bonus parkrun on your birthday. But sadly, I couldn't get the time off work. And it's actually on the other side of the world, despite what Mel says, with Perth being on the other side of the world from Victoria. Finland is literally on the other side of the world from... Perth for Australia yeah so maybe another year but um it was still nice hearing about all of the the roving reports and hearing about the buzz of the day I'm actually yet to do well aside from the the bonus days in Australia I'm yet to do a bonus day overseas yeah so me too yeah keep hearing about it everyone keeps talking it up but maybe one day I'll get there in person goals Yeah, so earlier this year I actually did a roving report with Tim Franklin, who is still currently running around the world. So Tim has made his way across the nether ball and as of today, I actually don't have his location as of today, but I know it's his 535th day of running in a row. But most importantly, I'm happy to report that he has actually locked in his finish date back where he started, and that is at South Bank parkrun in sunny Queensland. And it's actually on Sunday the 30th of June. So he is running, obviously, around 50 to 52km a day, so I can appreciate that. It would be a lot of time to make up to get there for the parkrun on Saturday. Yep, but I'm sure he'll have lots of supporters there finishing with him and that will see him finishing 26,320 kilometres running around the world. So if, I know I've mentioned it before, but Timmy R Franklin is where you'll find him on Instagram. Do you think that you'll head out there on the Sunday, Simon?

00:49:16Simon Mackley: I would love to. Like I'm guessing that he's coming from the direction that I live. So if I can join up with him at some stage, even if it's, yeah, a couple of hours before he runs into Southbank, that would be superb.

00:49:31Sarah Jefferson: And just such an inspirational man to, the fact to just keep going, you know, just, I don't know, mental strength is just incredible with him.

00:49:43Simon Mackley: He's, yeah, certainly someone to aspire to.

00:49:47Sarah Jefferson: Definitely.

Dazza's

00:49:49Sarah Jefferson: All right, shall we head into Dazza's?

00:49:51Simon Mackley: We should.

00:49:52Sarah Jefferson: All right. So this week, Dazza said, roses are red, violets are blue. Dazza's in the kitchen making treats for you. Welcome. How was your parkrun morning? So out of 134 comments this week, we heard from Val Warwick from Tassie. The two old crocs had a lovely walk together at O'Connors Beach parkrun. The best bit was spending time with Ryan. So we had a frond of three. And as we know, that's Ryan Stoddard. And again, we're living through Ryan's parkrun adventure around Australia.

00:50:25Simon Mackley: Yeah, exactly. Knocking off everything in Tassie. We also heard from Jock or Jacqui O'Connell. So she said, hot chocolate, please, Dazza. The sun was shining at the stump, but it was a cool start to the day.

00:50:39Sarah Jefferson: And here I was thinking you said something wrong there.

00:50:42Unidentified speaker: Nope.

00:50:45Sarah Jefferson: it's Jackie on my end but anyway all right heading to New South Wales we heard from The Office Lady The Office Lady wrote Dazza I did things first I joined the Cowell Club at the prettiest parkrun Mosman but also second or also first at the same time bingo I got my last stopwatch number from 194 parkruns What a morning. Congratulations, Sam. Agreed. What a morning.

00:51:14Simon Mackley: Definitely. And a great place to get your bingo and knock over your Cowell at Sydney's prettiest three-lap parkrun.

00:51:24Sarah Jefferson: Definitely. And you're not biased at all, are you, Simon?

00:51:26Simon Mackley: Well, it's Sydney's prettiest three-lap parkrun. I'm not saying Sydney's prettiest parkrun. But, yeah, we'll move on. And next we heard from Alison Fraser-King from the Netherlands. She said, joined a frond at Zuiderpark, Den Haag, where I walked with Roberta Winters. We met at Palm last year and haven't seen each other until last week at Bokkenen. Completed my alphabet and compass club challenges, but stoked most of all by Axel choosing to walk with us.

00:52:00Sarah Jefferson: Awesome job, Axel, and congrats on those, Alison. We heard from Andrea Booth in Italy. Hi, Dazza. This parkrun day, I was treated to some Italian cake post-event at Roma Pineto parkrun. An added treat was having views of St. Peter's Basilica while we ran.

00:52:20Simon Mackley: Amazing. To see the Vatican, that would be awesome. Beautiful. Then we heard from Martine Barrot, all the way from New Zealand. She said, Andrew Johnston, Eric Banner and I ventured to Puarenga parkrun before heading home to Melbourne tonight. What a stunner of a course running through the geothermal.

00:52:39Sarah Jefferson: I think that I saw Martine put down it was the smelliest parkrun as well.

00:52:43Simon Mackley: I think that might have actually been Eric Banner that said that.

00:52:45Sarah Jefferson: Oh, Eric Banner. How dare I get that wrong? Yeah. You're right. You're right. We heard from Maria Wicks from the UK. I wore my new pink parkrun cap to Canons Park parkrun. It was my dad's Nendy and my second visit there. I got, of course, PB. As always, plenty of tea after. Thanks. Congrats on the PB, Maria.

00:53:07Simon Mackley: Yeah. We heard from Lance and Robin Plan. Is that how you say it? I think so. Okay. Said, hi, Dazza. Our adventures took us to Canning River parkrun for my eye index number. It was a fresh 19 degrees for the event. Then to brekkie at the on-site cafe with some of the locals. This appears to be their eighth WA parkrun in recent times, and we hope that they're loving their West Coast adventures.

00:53:35Sarah Jefferson: Well, the West Coast is certainly putting on the weather for them, that's for sure. From Queensland, we heard from Karina Campbell. It was a gorgeous morning at Wynnum parkrun. And the sunrise photo looked extraordinary.

00:53:50Simon Mackley: It sure did. Yeah, it must have made you jealous over there in WA to see such a great sunrise.

00:53:57Sarah Jefferson: Definitely, but our sunsets are quite good over here too. Yeah, no, I understand that, yeah. What goes up must come down, although the earth actually rotates, right?

00:54:06Simon Mackley: Well, not for flat earthers, but anyway, that's another story, right?

00:54:09Sarah Jefferson: Okay, it is.

00:54:10Simon Mackley: And we heard from Jonathan Morgan. He said, regain South Australia statesmen and South Australia volunteer statesmen. At Whyalla Foreshore parkrun. Well done, Jonathan.

00:54:23Sarah Jefferson: Getting both of those back. Congrats.

00:54:25Simon Mackley: Exactly.

the Obi Award — Sam Schroder (The Office Lady)

00:54:26Simon Mackley: Do you have the Obilope, Sarah?

00:54:29Sarah Jefferson: Indeed I do. And I can't believe Mel left this to me. Geez, Express Post luckily was quick from the East Coast this time. Normally it's not, but I have got the envelope.

00:54:42Simon Mackley: Let me take a photo of the Obilope. Okay, excellent.

00:54:45[background music]

00:54:49Sarah Jefferson: And this week's Obi goes to... ..the Office Lady! APPLAUSE

00:55:03Simon Mackley: Yay.

00:55:04Sarah Jefferson: Congratulations, Sam.

00:55:06Simon Mackley: Well done, Sam.

00:55:07Sarah Jefferson: Double achievement. A long time in the making. Congratulations.

00:55:12Simon Mackley: Exactly.

00:55:14Sarah Jefferson: All right. Shall we keep the celebrations rolling, Simon?

00:55:15[background music]

the Birthday Boy

00:55:17Sarah Jefferson: And with that, we'll throw to the birthday boy.

00:55:24the Birthday Boy: Howdy, it's the birthday boy here with some of the goings on for June of 2024. June is one of the lower populated months for events in Australia. Not really strange with it being the depths of both winter and the various football seasons. We only have 35 events with anniversaries this month, including one junior parkrun, Thorndon, in South Australia. They are turning four. What shall we highlight this month? Well, let's start with the anniversary reminder that events can celebrate what they like, when they like, so please check all details with the local source, i.e. their webpage and or their Facebook page. This is especially true for cakes, dress-ups, etc. We have five parkrun days this June, 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th, so let's get cooking. We have someone turning 12, it's Newy, in Newcastle, New South Wales, hitting the mark on the second weekend. That's a lot of new. We don't have any 1s this month, and only a single 2, Kirkdale Reserve, on the first weekend. It would be remiss of me not to highlight that the so-known prettiest parkrun in Australia turned 7 mid-month. I think we can guess where this is, eh Ingrid? And finally, let's highlight the rare fifth week of the month with two events having anniversaries. Charleys Creek is going to be five and Logan River parkrun is going to be 11. Now, if you don't immediately know where these named parkruns are, excellent. Your mission is to head to the event map on parkrun Australia and type in the location or the event name or put in a street, put in a town, Don't forget parkrun.com.au forward slash events. As always with our parkrun adventures, the parkrun cancellations page is a valuable tool. Check out parkrun.com.au forward slash cancellations. This is the official cancellation page and it contains information for the coming weekend plus two further weeks. So be sure to check it again mid-month. Well, see you next month for some more birthday boy banter and be sure to let Mel and Co know if you have any requests.

00:57:45[background music]

00:57:55Simon Mackley: And another great report for June for the birthday boy. I'm not sure that that event in Sydney is the prettiest in Australia, though. It might be the prettiest out and back in Sydney, but yeah, we'll see. Anyway, a lot of interesting things in there from the birthday boy.

Consolidated Club Report

00:58:17Simon Mackley: We will go on to the Consolidated Club Report. So the adventurers Consolidated Club Report for Saturday, 18 May. We had a total of 640 members. 456 took part on this date in nine countries across 240 locations. It is getting huge. That is growing. It is. In the UK, there were adventurers at 42 events, seven in South Africa, five in the Netherlands, two in the USA, and one in Germany, Italy, and Ireland. Locally, we had adventurers at 52 events in New South Wales, 41 events in Victoria, 39 in Queensland, South Australia had 14, pipping the West Side by two, which only had 12. Tassie had eight. The North Island had five, as did the ACT. The Northern Tree had three, and there were two on the South Island.

00:59:18Sarah Jefferson: The largest international frond was a frond of 12 at Zuiderpark Den Haag in the Netherlands, including Phil Olson, Darren and Lucille Pead, Heather Morgan, Ivan Neville, Claire Winnesick, Wendy Pierce, Penelope Theerson, Axel and Alison King, Roberta Winters, and Hilary Fraser.

00:59:42Simon Mackley: And we had nobody pilgrimage to Bushy this week. So hopefully that comes back again next week. There'll be someone, please. Largest fronds in Australia. So we had a frond of seven at Jeune Park in Queensland, where we had Steve Amour, Erica Leota, Ian and Catherine Greenstreet, Russell and Pauline Taylor and Gemma Kajewski. We also had a frond of six at Canning River in WA. So we had Lance and Robin Plan, Chris Jones, Chris Carville, Janet Changwony and Sharon McBlain.

01:00:23Sarah Jefferson: So remember that you can add the Adventurers Club as one of your five affiliations on your parkrun profile. All right.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

01:00:31Sarah Jefferson: Launches, Simon.

01:00:32Simon Mackley: Yeah. So we had four this week and none of them were in Australia. So the first one we've got here is Fort Road, U.K., So this event actually takes place in a closed facility. And this week it had six volunteers and 23 finishers were involved. So it's located in Rochester in Kent, which is near Leeds Castle, which is nowhere near Leeds. It's a male young offenders institution, which was founded in 1874. So it is 150 years. Yeah, wow.

01:01:09Sarah Jefferson: The second launch we had in Fulwell Quarry in the UK near Sunderland. This two-lap course on a multi-terrain trail around the perimeter of fields adjacent to the nature reserve. This is an undulating course with one sharp turn on each lap. The start and finish are in the same area around the disused car park at the entrance to the quarry. For their first week, 159 finishers, including seven first-timers, were supported by 18 volunteers. We also had a launch in the USA. So this takes the US to 79 events. So it was Veterans Park in the USA. Trenton in New Jersey welcomed parkrun with 11 first time ever participants amongst the 41 finishers. Seven happy volunteers organised the day. So this is around a two hour drive from Manhattan and 35 minutes from Philadelphia. Trenton is the capital city of New Jersey.

01:02:10Simon Mackley: And then we had one in Poland, which I'm going to probably murder the name of, which is called Las Majewski, let's say. So it's a one lapper around the city forest. They welcomed 131 people to the launch, 13 volunteers, sorry, there's 13 volunteers and 63 first time ever parkrunners. And very weirdly, five people were recorded as having completed the course previously. So I'm guessing, I don't know, maybe it's a Freedom Run or something like that. I'd say so. So it's located between Warsaw and Gdansk. Interesting.

01:02:53Sarah Jefferson: And thanks, Simon, for taking the lead on the ones with the tricky pronunciations. Someone was into the show notes and I noticed that my name was next to the ones that were all very tricky. So thank you for being the gentleman and standing up and taking those.

01:03:07Simon Mackley: No problem. Oh, TOC.

01:03:12Sarah Jefferson: TOC, I'm blaming you. All right. So just a reminder to sign up for, if you haven't already, to sign up for Run the World with parkrun adventurers as your primary club. Remembering our group is listed as parkrun adventurers or lowercase in case you're trying to find the group.

Sign-off

01:03:32Simon Mackley: Where are you going on your next parkrun day?

01:03:35Sarah Jefferson: Um, next parkrun day, hopefully my geography knowledge is looking after me and I'm actually going to be heading east and then north and I'm heading over to Fingal Bay parkrun. So I did have a look at the results and I know that there is an adventurer there, Fiona Mullen. So Fiona, I will have my adventurer shirt on. Um, if you're around, please come and say hi. So I've heard it's cold over there. I'm not looking forward to the cold weather. We've been very spoiled, but it will be nice to adventure. What about you, Simon?

01:04:10Simon Mackley: Well, I am doing something quite epic. I am going to be finishing my alphabet at Zillmere. I'll also be finishing Brisbane, which is the name I found recently for doing all of the Brisbane city events. And I'll be celebrating... The unofficial Dirty Cheater Day. Hashtag ears get cheers. So, yeah, my friend Dorota is coming up from Sydney and we are finishing our alphabet together.

01:04:38Sarah Jefferson: Nice. Sounds like a lovely day and a bit of a trifecta. There's three things celebrating.

01:04:42Simon Mackley: Indeed. Indeed. The Dirty Cheater Day might have been manufactured around it. But, you know, when you have some say, you can do these sorts of things, right? Perfect.

01:04:52Sarah Jefferson: And I think I did just hear an indeed.

01:04:55Simon Mackley: Oh, did you? Okay.

01:04:56Sarah Jefferson: That was one. That was only one though, right? Indeed it was, Sarah. Is that what you want to say?

01:05:02Simon Mackley: And guess what? We haven't said Voldemort parkrun at all.

01:05:05Sarah Jefferson: No, we have not. All right.

01:05:11Simon Mackley: So, as always, you can contact us via parkrun adventurers on Facebook or our email address, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. That's it for another week. We'll see you all next week for more adventures. And thank you for joining me tonight, Sarah.

01:05:25[background music]

01:05:28Sarah Jefferson: Thank you for having me.

01:05:31Simon Mackley: Bye.

01:05:31Sarah Jefferson: Bye.

Club Corner

01:05:37Rachel: This is an addendum to club corner number 34. The one where I talked about the Compass Club. It turns out that I can't tell time, and missed that we got a new West Point, back in December 2022 when Baxter opened in WA. I incorrectly stated that the westernmost point was still Marina, and I would have been correct any time between September 2019 and December 2022. Oops. So, in fact, in early 2024 in Oz, we have north as Nightcliff, south as Geeveston, east as Kingscliff, and west as Baxter. As you were. Dot dot dot.

01:06:05[outro theme playing]