Episode 385 - Ice Ice Baby

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

Welcome

00:00:23Tony O'Connell: Welcome to episode 385 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.

00:00:34Melissa Ellis: And I am Melissa Ellis and I'm coming to you from Wurundjeri Country. Are you still alive, Toc?

00:00:43Tony O'Connell: Mel, I'm still alive, I'm still upright, but my legs are awfully sore. I'm not sure why.

00:00:51Melissa Ellis: Oh dear, we're very proud of you. Would you like to let everybody know how you did at your first debut Backyard Ultra?

00:01:00Tony O'Connell: Well, my first Backyard Ultra was an awesome experience. I participated in an event called the Wild Dog Backyard Ultra in Lardner Park near Warragul in Victoria, and it was significantly hillier than I thought. The day started off really well, though, because... In last week's podcast, we had an interview with an RA from South Australia by the name of Kate Corner. And Kate was the RD at the Wild Dog Ultra. So the first thing I got was a big bouncy hug from Kate and then another hug from Kate on behalf of Janet. So I got two hugs from the South Australians. And we also had one of the other EAs, Maria Thames from Wodonga, was running in the event. So it was almost like parkrun events, on a Friday but um back at ultra is an unusual format you've you run 6.7 kilometres every hour on the hour if you're not in the starting box on the hour you're disqualified and you just run for as long as you physically can I got to 12 hours got about 85k or 84ks up um The winner, a lady from Western Australia, got to 45 hours and she got about 315 kilometres done. It was an amazing, amazing effort. She was running just so effortlessly. It was amazing to watch. So that great weekend. Thought we'd be going a bit deeper into the event, but finished a bit earlier. So Mel, I had time to get home and go to parkrun on Saturday as well. Of course you did. So we got home at about five o'clock on Saturday morning, a quick hour's sleep, up and down Inverloch to the stump. You crazy man. Yeah, so weekend complete, weekend tick, and then the rest of the weekend pretty much eating, drinking and sitting on the couch.

00:02:51Melissa Ellis: But how good is it it was won by a female and a West Australian? Those West Australians, they're into their backyard ultras, aren't they?

00:02:58Tony O'Connell: Yeah, look, the actual event was organised by Western Australians. Oh! A Western Australian company and a Victorian, Paul Pratt from Warragul, was the event organiser, but the company behind it is the Ultra Series from Western Australia.

00:03:11Melissa Ellis: But Kate Cornar was one of the race directors and she's a South Australian.

00:03:16Tony O'Connell: Correct. So two out of the four race directors were South Australians that had driven over for it that run these events. And Kate and the other lady couldn't wait to get to Warragul parkrun on Saturday morning. So they took off from the race and went and did the parkrun and they were two-twoing up. So... It was a great little thing and half the event team were all disappearing off to go to parkrun on the Saturday morning.

00:03:41Melissa Ellis: And that's a good lead into the fact that it was Tutu Day, something that is embraced in Australia, that when parkrun, of course, starts or falls on a Saturday morning, that when it's the 22nd, that did not come out in a full sentence. Can you say it better than me?

00:04:01Tony O'Connell: Mel, I was actually looking at one of the UK tourism groups, and someone asked, what is this two-two-day thing all about? Is it just something that happens in Australia? And a lot of people were jumping in and actually saying, no, no, this actually started in South Africa. And someone else said, oh, hang on, no, it started in New Zealand. And everyone's claiming two-two-day. What?

00:04:22Melissa Ellis: They're stealing our tutu day.

00:04:24Tony O'Connell: All I know is lots of parkrunners probably turned up to a park on Saturday either dressed in a tutu or looking at a heap of people running around in tutus wondering what on earth is going on today, wtf as you said any 22nd of the month um just an excuse to get in a tutu say yep after an hour sleep Jack and I rocked up to Inverloch in our tutus and I think there was probably eight or ten others there in tutus so yeah no it's a bit of a day all around the world now I do believe as well at your backyard ultra on yard 22 do they not run in a tutu for yard 22 They certainly do. It's mandatory to, if you get to yard 22, which is about 148 k's or something into the race, you have to wear a tutu for the 22nd lap.

00:05:18Melissa Ellis: That is crazy.

00:05:20Tony O'Connell: What, wearing the tutu or doing 22 yards?

00:05:24Melissa Ellis: Yeah, well, everything. No, the tutu's fun. It certainly makes for a nice, bright and enjoyable exhibition.

00:05:36Tony O'Connell: And Mel, sad day. How was your parkrun day? I believe you got to a new event today.

00:05:41Melissa Ellis: I did. So I did say last week that I was planning to head down and spend the night in the area and visit family. However, when you have a teenager, things don't always go to plan and she did not want to go. So instead I did the stupid o'clock drive leaving home at about 5 a.m. to head on down to Great Southern Rail Trail, Korumburra to regain my greatsmanship and uh in the great estate so I was pretty happy with that I thought that was uh synergy actually and complete my pooper scooper challenge now what is the pooper scooper challenge I'm glad you asked, Tony. It's just, now its conception was Helen Davis and it's because it's when you collect a whole heap of event number twos.

00:06:42Tony O'Connell: So we're after the number twos.

00:06:43Melissa Ellis: A heap of scooping. And I've got 20. I think Helen originally proclaimed that 20 would be the number. So that was my number 20. Event number two.

00:06:55Tony O'Connell: The Benchmark? And what did you think of the Great Southern Rail Trail course, Mel? Of course, it was a new event that launched a week ago. I was at the launch. I was fortunate to be their event ambassador and help them through. And great team there, very experienced. They've got a few members have joined. Things in regional areas tend to happen like that a little bit sometimes where... There's people driving an hour to parkrun and suddenly something new starts 10 minutes away and they just jump straight into it. So we've got a couple of Run Directors that have joined the team that have got a serious number of run directs between them. So yeah, great little bit of guidance there for the team as well. But what did you think of the course?

00:07:37Melissa Ellis: I liked it. It reminded me very much of Koonwarra. And you've mentioned to me already that is on the same rail trail in Koonwarra. There was a little bit of elevation, but it certainly wasn't anything too dramatic. So an out and back in each direction. Granitic sand is the surface, I do believe. Yeah, no, it's beautiful. Some views of, you know, green grassy, sort of countryside and there was even four cows standing at the fence of the paddock at the turnaround point so it was very picturesque and a lovely old railway station unfortunately surrounded by cyclone fencing at the moment but you did mention Tony that that is the intention is that that's going to be converted into a little cafe and some sort of art gallery so that's going to be a fantastic asset for the community and the parkrun.

00:08:34Tony O'Connell: It will be, Mel, and it'll certainly lift that area. I know in the last 12 months there were some old storage sheds and that that have been cleared out and they're going to make some more parkland in the area. So they're actually really working on that area at the moment. They're going to widen the rail trail through there. There's a couple of areas that are a little bit narrow. They're only, you know, certainly wide enough for parkrun, but they're going to be probably another metre or so wider and It's part of an overall rail trail that extends about 140 kilometres now from Nyora all the way down to Welshpool. And that's going to extend on to Yarram, so it'll be quite a significant rail trail for Victoria.

00:09:14Melissa Ellis: Yeah, and there was quite a few tourists that were in attendance as well, so lots of familiar faces. And a couple that I recognise from the Gippsland area that aren't – so Bill Barry, he was there. Yep. And Kate Luton as well. I recognised Kate from – is she Koonwarra or Inverloch or just –

00:09:34Tony O'Connell: Kate's from Inverloch and also RD's up at Grand Ridge and a little bit at Koonwarra. I had the pleasure of seeing them while I was running on Friday night. They actually drove over to Lardner Park and they caught up and gave me a bit of a cheer. And yeah, it was really nice at about nine o'clock at night when the... The mental demons were kicking in to have a few familiar faces there, giving us a yell.

00:09:58Melissa Ellis: Excellent. And I should say, Vicky Thompson as well, she is a Gippsland local, was also there doing the tail walking. But yes, I didn't hang around for brunch. I turned around and went back home because there was more things. Domestic duties we're calling, unfortunately, but that's okay.

00:10:18Calum Burrell: Every weekend can't be a party.

00:10:21Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:10:23Melissa Ellis: But we've got some more celebrations, if you like. Would you like to read out that, the next one?

00:10:31Tony O'Connell: Yeah, Mel, we had a number of emails and we'll get onto those a little bit later. But one of the emails that popped up was from one of our really good friends on the pod and one of our key organisers for this year's Palm. Yeah, came in and it's congrats to Eman on his 250th and on the birth of his baby Argo on the 5th of June. So Eman and Chris, it was great. But the email that came in said, Hey guys, hope you're all well. Great to listen to your previous episodes and hearing about your travels. Team Vergara has put touristing on hold for a month while we welcomed our second child, Argo, on Global Running Day. How apt. And for Eman, that is very, very apt. He made his debut appearance at South Toowoomba parkrun to celebrate my 250th parkrun milestone. Cake and champagne was enjoyed as post-run breakfast. Catch up with you guys soon. Eman and Chris. A great little picture of a cake with the green shirt on it and the 250th. Mel, I've got to ask, do you think it was Argo that was getting stuck into the cake and champagne?

00:11:39Melissa Ellis: I'm pretty confident it wouldn't have been Argo. And there was also, there was a second photo, Tony, too. There was the family of four with the selfie frame and the 250 top milestone picture as well. So coincidentally, I had already. Pretty noted in the pod notes to give a congrats to the Vergaras on both occasions. So, yeah, we're really happy for you guys. I did see the champagne bottle being shaken up a la racing podium style by Eman at the finish line and also saw that he did get interviewed by Robbie. Okay. Afterwards, which is traditional at South Toowoomba. So it looks like it was a fabulous morning out there for the whole community. Now, the next thing I wanted to bring up, TOC, was a Sportitude article that was shared with me. It was a really good article. I hadn't seen it before. It was dated, I think, the 21st of June. So it wasn't a reshare of something old. But it had a big write-up about some of the best parkruns in Australia. And it went into, say, you know, the best sort of beach ones or the best... scenic ones or you know there was all sorts of criteria but I thought I'd bring it up and it was nice to see that Shellharbour was actually mentioned in the article and stating that it does overlook the farm Australia's second best surf beach so I thought that needed another mention second only to Squeaky Beach in Victoria.

00:13:13Tony O'Connell: Mel, it follows on from previous Sportitude articles where they've spoken about the best parkruns in the capital cities, and that's always raised quite a bit of debate every time they publish one of these about, you know, is it the best? And naturally, everyone thinks their own events are best. This particular one was broken up into five categories, and it'd be interesting to flick through it, Mel, and just see how many of them you've actually completed. I know the first category was vineyards or vineyards, and they had Clare Valley and Ocean View. I think you've done Clare Valley.

00:13:44Melissa Ellis: Actually, no. I have stayed in the Clare Valley, and I did a Freedo, but I didn't actually complete that one. So, no. But I did look at that list, and I did notice. A couple of them are palm locations. Okay.

00:13:58Tony O'Connell: Yep, they had island locations. The two they called up were Kangaroo Island and Phillip Island, and naturally you've done Phillip Island. I've done both of those. You've done both of those. Coastal and Beach was Mount Clarence and Shellharbour.

00:14:11Melissa Ellis: Well, yep, I've got Shellharbour.

00:14:13Tony O'Connell: Trails, they called up Kate Reed and Nambour.

00:14:16Melissa Ellis: Yeah, done both. See?

00:14:18Tony O'Connell: done both and they did they did reference our our good friend fluffy in the article and spoke about the joy of meeting fluffy and I guess the um the randomness of the meetings and then they had Lakes and lagoons and the two they called up with The Entrance and Rockhampton I haven't done those ones but that could be that could be a list of potential palm locations for the future Tony I like some of those locations. I think it might be a good opportunity. If someone's got a list of really good ones, maybe they'd like to email in and give us a little bit of feedback on what they think of that list or if they can come up with some alternative ones. I know there's some cracking trail runs in Australia. I love some of their different trails, um I know there's plenty of options but certainly Kate Reed and Nambour certainly ranking my favourites um I've often said Kate Reed actually rates as one of my all-time favourite parkruns I love that it's a trail and it's a really runnable trail so you can really hammer around the course if you want it's on a mountain bike track so it's you know it's well formed it's

00:15:26Melissa Ellis: It's true single track, isn't it?

00:15:28Tony O'Connell: It is. And it's just a heap of fun. I enjoyed Kate Reed that much when I did. I actually turned around and did it a second time.

00:15:35Melissa Ellis: Yeah, no, I 100% agree with you. One thing I did notice from the article, though, when they were talking about Nambour and it possibly being one of Australia's hardest, it did reference a couple of other very steep parkruns, but there was no mention of Mundy. So I thought that was interesting because if it's a new article that's just been written, because Mundy Regional is... The hardest.

00:15:58Calum Burrell: Yeah.

00:15:58Melissa Ellis: It didn't get a mention there. And also realised that when Simon and I were talking about the animals, the most interesting animals we've seen on a parkrun course, of course, it probably would have been worthwhile to mention Fluffy at Nambour. Although we saw Fluffy on the morning of parkrun, we didn't see Fluffy on the course.

00:16:18Tony O'Connell: On the course, correct. Yeah.

00:16:21Melissa Ellis: No, but anyway, did you want to go on with the next...

00:16:25Tony O'Connell: Story. Mel, we had a parkrun story come in from Mark on Wagga parkrun. Wagga parkrun was privileged to have the tourist baton come from Sydney today and was handed on to a tourist from the Southern Highlands. The baton will be passed on to another tourist next week and continue its adventure around the world. Ross-on-Wye parkrun Tour. Hashtag. And so this is a baton, I believe, Mel, that's basically just...

00:16:51Melissa Ellis: travelling to random parkruns it's no set journey it just seems to have um they ask who's a tourist and pass it on or I guess it's been released to the wilderness now there was gold buttons going around a couple of years ago and I remember our friends on on um with me now discussing and I wonder is it one of those I'm not sure that might be a little bit of homework But Monty can tell us because that's his home parkrun, isn't it? Ross-on-Wye? That's where Monty's always posting his thumbs up. So I thought that was an interesting little connection there when I saw that. I want to be at that. I want to get that baton and be the tourist that takes it somewhere.

00:17:31Tony O'Connell: Mel, that could be a good – we're full of inspiration here today, aren't we? That could be a good little roving report for Monty to come back with.

00:17:40Melissa Ellis: Ooh.

00:17:41Tony O'Connell: Challenges out there.

00:17:43Melissa Ellis: He can send us some audio. Then we can hear his mysterious voice, the voice behind the thumb. Yeah. Anyway, yes, that was passed on to us from Marvellous Mark.

00:17:55Tony O'Connell: There's a little bit of homework from last week, I believe.

00:17:57Melissa Ellis: Thank you for doing my homework for me. That's very kind of you.

00:18:00Tony O'Connell: I wasn't going to say I was supplying the teacher with the apple.

00:18:07Melissa Ellis: Yes, you can, well, seeing as you did the work, I'm happy for you to read it.

00:18:13Tony O'Connell: The two bits of homework that you had last week, and we were actually driving up to Melbourne on the weekend, and we were listening to the podcast, and Jacqui said, there's homework. You've got to write this down and do the homework. The first one was Netherlands and how many events there are. Currently, the best I can find on a map is 24, and interestingly, that includes three of the letter Zs, which are fairly unique in the world, 1V and 1O. So they've actually got a lot of the difficult letters happening in the Netherlands.

00:18:47Melissa Ellis: Yep, there's a good six weeks holiday for you folks in Holland. It's one of the countries I really want to go to. I just find it really romantic with the windmills and the tulips and I'd love to go there.

00:19:00Tony O'Connell: Yeah, it's pretty cool. And the second bit of homework, we're talking about, you and Simon were talking about comrades and the up and down years and whether it starts anywhere near North Beach parkrun. So I've jumped in and done a bit of homework. So on an up year, which this year was, where the run goes from Durban to Peter Moritzburg, The Comrades Run starts at the Durban City Hall, and if you walk, it's approximately 3.1km from North Beach parkrun's start line. Wow. So it's less than a parkrun. It's a warm-up to parkrun.

00:19:39Melissa Ellis: So there was no reason why it wasn't as busy this year, because it was right there.

00:19:44Tony O'Connell: No, right there. In fact, it's actually much shorter to walk than it is to drive to the course.

00:19:50Melissa Ellis: Well, there you go. Interesting. Maybe more people have become tourists and they were off getting different events.

00:19:57Tony O'Connell: Yeah, possibly. And if you've done it before, maybe you're trying to pick one of the ones like Cannibal's Cave or something, one of those cool ones, or Piggly Wiggly or... I don't know. I don't know my South African geography. They could be a thousand kilometres away and nowhere in close.

00:20:15Melissa Ellis: Excellent. Thank you for that. Now... Here is another piece that would normally go in Dazza's, but I had to bring it up because we seem to have created Ocean Swimgate talk and this discussion. This came about after you and Andrew Yikman in WA exchanging ideas, um pleasantries about ocean swimming or or ice baths or whatever anyway Ryan said Risdon parkrun this week on my Tassie parkrun tour I was late listening to last week's podcast so when I heard Melissa was heading to Tassie last week to do Risdon Brook it was too late for me to change plans otherwise I would have joined jamel and he had this sad face emoji But Mel, if you were here this weekend, you could have joined me for a swim. Yep, all those post-parkrun swims happening over on the West Side by Sarah Jefferson and Andrew Yeatman with beautiful temperatures, hashtag West is Best, I was getting a little FOMO. I noted two podcasts ago, TOC in the Great Estate inviting Sarah down to swim in Vic, where it's much colder. While I've gone one better down here in Tassie, I joined 3,000 others in the annual nude solstice swim in the icy waters of Hobart yesterday. Incredibly invigorating experience, one that I'll definitely do again. Wow.

00:21:35Tony O'Connell: Well, I've seen some photos, and the photos are naturally taken from behind, and you do see a lot of behinds.

00:21:46Melissa Ellis: Yeah. Oh, what a shame that I missed that. You know, damn. Yeah.

00:21:52Tony O'Connell: I've also got to say that I've done a little bit of deep diving into water temperatures. And yes, Ryan takes the cake down there. It is considerably colder than Victoria. So I'm not even going to challenge that one.

00:22:06Melissa Ellis: Okay, Ryan's got the big kahunas.

00:22:10Tony O'Connell: The trophy goes to... Mel, in that water temperature, no, you don't have to... Dear me.

00:22:19[crosstalk]

00:22:19Melissa Ellis: Okay, changing the subject. Moving along now.

00:22:23Tony O'Connell: In other big news this week in the parkrun world, we spoke about Nicky setting the 1,000 volunteer benchmark a little while ago, and we have number two in the world has hit the 1,000 volunteers, Rory Marriott. He achieved that in Rendlesham Forest parkrun this week, and we'll have quite a bit more later. All I... Noted, though, was there was 195 finishers, but 43 volunteers this week. There's a huge number of volunteers. But we have quite a bit more on Rory and his milestone later.

00:23:00Melissa Ellis: We do. Now, something else that popped up in the socials that I wanted to mention was the name Isabel Batt-Doyle. And... her accomplishments so athletics Australia shared on the 20th of june that's our izzy Isabel bat doyle lowers her PB over 5 000 metres by almost 10 seconds to clock a stunning 14 49.79 to meet the Olympic qualifying standard in the distance for the first time the Tokyo olympian moves to number four on the Australian all-time list behind rose Davies Jessica Hull and benita Willis And that's hashtag Athletics Nation. That came to us, yes, from Athletics Australia. And, of course, Izzy Batt-Doyle is a former holder of the female parkrun record that she took on New Year's Eve 2022.

00:23:57Tony O'Connell: 2022 in South Australia.

00:24:00Melissa Ellis: Yes. Aldinga Beach. If my memory serves me correctly. So that's exciting. We're going to have a parkrunner to watch in the Olympic parkrun.

00:24:12Tony O'Connell: And Mel, that time of 14.49, yeah, most of us happy to get around half a parkrun in that time. That is flying.

00:24:21Melissa Ellis: It is phenomenal, isn't it?

00:24:23Tony O'Connell: Yeah.

00:24:23Melissa Ellis: Yeah. Good on you, Izzy. Sorry, I was just going to try and look at what she ran when she was at Aldinga Beach. So when she broke the female record at Aldinga Beach, she ran it in 15.25.

00:24:36Tony O'Connell: Okay, so 35 seconds quicker than two years ago. Yeah.

00:24:41Melissa Ellis: Might have had better conditions on the track than in the sun and the heat, but anyway. Alrighty. Okay, that's it.

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Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:24:51Melissa Ellis: Time now for us to have a listen to some familiar voices.

Roving report Calum Burrell — Rendlesham Forest parkrun

Talking to Rory Marriott — Second person in the world to reach 1,000 volunteer credits (V1000); Rendlesham Forest…

00:25:04Calum Burrell: Right, it is now lunchtime on June the 22nd and we're at the Wildberry Cafe. People are just setting off after the park faff that I'm here with man of the moment and that is Rory Marriott, or should it be Sir Rory Marriott? you today have been the second person in the world to become the V1000 and you've got your clothing wearing your yellow top and what other achievements have you done today to begin with because it's not only your 1000th volunteering occasion but there's other things that have coincided with today.

00:25:39Rory Marriott: Yes it's definitely I mean clearly the biggest thing from today is my v1000 and joining Nikki Clark in the v1000 club very exclusive at the moment with just the two of us but today was also my 50th volunteer credit for 2024 and the 100th time that I have received both a volunteer credit and a participation credit on the same day. So a couple of milestones, some of which are completely random and arbitrary, others are a bit more true milestones.

00:26:15Calum Burrell: And let me congratulate you on all of those, all the things and the arbitrary things, but most of all, it's absolute inspiration for you to be the second person in the world to get the V1000. But I think not only for that, I think also everything you've done in part for Unwilling. Also, there was a coincidence that today was an anniversary as well.

00:26:39Rory Marriott: Today was the 12th anniversary of the... First time that the original core team for Ipswich parkrun all joined together with several other custodians almost of Ipswich parkrun where we decided that we was going to launch it back in 2012.

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00:26:51[crosstalk]

00:27:00Calum Burrell: And Ipswich was the first in Suffolk, yeah?

00:27:03Rory Marriott: Ipswich was the first in Suffolk and... Technically speaking, it was my very first parkrun baby.

00:27:11Calum Burrell: And how many parkrun babies have you got? Can you remember them all? Don't ask me to name them all, but you were saying before about babies, grandbabies.

00:27:21Rory Marriott: Yeah, so I've got... I've been involved with 13 parkrun babies, two parkrun grandbabies and I've also got one parkrun great grandbaby.

00:27:35Calum Burrell: And just explain the great grandbaby one.

00:27:37Rory Marriott: So the great grandbaby one, the... Originally, one of the core team at Chelmsford Central parkrun then started a separate parkrun in Great Notley, which became one of my first grandbabies. And then he was also the ambassador for...

00:27:40[crosstalk]

00:27:56[crosstalk]

00:27:59Unidentified speaker: I can never remember his name.

00:28:02Rory Marriott: It's a parkrun in Markstay that it was his first parkrun baby, but my first... Great grandbaby.

00:28:12Calum Burrell: So you've got a massive parkrun family that you've helped to set up, and you're an essential part of this part of the world. It's the first time I've been to this part of the world, and what better way than to do it in its Rendlesham Forest, which I believe is the best forest parkrun...

00:28:30Rory Marriott: It is officially the most beautiful parkrun in the whole of East Anglia. And the reason that I have to say that it is officially the most beautiful is that for about the first 18 months, I was always saying it was the... prettiest parkrun in East Anglia. But then somebody else said it, which to my mind means it's now officially the most beautiful parkrun.

00:28:53Calum Burrell: Well, thank you for having us today and thank you for everything that you've done in parkrun World and that's on behalf of literally everyone in East Anglia and beyond. And you've brought everyone today. I believe it's a record attendance at Rendlesham Forest today.

00:29:07Rory Marriott: Rendlesham Forest. Because I noticed what was going on at the finish today where... A lot of the participants had hung around to clap me to the finish funnel. I changed from being parkwalker to the Tail Walker so that I would go through the funnel last. It was an absolutely brilliant sensation of seeing so many people just out and about, recognising the enormous achievement today of getting to my V1000.

00:29:38Pippa White: A little bit...

00:29:41Rory Marriott: overwhelming to a degree. I have shed a few tears today. I will probably shed a few more tears at some other stage. Probably not as many tears as I shed when I received the message from my all-time athletic superhero, Daley Thompson, who sent me a message to say congratulations on your 1,000 volunteers for parkrun.

00:30:06Calum Burrell: Fantastic. Oh, wow. You're getting messages from your hero, you're one of my you're my hero I have to say but uh absolutely fantastic occasion obviously another thing to coincide it on the 22nd to be a tutu day yeah to get it to get it on a tutu day everyone doing the tutus um I'll mention it now but also the great thing about this today we've obviously done this today your your birthday what's it when's your birthday My birthday is in February. And what day? 26th. My birthday, February 26th. Rendlesham Forest birthday.

00:30:46Rory Marriott: 26th of February.

00:30:49Calum Burrell: So a little bit of a coincidence there. You know I like my coincidences, and that's our little coincidence. So I had to come to Rendlesham Forest. Obviously, we could have gone on the birthday in 2028 on February 26th, but no. We might actually still come back and repeat then.

00:31:01Rory Marriott: I would. But just picking up on what you said about the tutus, I don't think I've seen an event have so many tutus.

00:31:10Calum Burrell: at the same time it was quite phenomenal how many tutors were on display today it was oh you you you were superb and you know thank you for getting everyone involved today thank you for everything you've done for the parkrun world but before we wrap this up This is the parkrun adventurers, they like to know their three favourite parkruns, so three moments, it doesn't have to be, what are your three moments, or even three favourite, anything that you think, let's have three of something that you, it's like you've got lots of babies, you can't choose between them all, I know you can't, but what are your free moments?

00:31:48Rory Marriott: I'm going to be traditional and go for my three favourite parkruns, just like everyone else. Not surprisingly, my favourite parkrun is Rendlesham Forest. My second favourite parkrun is Gedling parkrun which is up in Nottingham and the reason that I love Gedling parkrun is I absolutely love hilly parkruns. When I used to be a parkrun ambassador and was setting up courses If I could, I would involve the hill. When I first went to Gedling, I looked at the hill and just thought, yes, that's perfect. The RD that day then said, well, if you like that hill, look at the one behind you. And I just thought, wow, that is superb. And then my third favourite, and it's a new one for me for this year, is when I was on holiday in Australia in March, I had the great fortune to be Run Director at Ipswich Queensland and they were able to bestow that honour upon me because I was the original Event Director for Ipswich in Suffolk in the UK. So I can put it as a claim to fame that I am the only person that has ever been RD at both of the Ipswich's parkruns. Fantastic.

00:32:05[background music]

00:32:09[crosstalk]

00:33:17Calum Burrell: So I think if you were to give it another one, because obviously they do say you're not allowed at your home. It goes without saying, Rendlesham Forest is the best parkrun in East Anglia, as we've already pointed out. Is there another one in the last time, in the last kind of spanning over the years, anything else that Springs to mind?

00:33:25[background music]

00:33:37Rory Marriott: The next best... for me would be Valentines which was my original home event and the event where I started my event directorship program so it has to be Valentine's okay I think

00:33:55Calum Burrell: That wraps it up for me. I just want to say again, fantastic day. Loved all the tutus. It was a sea of colour. Paul gave you a little bit of applause as you came in, as you became Tail Walker, as you said. And it was a fantastic occasion. And congratulations again, Rory. And thank you for speaking to the parkrun adventurers today. Anything else you'd like to say to the parkrun adventurers?

00:34:02[crosstalk]

00:34:20Rory Marriott: I'm looking forward to seeing more of parkrun adventurers when I'm in Australia again next year.

00:34:26Calum Burrell: Fantastic. So look out for Rory when he's on his travels again. Thank you. Thank you, Rory. And that wraps it up for myself. One last thing to mention is, along with thanking Hilary, Rory's wife, who is Run Director today, and everyone in the core team and everyone who is volunteering today at Rendlesham parkrun. Rendlesham Forest started on the 26th of February 2022, so it was event 125. I'd say they broke their attendance record today. and it is a lovely forest run lots of trail a section where it goes on a little bit of sand so a little bit of a hill on with the sand there and it's only a slight incline to be honest lots of pine cones to negotiate uh fun uh forests trail route and has a little out and back section that you do along with a few loops it's kind of almost like first loop's slightly different to the second loop but so it takes in a little bit of different parts of the forest on as part of the run but yeah great event today absolutely superb and I think that remains for me to say thank you to everyone at Rendlesham Forest parkrun, Calum over and out

Streaky September

00:35:48Pippa White: Hello, Streakers. I'm either nine months late or just over two months early, but I thought I'd give a quick check-in. Depending on your hemisphere, we've either had the longest day or the longest night. In the UK, it seems we've waited forever to get towards summer, and now the nights are starting to inexorably get longer. I'm not quite sure I'm ready for this. So in a moment of feeling really grumpy and miserable about all of this and the fact I had to work this weekend, but I did get a parkrun in, I thought I would take one of my challenges back from last year or the year before and count five of my blessings. I ran parkrun today and afterwards I had the most amazing waffle. This was a really big pro. Then I went to work, but you know, I had parkrun and a waffle. It was Saturday the 22nd and I did my run in a tutu. I'm alive and I'm well enough to run. You know, I'm really lucky. I can run. I can get two legs, one in front of another. I can laugh and I can smile. I need to really do more of each of them. I am so very lucky and I forget this. I have amazing friends. And apart from the chap who mansplained the new smart metre for my water that he put in the other day, I'm actually on pretty good terms with most people at the moment. So that's really good. And finally, I'm still streaking and that's helping me stay sane and in the zone and happy. And a very, very, very last one, just for you to make you all smile and be happy and maybe give the new office team some work. I have my parkrun barcode as a QR code on a t-shirt and it's scanned this morning, which gave me an awful lot more pleasure than it really ought to have done having run around a parkrun course. So from me to all of you, happy streaking.

00:37:40[background music]

00:37:53Tony O'Connell: And Mel, it was great to hear from both Calum over in the UK with his interview with Rory. It blows me away that people can volunteer twice a week, but it's still like it's 10 years of volunteering twice a week. That's just an amazing, amazing record. And it was great to hear from Pippa again. Pippa's one of my favourite UK people. It was really good to hear her come in for a check-in and just reminding us that, yeah, sometimes it is worth looking for things to be grateful about. Pippa also popped into Dazza's this week and said a repeat, a glimpse of my tutu and afterwards a waffle of amazingness before going to work and shared a thumbs-up selfie with the Babbs Mill pop-up, and I've just got to find out where do you buy these waffles of amazingness Pippa sounds awesome is that going to be your fuel for your next ultra oh that could do it a waffle of amazingness maybe I get to like a lot more laps if I have a waffle of amazingness like a superpower you get a bit somebody riding in front of you with a bike and a dangling a waffle for you to chase Simon, there's the tip for your backyard coming up. Buy yourself some waffles of amazingness.

00:38:52[crosstalk]

00:39:06Melissa Ellis: I don't think that's Simon's strategy somehow. But anyway, somebody snuck into our show notes this week, TOC. They were trying to trick us again.

00:39:20Tony O'Connell: Yeah, Mel, I'm trying to work out where lions and hippos are, or in the zoo came from? What do you reckon? Who was it? Who was it? Own up. Hands up.

00:39:31Melissa Ellis: There's only two people it could possibly be, and it's Ollie, Stan, and they're having a giggle. But I don't even understand the context. Obviously, we were talking about the zoo last week and the animals.

00:39:46Tony O'Connell: Maybe it's Simon.

00:39:49Melissa Ellis: Is it in reference to one of Johan's roving reports? I don't know. Anyway, we nearly got tripped up, but we figured it out this week.

Dazza's

00:39:59Melissa Ellis: Anyway, I will go ahead and say this week, Dazza said, June the 22nd is World Rainforest Day. Maybe you enjoyed a run somewhere tropical, or maybe thoughts of a lush rainforest was all that got you through volunteering on a chilly winter's morning. Whatever your parkrun day held, come share your story at Dazza's, where the coffees and welcomes are always warm. And we started off with none other than Calum Burrell, who said, It was in a forest, but it didn't rain. Well, it did a bit during the park faff. We did Rendlesham Forest to celebrate the second person to join the V1000 Club, Rory Marriott. A superb achievement and a fantastic morning celebrating with lots of cake, tutus, colour, friends and a frond. A big thumbs up emoji from Team Burrell Eye. And there was two pics, one with Rory and Lindsay as well as one showing the full array of volley t-shirts from V10 to V1000, all from the core team including the V10, the V25, the V50, the V100, the V250, the V500 and the V1000. And Rory actually is the person that the Marriott Club was named after, in case you've forgotten, completing a volunteer at 100 different events.

00:41:18Tony O'Connell: Mel, even completing a volunteer at 100 different events would be an amazing achievement. Our second person that we heard from this week was Christine Imbert. And Christine this week has travelled across to the Netherlands. Netherlands are getting lots of airtime on this week's podcast. Tail Walker at Zegerplas in the Netherlands for my fifth Z, only 35 participants with the majority being tourists from the UK, two from Melbourne and two local first timers. Lovely parkrun with an out and back route along the shores of the lake in Zegerplas Park. And Christine posted a photo with the Zegerplas pop-up in front of a lake with two thumbs out. And my homework should have been to find out who the two tourists from Melbourne were. I was just thinking that. Didn't even think of it.

00:42:06Melissa Ellis: Okay, well, while I read Johan's, you jump over to the Consolidated Club report. Use the technique I've taught you. And next we heard from Johan Duvenhage from South Africa. Suid-Afrika. And he said, I joined Gillian Findlay, Jenny Saunders, Peter Duplisse and Philip Pretorius venturing out to break new ground at Terra Nova parkrun outside Trichardt in Mpumalanga. Well, that sounds umpilumpa, doesn't it? it is a very well organised event with a super friendly and efficient team and he had the thumbs up emoji to jillian who did her 250th southern african event today and I am working on getting Peter to sign up for the Adventurers Club as he is a listener with the clap hands emoji and there was a picture of five people in the Terra Nova cutout with four thumbs up So well done flying the adventurers flag over there in Suid-Afrika. [Afrikaans: "South Africa"]

00:43:13Tony O'Connell: Mel, coming back to the great estate, we had Andrea Booth. Hi, Dazza. This morning I celebrated Jells parkrun's ninth birthday with tutu dress-ups. Loved running around this suburban park full of trees and birds. And Andrea is in one of those awesome multicolour tutus and displaying the big thumbs up.

00:43:35Melissa Ellis: Hurrah! Now, we also heard talk from Heather Mulgan over there in the UK, and she said, Beautiful and brutal Durlston Country Park parkrun in Dorset on the southern coast of England. Views are breathtaking. And so is the elevation. Britain's hilliest at 700 feet of elevation. So pleased I got here. Happy to never do it again. And the Belinda Fairy would say, that's a one and done. And there was a selfie. Selfie? There was a selfie of Heather with the Durlston Country Pop-Up.

00:44:09Tony O'Connell: Beautiful. Coming back from the UK all the way to New South Wales. Sherry Brandtman. Hot chocolate's all round for us, please, Dazza. Goulburn parkrun. Wow, what a stunning course, especially in winter. Multiple thumbs up for this event. Both Abby and I wore tutus for tutu day. Abby again volleyed in her fave role as Barcode Scanner, and I wore the high vis as Tail Walker. And the picture was of Sherry and Abby giving a thumbs up in the selfie frame.

00:44:41Melissa Ellis: And now heading north to Kingsland, we heard from Mark Walls. No rainforest, just hay bales and hot air balloons at Jeune Park parkrun this morning. And Mark shared a photo giving the thumbs up with himself and a junior parkrunner wearing a V25 shirt in the selfie frame.

00:44:59Tony O'Connell: going across to WA this time and we heard from Franz Carroll a fun morning with fellow adventurers at Edinburgh Oval parkrun this morning and there's a picture of Franz in the parkrun teardrop with three mates all with thumbs up and I believe a few of those are friends of the pod as well Mel

00:45:19Melissa Ellis: They are. And last one to read out today, it is Monty Slade coming to us from the UK. And Monty posted thumbs up emojis, decoratively arranged in the shape of a Y. And why did he do that? Because he was at Y Promenâd and he shared his signature photo with his rip, with his rip, with his wrist wrapped in a buff, and his thumbs up by the pop-up there.

00:45:53Tony O'Connell: Lots and lots of people having adventures this week, Mel. And that was probably out of about 150 comments that we selected those. So lots of people travelling and lots of people having a lot of fun.

the Obi Award — Rory Marriott

00:46:04Tony O'Connell: But we need to select an Obi out of all that, Mel. And I have the envelope this week. And it is a proper envelope this week, Mel.

00:46:12Melissa Ellis: A proper... Oh, OK. Unlike last week's... Not proper envelope. No, last week... The Obi post-it.

00:46:20Tony O'Connell: The Obi post-it note.

00:46:22Melissa Ellis: Okay, well, I'm ready with the camera.

00:46:25Tony O'Connell: Well, here is our Obilope envelope. And our winner is... I'm doing the envelope. Oh, he even is. It really came out. Hooray! It's... Rory Marriott. For his V1000 and the big thumbs up on his scooter. So well done, Marori.

00:46:35[background music]

00:46:52Melissa Ellis: Congratulations. Oh, hang on, TOC. Do a thumbs up and I'll get a photo. Yeah, excellent. All righty. Okay.

Emails

00:46:59Melissa Ellis: Now, we got some emails. We haven't had many emails for ages and all of a sudden they were all coming in.

00:47:05Tony O'Connell: Well, I'll kick off with one that came from Charles Gregory. Charles is a Tasmanian parkrunner. He sent us an email titled A Newbie's parkrun Experience and I've shortened this down a little bit with... or at Charles's suggestion because he's given us quite a good story about his parkrun journey but we've shortened it down and I'll just read out a few of the relevant bits of it hi Mel and team I haven't been participating in parkrun for long so some of these achievements will sound mild but there are a few interesting ones I thought I'd share with you My first parkrun was on the 3rd of September 2022 and my 100th will be the 29th of June 2024. Those quick at maths will be able to work out this means I've never missed a day in that time, including all the extra event days in Australia, including Christmas and New Year's. I live in Hobart, so geography is a bit of a blockade to hardcore adventuring, but I'm doing what I can. From only a few weeks in, I made up for my lack of athletic ability with adventuring and immediately visited all five of the active events in the area. Then on occasion, I'd get more adventurous and visit some of the others around the state. Either getting up early and driving to two and a half hours, the 9am start time certainly helped, and sometimes driving the night before. In October and November 23, I had plans for another adventure, a four-week trip across the Nullarbor to Perth and back, but I wasn't going to stop doing parkrun because of that. I intentionally scheduled my trip so Friday night saw me arriving at a location with a parkrun. On the course of this trip, I visited four fantastic events, Port Augusta, Kalgoorlie Boulder, Claisebrook Cove and Euclidine we reserve. In fact it was only on this trip that I discovered the parkrun adventurers podcast. I listened to a lot of the back catalogue and it made the long straight bits of the road more enjoyable. The only Tassie one I haven't visited yet is Whitemark Wharf on Flinders Island. It's almost as difficult slash costly to get to as it is from Victoria. So that one will need a bit more planning and funding. But it's the only one I need for statesmanship. So we'll get to it. Another question for the stats gurus. How many are there on Tasmanian statesmanship minus one? Now Mel, I've done a bit of a deep dive on that. I can tell you at the moment there's 22 Tasmanian statesmen. And there's 30 people on T-1, so all of Tasmania less one event. And I'm willing to bet that Whitemark Wharf probably accounts for about 90% of those. Charles goes on, I'm enjoying the challenges on the 5K app. Club Corner is always educational. Alphabet hunting is a challenge within Tassie. We have lots of duplicate letters, including four W's and three B's. And I found out... I have, by accident, done three pioneer events. Launceston, St Peter's and Claisebrook Cove. He goes on to tell us that he's going to do his 100th in Montrose Foreshore on June the 29th. So that's this weekend coming up.

00:50:07Melissa Ellis: Oh, hooray!

00:50:09Tony O'Connell: And he finishes it off by saying, congrats for getting to the end of my insanely long email. I love listening to the pot on my drives to parkrun, although disappointing when I find I've listened too late and I've missed out on one of you visiting our state. But I'm always learning more. Thanks for all the work you do, Charles. Charles, I really enjoyed that email. As I said, I shortened it down a little bit, but there's some really interesting and really great little fun facts in there, Mel.

00:50:33Melissa Ellis: And it's me that he keeps missing because he doesn't always do this. And I don't have a trip back to Tassie booked now in their foreseeable future, although it's always possible.

00:50:45Tony O'Connell: Oh, Mel, this week we've just booked our next Tassie trip. Have you? Yeah. Love Tassie.

00:50:52Melissa Ellis: Very good. Well, I'm going to read the next email, and it is from Brett Bailey coming to us from across the ditch. And he said, Hi, team. Just listening to this week's pod. Have to have a bit of a laugh at Simon's version of cold at 14 degrees. I can report that this morning's parkrun at Pegasus was held completely in zero or sub-zero temperatures. That's with the sun shining. While it was just coming up being near enough the shortest day, I expect points south, example Queenstown and Wanaka, can beat that. As we say over here, harden up, bro. As you know, we recently visited Kingsland and the start temperature at Kirra would have been around 10 degrees. The locals were having a moan. Us Kiwis were in shorts and T-shirts and we had a swim in the sea afterwards. The water temperature was 22 degrees. I guess it's what you are used to and there are local variations of cold. Currently, 10.30am, Saturday, 4 degrees. Keep up the good work, Brett and Tanya. putting us properly back in our boxes. They are over there across the ditch. Although I've got to say, I am doing my morning walks before work and it is pretty close to zero degrees when I am going out at 5.30am.

00:52:05Tony O'Connell: Yes, Kate Patterson this morning was actually in the negative temps.

00:52:09Melissa Ellis: Wow.

00:52:10Tony O'Connell: Yeah, it was icy.

00:52:12Melissa Ellis: Yeah. So everybody's got a cold story, but I did laugh to myself a little bit when Simon said it was cold.

00:52:18Tony O'Connell: 14 degrees. We'll go a month where we won't get to 14 degrees.

00:52:22Melissa Ellis: I know. I know. But Simon did tell me, I don't know if he's mentioned this on the pod, that he's loving his buff. He ran with it around his neck and it kept his neck warm. And a lot of Queenslanders say they don't use or utilise buffs or beanies and everything, but talk set, talk. But Simon said it did work very well. And he can confirm that when he returns next week. Assuming that he's listened. But anyway, that's enough waffling on. Oh, my goodness. More waffles.

00:52:45[background music]

the Birthday Boy

00:52:49Melissa Ellis: Let's throw now to the birthday boy.

00:52:57the Birthday Boy: Howdy, it's the birthday boy here with some of the goings on for July 2024. July has us in the grip of winter, but there are still a healthy number of events who have launched over the years. We have 37 in total to choose from. What shall we highlight this month? Well, Let's start with the anniversary reminder that events may celebrate what they like, when they like, so please check all details with the local source, i.e. their web page and or their Facebook page. This is especially true for dress-ups, cakes, etc. The parkrun days this July are on the 6th, the 13th, the 20th and the 27th. Now, quick sidebar for those international adventurers, on July 1, we have Canada Day. And this date is going to be their parkrun special day. So Canadian events have the option to host an additional parkrun. You will need to check their special events page to see if events are hosting or not. Their special events page is found at parkrun.ca forward slash special hyphen events. Now, what is Canada Day? It's the day which commemorates when three provinces, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Canada province became one country through the Constitution Act on July 1, 1867. Happy very large number to Canada. Back in Oz, we have one large anniversary number, a 12, and it's Coomera in Queensland on the 27th. Coomera was Queensland's fourth event to launch. We also have two events celebrating their 11th anniversary, Aveley in WA and Gatton in Queensland on the 6th and 13th of July respectively. Aveley was the fourth event to launch in WA and Gatton was the 18th to launch in Queensland, which shows that parkrun in Oz swelled out quickly from the southeast corner of Queensland. WA also has a one this month with Town Beach celebrating their one on the 6th of July. And then all the way back to Queensland again, we have Wes Mitchell Park celebrating their one on the 27th of July. Is there anybody else celebrating except WA in Queensland? Who knows? As always with any parkrun adventure, 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. And to make life easier, the cancellations page is now available from the main parkrun webpage menu within the events tab. Well, see you next month for some more birthday boy banter and be sure to give Mel and Co your requests.

00:56:00[background music]

00:56:08[the recording continues here — the words are not reproduced]

00:56:12Tony O'Connell: Mel, once again, great to hear back from the birthday boy on his monthly report. And a couple of things to note there. The 1st of July is Canada Day, so it's the extra day that you can have a run in Canada. And Aveley's 11th anniversary coming up. And Mel, I think that might be the home of our new Equal Opportunity employee.

00:56:32Melissa Ellis: I do believe so. I think the Bravos are from Aveley. but they can correct us if they're not. And I must say as well, I did laugh, which I probably shouldn't have, at their expense, at their Dazza's post, with the thumbs up. Now, both Chloe and Dave were standing there with their thumbs firmly in the down position because little Lucy was supposed to be running her very first parkrun because she's just turned four and she did a, what do you call it, a refusal, like... It wasn't at the gate. It's not like a race or something.

00:57:07Tony O'Connell: I think they got to a park and I think Lucy might have decided the park was more fun than parkrun.

00:57:12Melissa Ellis: She might have done a loop. And Lucy didn't seem overly bothered. But, yeah, mum and dad were a little bit unimpressed. But happy birthday, Lucy, for turning four. You need to come to junior parkrun. That's what you need to do. It's only two kilometres.

00:57:27Tony O'Connell: And welcome to the world of having a barcode, Lucy.

00:57:30Melissa Ellis: Yes.

Consolidated Club Report

00:57:31Melissa Ellis: Now, TOC, the adventurers Consolidated Club Report for Saturday, the 22nd of June, 2024. Of a total of 652 members, 476 took part on this date in 11 countries across 255 locations in the UK. There are adventurers at... 52 events. There were six in Suid-Afrika, one each in the USA, Singapore, Canada, Japan, Italy, Netherlands and Poland. Locally, we had adventurers at 49 events in the greater state, putting us in second position after the UK. New South Wales had 44. Kingsland had 40. The West Side and South Australia were tied on 15 this week. Tassie had 9. ACT had 7. 6 on the North Island. 3 on the South Island. And 2 in the Northern Territory.

00:58:25Tony O'Connell: And now our largest international from this week. Naturally is overseas and it comes to us from the UK. From Cranleigh where we had Ian Thompson, Alexander Thompson and Brian Grieves. Very good.

00:58:39Melissa Ellis: Not names we hear a lot of, so good to hear from those. Now, the pilgrimage. We had an adventurer this week at Bushy parkrun, our very one and only and very favourite, Bec Bailey. And she came to Dazza's and she said, strap yourself in, guys, because it's a long one. Bushy pilgrimage with a thumbs up emoji. It's that time of year again when I disappear away from Australia for some travelling. 2023 was the winter of South America and this year I'm headed for summertime in Europe and it all starts this week. Arriving in London Wednesday night, I've had two days of exploring in the sunshine. Heard that's not common here. And this morning I got to do Bushy parkrun where I was one of their many, 83 in brackets, Many volunteers park walking for event 990. Upon the start what sounds like a stampede can be heard heading down the first straight as the fast runners take off into the park. Groups of deer chilling out in the grass as you head around the figure eight style course layout. It's a flat course unlike the hills of Shellharbour. Sorry Mal. Both grass and paved surfaces there's even a little bridge with some large fish hanging out beneath it. Walked and talked a brisk 45 minutes, met other bushy first-timers from Perth, Cottesloe and Claisebrook, and even some first-timers to bushy from just the other side of London. This person had a very cool blue 500 volley shirt on. Achieved my highest position number, 1392, but had to skip brunch as I headed off to the airport to sort tonight's flight onwards to Spain." No parkruns for the next four events, but Bushy makes it all worth it. I hope to get to Lisbon in July for their unofficial parkrun held every first week of the month, and I'll be somewhere in Amsterdam for a parkrun before flying home end of July. And that was, of course, from Bec Bailey, who posted a picture of herself with the Bushy pop-up doing her thumbs up.

the Frond — Ball Park parkrun — a frond of seven

01:00:42Melissa Ellis: Now, our largest frond this week. We have selected Ball Park parkrun that had a frond of seven. Who were? Billo, Carolyn McRae, Roberta Winters, Lila Butler, Sam and her Luke, and Jodie Maisie.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

01:00:58Tony O'Connell: Did we have any launches this week, TOC? Now, parkrun globally seem to know when I'm on at the moment because for the second time in a row, we have no launches this week. So the last two times Simon's been on, I think he's had seven and six. I get zip. I get zero. I don't get to stumble over a pronunciation of foreign names that I have absolutely no... Well, I can actually stumble over Australian names apparently, but... best we delete that out. But no launches this week. So let's have a look and see how we go next week for a big launch.

01:01:38Melissa Ellis: I wonder if parkrun's just like trying to consolidate them into certain weeks. Well, that doesn't make sense. If they're spread around the world, it's not going to split up.

Sign-off

01:01:47Tony O'Connell: We went about eight weeks in a row where we had launches every week. And I think it's probably just one of those things that just seems to have happened. Because they're aspirant around the world, it's not that they're trying to consolidate them and have all the launches in one hit, because you might have one in the Netherlands and one in South Africa, and obviously that's a very different crowd. Mel, what are your plans looking forward? We're Monday now. Have you got any plans for this weekend, or is it still...

01:02:19Melissa Ellis: out for the dartboard it is still in the planning stage and I actually have got nothing penciled in I have a few options and I'm considering them so I might have to be mysterious this week what about yourself I'm much in the same boat I haven't selected yet and not because I'm being mysterious it's just because I haven't decided I haven't worked out what we're doing I know you didn't think past the backyard ultra. All your focus was on there and you had nothing, no thoughts after it.

01:02:50Tony O'Connell: It essentially was. I've left a week or two gap where I wasn't sure how broken I'd be, whether I'd need to jump into a local event somewhere and just volley or whether I'd go out for a run. I'm Run Director in two weeks. And so look, it might even just be in block this week so I can collect the gear for the week after. Yeah. Not sure. Let's call it on Friday night or maybe Saturday morning even.

01:03:14Melissa Ellis: Okay. Well, don't forget you can pop into the Friday post and let everybody know where you'll be.

01:03:21Tony O'Connell: Especially the people like Charles Gregory who would like to come along and meet a few of us and we seem to let him know too late.

01:03:28Melissa Ellis: Yeah, so anybody that's going to be in Tasmania, jump onto the Friday post and make sure you let Charles know. Then you can catch up and get to know each other. And I'll have to put my thinking cap on. I actually, so this is a little aside, my daughter, my eldest daughter, is having a baby. So I am going to become a nana in the end of October. So I've actually crossed October and November out of my touring calendar. I am not booking any flights, not doing any plans, and I'm just going to have last-minute decisions so that just in case there's any early babies, because you never know when that might happen, and make sure I'm available for my daughter. So that's very exciting for me, my first grandbaby.

01:04:11Tony O'Connell: Well done, Mel. That'll be great to hear, and well done on your daughter, more so.

01:04:15Melissa Ellis: Yeah, and her name's Sarah, so... Anyway, thank you for joining me again, sir. I'm glad you were able to record tonight and you weren't too broken and damaged after your ultra. Congratulations again. It really is a fantastic effort.

01:04:31Tony O'Connell: Thanks, Mel. Look, great experience. Highly recommend it to people who don't think clearly and rationally to go out and do one.

01:04:41Melissa Ellis: It's sort of like longest run day on steroids.

01:04:44Tony O'Connell: It is, yep.

01:04:45Melissa Ellis: On repeat. Yes. All right. Okay, well, as always, you can contact us via parkrun adventurers on Facebook or our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. We like emails and we have enjoyed having more back this week. That's it for another week. We'll see you all next week for more adventures.

01:04:55[outro theme playing]

01:06:11Tony O'Connell: Hey Mel, I've just had a thought. How about with Ryan doing the big nudie swim down in Hobart this week, we make the secret symbol to go on the Dazza's post this week, either the ice cubes or the icicles. How does that sound? I'm sure people will jump on board.