Episode 387 - Founders and Fashion

Welcome

00:00:00Melissa Ellis: We would like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung people, traditional custodians of the land on which we record this week. We also acknowledge the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia and recognise and celebrate the diversity of Aboriginal peoples and their ongoing cultures and connections to the lands and waters around Australia. We pay our respect to their elders past, present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.

00:00:20[intro theme playing]

00:00:51Tony O'Connell: Welcome to episode 387 of the parkrun adventurers podcast, a podcast about life, if your life is about parkrun. My name's Toc and I'm coming to you from Boon Wurrung Country.

00:01:03Melissa Ellis: And I am Melissa Ellis and I'm coming to you from Wurundjeri Country.

00:01:09Tony O'Connell: Mel, this week, I have the great pleasure, because Simon's not here this week, but Simon got his Cowell this week. He did. Simon's managed to get out and do 100 different events, and that's pretty amazing. And we had a comment from Simon. This morning, I ran my 100th different event at Mudgeeraba. I met up with a friend who said, you're a long way from home. If I had a dollar for every time I've heard that since moving back to Queensland, I'd probably have $10. Then again, it's not unwarranted. So, Simon, that's a lot of travelling, a lot of getting up early. I know there's a couple of times when we went up to whatever the event that we went up to and we met you at that I've gone blank at. You got up really early and drove across. It's a lot of adventuring. So, well done, Simon.

00:02:00Melissa Ellis: Yes, congratulations. And he got a few puns in there, Tony. We gave that challenge in the last week's episode to mention currency.

00:02:11Tony O'Connell: He did. He was financially responsible in his commenting.

00:02:15Melissa Ellis: He was. So good job to the Quizmaster. Congratulations. But it's also, TOC, NAIDOC week this week. That's why we've got the acknowledgement at the beginning of the pod. From the 7th to the 14th of July, NAIDOC celebrations are held across Australia in the first week of July each year to celebrate and recognise the history, culture and achievements of First Nations peoples. This year's theme, Keep the Fire Burning, Black, Loud and Proud, celebrates the unyielding spirit of communities and invites all to stand in solidarity, amplifying the voices that have long been silenced. So special mention out there to everyone, any of our listeners that may be First Nations people.

00:03:01Tony O'Connell: Yeah, Mel, it's something very worthwhile celebrating and something very worth acknowledging to the people that have a very long connection to the land, much longer than most of us have.

00:03:12Melissa Ellis: Yeah, and I was having a little look at all the events that are around the place and I did notice in Gippsland, like I'm sure there's like an art gallery or their cultural centres that have got displays and...

00:03:25Tony O'Connell: There are a couple of them, Mel. So yeah, typically probably more scattered down through East Gippsland, but yeah, there are a couple of them.

00:03:31Melissa Ellis: Yeah, so keep your eyes out, everybody. There might be something in a little town that you're touristing at. Yeah. But looking back to Saturday, what were you up to, Toc?

00:03:43Tony O'Connell: Mel, my day was about as smooth sailing as you could possibly get. I was Run Director at Inverloch at event 457. We had 105 lovely finishes come along. And I think my processing duties were done about four minutes after the tail walk acrossed. My Timekeepers were absolutely synchronized with my token person. As a Run Director, it's just great. I sort of keep a note about every 15 or 20 people to make sure the sinking's all going very well. And when you get a gun crew on, as a Run Director, you just stand around and chat to people. And Ben Inverloch, I stood around in the sunshine, enjoyed the views of the water, and just had a really cruisy morning.

00:04:30Melissa Ellis: We did have a cracking weekend in Victoria.

00:04:33Tony O'Connell: It was, Mel. Like most mornings at this time of the year, it's a little bit cool in the morning, but some of the clear skies we've had and the blue skies have been amazing. Absolutely. Mel, how was your parkrun day?

00:04:45Melissa Ellis: Well, I was at event 418 of Coburg parkrun with 132 parkrunners, including fellow adventurers Sonja and Peter Pohlman, Craig and Rebecca Ryan. Chantal Hoskin and Dan O'Connell surprised us and was in attendance. This was my third visit to Coburg, although I have the perception that I've attended more than that, but that's because it's been included in the Longest Run event many times over the years. So numbers were down when compared to the event history, which is likely due to it being a Gold Coast Marathon weekend. And the Pohlmans were in a team role of timer and finish tokens, so they were volunteering. We had a brief chat afterwards and obviously a frond photo, but then we all headed our separate ways for a multitude of reasons. Sonja and Peter were also special guest volunteers at Eynesbury Juniors on Sunday morning, and you can see their tourist videos from both events on the Aussie Tourism page.

00:05:47Tony O'Connell: Well, we did see the photo with young Dano with a couple of you there. It was great to see. The O'Connells were really spread out this week. Jack was at Frog Hollow again. So we were covering all points of Victoria.

00:05:58Melissa Ellis: Is Dan a listener? He's probably not, is he?

00:06:01Tony O'Connell: I think Dan listens on occasion, not all the time.

00:06:04Melissa Ellis: He might listen this week. When I introduced him to Sonja and Peter and announced that he was your son, he said, you might recognise the bright shorts.

00:06:15Tony O'Connell: Yes, Dan has taken up the trend of the bright shorts. And just on a side note, Mel, I was out running around Endeavour Hills on Sunday morning and and ran through the Frog Hollow course. And I was going along a trail, and I asked a group of young ladies, is this the bridge that gets you over the freeway? To which one of them replied, yes, it is. And as I run off, one of them said, I know that bloke. He's the one from parkrun. And I was in bright shorts, so I reckon the bright shorts were a bit of a giveaway.

00:06:43Melissa Ellis: Maybe they knew your voice from the pod.

00:06:47Tony O'Connell: Oh, potentially.

00:06:48Melissa Ellis: And I should also add that I thought I was a bit funny saying that I was upping my P index at Coburg, but it didn't really relate to my event count. It was my Pohlman index. So I've got a P index of 10 with Sonja, but only nine with Peter.

00:07:03Tony O'Connell: Okay. I'll have to have a dig and see where my P index sits because I know I've been to a couple of events with the Pohlmans.

00:07:10Melissa Ellis: Yes. And of course, they do refer to themselves as P1 and P2. They do.

00:07:15Tony O'Connell: Yeah. Hmm. All righty, Toc. Now moving along onto the parkrun with many gates. We've got a big episode today.

00:07:27Melissa Ellis: And the first one is I want to address the issue of parkrun Australia's new sponsorship with Lorna Jane and the backlash that has ensued in a section of the community. On Tuesday, the 2nd of July, parkrun AU announced that parkrun in Australia and New Zealand is excited to announce a two-year partnership with activewear brand Lorna Jane. The collaboration is more than just a sponsorship. It's about increasing awareness and fostering a sense of community where everyone can belong. Managing Director of parkrun Asia Pacific, Renee Gimbert said, We believe that physical activity should be fun, social and outdoors, which is why parkrun is committed to providing a safe and supportive environment for everyone at our events. By partnering with Lorna Jane, an authentic and credible voice amongst women for more than 30 years, we hope to inspire many more women and girls to discover the joys of parkrun and to create friendships that last beyond a Saturday morning. This partnership underscores Lorna Jane's commitment to inspiring women towards fitness in their lives, engaging with their community and supporting a cause that aligns with its mission to empower and support women. We believe in the power of community and this partnership aligns perfectly with our mission to inspire women to be active, said Lorna Jane Clarkson, founder of Lorna Jane. Regular exercise has a profound impact on both our mental and physical wellbeing and and partnering with parkrun supports our push to encourage participation in regular exercise that is accessible to everyone. As physical and mental health concerns continue to rise, encouraging people to become more active is more important than ever. This partnership shines a light on the positive impact exercise can have on mental health, demonstrating Lorna Jane's dedication to promoting a healthier lifestyle and making a positive impact. With the global trend towards running, Lorna Jane is eager to extend this opportunity to its community, encouraging participation in parkrun events throughout Australia and New Zealand, parkrun and Lorna Jane invite the community to come together, connect and get moving, offering free and accessible options for everyone, whether you choose to walk, run, volunteer or simply enjoy socialising, this partnership welcomes all to join in and be active. 600,000 women and girls have participated in parkrun around Australia and New Zealand, So what are you waiting for? Now, I did read that on purpose because I thought what it projects is important to the context of what I had to say. So what followed was a barrage of anger concerning the choice to partner with this company, almost solely from what I witnessed, and I may be wrong, from an older female demographic within the core volunteer parkrun community. Initially, the anger was relating to the company's range of clothing and its perceived lack of interest in catering to an older and larger market, that their staff are rude and that they perpetuate negative industry stereotypes using young and slim models. The argument also brought up issues relating to poor results with regard to gender pay gaps. Some doubtful manufacturing practices. They actually appeared in Oxfam's naughty list in 2021 for failing to be transparent about whether or not their garment workers are paid a living wage. And Oxfam's Australia CEO actually said this. It's particularly disappointing to see brands that promote the wellbeing of women, such as Lorna Jane, failing to be transparent about the factories in which their clothes are made. This supports a culture of secrecy that is harmful to the wellbeing of all women, including those who make our clothes, and entrenches the massive power disparity between brands and garment workers. And there's also the legal conviction resulting from false claims of COVID-proof clothing that occurred during the pandemic. So these are all very valid concerns which don't paint Lorna Jane in a favourable way as a company and as a sponsorship partner. They, from all accounts, do not represent what parkrun is about. So let's look at what parkrun may have found attractive from entering into this deal. We can't deny that parkrun is an organisation that needs sponsorship to oversee the growing franchise and stay on top of technology requirements and grassroots team support, then there is the potential for Lorna Jane to reach and grow the younger female demographic, build on that elusive 20 to 30 age group, and having a sportswear company that caters to that market would be very appealing. However, since their inception, parkrun have represented themselves as an organisation with ethics and standards. They have previously been open in saying that they make choices in associating with brands that align with their ideals. And as loyal and long-standing adopters of the parkrun way of life, many feel that this association does not reflect those values, much like the Happy Eggs sponsorship in the UK and the appointment of David Dinsmore to the parkrun board. So once again, the voice of the masses are holding parkrun to account and reminding them of what they represent to the people and what their success has been built on. That this has raised the anger in a group of parkrun's most loyal and passionate volunteers should be an alarm to parkrun and is not something to be dismissed. The loyal and the faithful have taken pride in aligning with an organisation that held themselves on higher moral ground that represented their core beliefs and values, parkrun may well look back in the future and realise the warning signs were there, that these voices were the canary in the mines, sacrificed on the altar of the corporate line. At first this was not an issue, that on face value bothered me, but after analysis and reflection... I am not too proud to say that my viewpoint has changed, and I hope that parkrun's can too. It was summed up nicely by one comment. Swing and a miss here, parkrun. It would appear that on this occasion, parkrun has scored an own goal.

00:13:17Tony O'Connell: Thanks for that, Mel. It's an issue that I've really struggled to grasp, probably being both male and not really into following fashion sense and fashion scene. I just tend to wear whatever as long as it's bright. I was really disappointed to see the number of comments and from some people I know very well and people that I really respect their opinions. And I hadn't really thought of a clothing label in that sense that they'd be, I guess, the comments were so regular about people being turned away from the shop, people being told, you're not our type of people. And to me, that doesn't represent the values that we know and love at parkrun. And so I found this issue really hard. Because I thought initially, yeah, it's a good fit, it sports clothing. The further I've gone into it, my opinion's probably changed a little bit in the same direction as yours has.

00:14:13Melissa Ellis: It is a tough one and it does take deep thought. And I will concede that the regular Saturday morning, the masses probably won't turn their mind to it. It's the people that, the passionate people, the passionate supporters, the long-term adopters, And yes, in this respect, females. Interesting though, Tony, that Statsgate was more upset the male side of the fence and this is more female?

00:14:43Tony O'Connell: This is very much the other side. To me, Mel, this is very much a localised issue. I know there are... a local sponsor, but compared to the level of, I guess, outrage we saw from Statsgate, which I think was probably more UK-based, and I certainly saw more of it in the UK groups that I follow, this issue has really hit home with a lot of our very passionate and regular Australian parkrun followers. So I don't know. I don't know where this one's going to go, Mel. No.

00:15:17Melissa Ellis: Both sides are probably hoping to gain something, parkrun's hoping to gain access to that younger demographic and Lorna Jane's probably hoping to get a bit of more positive PR.

00:15:28Tony O'Connell: I don't know how much further I can go with that one.

00:15:31Melissa Ellis: Well, let's put that to bed and let's take up the next gate. What would you like to talk about, TOC?

00:15:38Tony O'Connell: Mel, it's the episode for the monologue. So, I don't know, it's almost in my mind I keep saying Homer Simpson and the monorail going through, but...

00:15:49Brendan - Run Director, Queen's parkrun, Belfast: Mel, I've got one and I'm not sure what to call it.

00:15:53Tony O'Connell: But as you know, Mel, I'm someone who normally drinks from the parkrun Kool-Aid container. I always love parkrun. I'm always positive about parkrun. I struggle to see a lot of the issues. Yep, Statsgate upset me a bit because I like seeing the age grading, but I got over it. Yeah, a really a big positive person for parkrun a really big supporter but last Thursday parkrun UK published a post titled 20 years of parkrun the second chapter and it was a chronological look at parkrun's growth through 2009 to 2014 so they're releasing in sections 2011 discussed the launch of parkrun Australia and it completely failed to mention the Australian founder Tim Oberg and his amazing drive and his enthusiasm to get parkrun off the ground across Australia over the subsequent years up until 2022 when life for Tim took other directions. I came on board as a territory director with parkrun in 2014. That was the old-fashioned event ambassadors before we were event ambassadors. Following a phone call from Tim, I had a lot to do with Tim. I spoke to Tim very regularly. He was an amazing mentor in my early days in parkrun. I'd become a territory director and I'd only been involved with parkrun for a couple of months. So I was still learning on my feet and Tim was always there. He was a driving force behind things, his enthusiasm and that was just amazing when I read the article it'd be fair to say that I was I was gutted that Tim had been totally ignored and to say that I was gutted was an understatement and I joined several other well-known Australian parkrun figures in making comments on the UK page just to put out there that Tim was such a driving force behind parkrun and to say that there were other disillusioned people there's quite a few people that Everyone knows the names of these people commenting and saying the same thing, and it just did not sit right with me. We'd ignored an essential part of the Australian parkrun story, and... I was really disappointed with that. Fortunately, several hours later, several of us received a generic message on the page, which came from parkrun UK, and mine said, Hi, Tony O'Connell, thank you for your feedback. We're extremely grateful to Tim for pitching parkrun Australia to Paul many years ago and ensuring hundreds of communities in Australia and the Asian Pacific region have been able to enjoy parkrun since 2011. The blog has been updated to reflect this. The blog now reads in part, the first bit under 2011, the idea for parkrun Australia started in a cafe in London in 2010 when Tim Oberg pitched taking the parkrun concept down under to Paul, being Paul Sinton Hewitt. Then further down there was another brief mention. Over the following decade, Tim Oberg continued to be instrumental in the growth of parkrun Australia, building dedicated teams of volunteers and staff across Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. Mel, I think it's an improvement in the blog. And it's just a short blog, so they weren't going to write paragraphs about anyone or whatever. But I've lost a little bit of faith in the communications and, to some respect, part of the organisation that... We chose to release a blog in an anniversary year and give it so much attention that we chose to ignore such an important figure in parkrun Australia's history and the parkrun context. I was really, really disappointed about that. And to be fair to say that quite a few other people were on the same thing. And I just... I'd like to think it was an oversight, but the blog was put out there and there was people that obviously read it, proofread it. Surely, yeah, surely we've got to do better than that with our comms.

00:19:59Melissa Ellis: I agree. I had it drawn to my attention actually by a UK friend to say, hey, have a look at this. And I was stunned. It's too blatant to be an oversight. It's just too blatant. And it's insult to Tim, quite frankly, for all the years of service.

00:20:21Tony O'Connell: I think it was, Mel. I think, you know, there's a man that just puts so much of himself into the organisation. They talked about other countries starting and who started them, and we got to ours and we ignored the man that got it all up and running.

00:20:36Melissa Ellis: That brought it here. There's no two ways around it. He convinced Paul Sinton-Hewitt to let him bring parkrun to Australia.

00:20:44Tony O'Connell: Yeah. So it's been corrected, but I... I don't know. Well, it's an issue that should not have needed to be corrected. It should have been there right from the start. It shouldn't have needed lots of people to jump in. And it just seems where there's two things day after day. Yeah.

00:21:05Melissa Ellis: If the comms department needs some help, just reach out. We'll run our eyes over it. But let's move on to something a bit more of a lighter note.

00:21:10[background music]

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:21:16Melissa Ellis: Let's have a listen to this week's roving reports.

Roving report Lyndell Murray — Logan River parkrun

00:21:27Lyndell Murray: G'day parkrun adventurers, it's Lyndell and today I am on the lands of the Yugambeh people down at Logan River parkrun.

Talking to Brett — Run Director and Co-Event Director, Logan River parkrun (QLD)

00:21:38Lyndell Murray: I found Brett. Brett is a Run Director and also a Co-Event Director. He's wearing a badge saying it's my birthday. How old are you today, Brett?

00:21:47Brett - Run Director and Co-Event Director, Logan River parkrun: Well, I'm older than what the parkrun is, but much older. But we're celebrating our 11th birthday here at Logan River parkrun today.

00:21:56Lyndell Murray: Brilliant. Now, that means you're a low-numbered parkrun. You did say that in your run briefing number.

00:22:01Brett - Run Director and Co-Event Director, Logan River parkrun: Correct. Yeah, we were 36 to register here in Australia. Yeah.

00:22:05Lyndell Murray: All right. Now, were you involved with parkrun back on that day 11 years ago?

00:22:10Brett - Run Director and Co-Event Director, Logan River parkrun: I can't lay a claim to that, no. No, so there were some people who were involved that were Event Directors that got me involved as a Run Director initially. Fee Edmonds was one and Genevieve Padamore were two of the big players. There was also some other girls involved who have since gone on and opened or started up Meadowbrook, which is also not too far from here. But, yeah, so I came along, you know one of those you know weekend warriors who'd come along and run their 5ks and and not do too much volunteering it was more about you know trying to improve my my running and my PBs and um it wasn't until I got a bit of a kick up the bum with from one of my friends who was a Run Director over at Wishart um saying isn't it time to give back and uh I thought yeah she's right so um got on board and became a Run Director and yeah so that was probably um I've been run directing just pre-COVID, so probably about five or six years. And yeah, but running from probably about 2015 here at Logan River.

00:23:12Lyndell Murray: And I bet you've never looked back from that first day you volunteered as a Run Director.

00:23:17Brett - Run Director and Co-Event Director, Logan River parkrun: Oh, look, it was daunting, like it is for a lot of people, just the fear of mucking up, and I suppose times for a lot of people are really important, so you just kind of initially feel that stress and strain of that. But in saying that, everyone understands that this is a volunteer role, and whilst the pressure's there somewhat, people are OK with you taking time to process stuff, and, yeah, it's one of my least worries now, so, yeah.

00:23:45Lyndell Murray: I always say you can always give them their money back, right, at parkrun?

00:23:49Brett - Run Director and Co-Event Director, Logan River parkrun: Exactly right, exactly right. So we will refund your deposit, yes.

00:23:55Lyndell Murray: Now, I don't think there's anything to worry about today. It looks like today has gone off without a hitch. Lots of people here still talking and having some cake on the cake trail that I'm on as well. Tell me about Logan River parkrun.

00:24:13Brett - Run Director and Co-Event Director, Logan River parkrun: Um, look, it's a close-knit community. Usually you see the same familiar faces, so you can always bank on the same, you know, 150 kind of participants rolling in week in, week out. This week seems a little bit lighter, if I might kind of hazard a guess without looking at the numbers at the moment across the finish line. I think put that down to the Gold Coast Running Festival that's on next weekend. So we find that happens a bit when there's a big running event coming up. The numbers kind of dwindle a little bit, plus school holidays. But, yeah, no, it's a great bunch of people. You know, we have a pretty decent volunteer base. You know, we still have to put the occasional shout-out on the Thursdays and Fridays. They fill a couple of roles. But generally speaking... They're really good, the people in our community here at Logan River. So we're not really wanting for volunteers too often. So, yeah, it's interesting too. The numbers have kind of been up and down a bit. We used to, pre-COVID, we were up around... We were nudging towards 300 and over on the regular. Nowadays, we're probably comfortably around the 200 mark on a kind of regular basis. But, yeah, all different walks. Wheelchair... Walkers, runners, the whole box and dice, yeah. Fastest runners around the 16.5 mark and, yeah.

00:25:34Lyndell Murray: Indeed. Now, Brett, I love that when I asked you about Logan River parkrun, you went straight to the people and not to the course. Mm. Isn't that great about parkrun? When we think about parkrun, quite often we think about the people before we think about the running. Yeah. But I am going to ask you about the course. Obviously, here is the big red bridge. Yeah. I don't know why we call it the big red bridge because it's just a normal-sized bridge. It just looks big. I don't know. Anyway, the red bridge is a feature of the course. Tell me about the course here.

00:25:39[crosstalk]

00:26:03Brett - Run Director and Co-Event Director, Logan River parkrun: Yeah, it is iconic. Um, we have a local, uh, runners, runners club called Logan Runners and, uh, we sport that red bridge on, on, on the shirt. Um, and, and it's in all its glorious red. Um, I think it was nearly two years ago now, they actually gave it a brand new facelift and, um, repainted it all. So that actually changed that course. Um, um momentarily so we love running across our bridge but yeah they had to we had to detour that and run under the highway um so that was out of action for a good six months at least um but yeah the course is actually it's a it's a pretty course too because we're right here on the Logan River in the year been on the Logan River um and we run along the river for most of the course it's it's a pretty course and it's actually quite a quick course um A lot of people who want to go for a quicker run tend to come here because they know that it is pretty flat along the riverbanks. The only incline is really running up the hill over the bridge. So it can get a little bit busy at times. We're kind of to and fro and pass the start-finish line a couple of times. So we can get two- and three-way traffic at times. But everyone's pretty good down here. It's a busy park too. We have some cultural groups that come down in the morning and share the parklands with us. But we're fortunate enough to have a really big green space that we can park on, so accessibility and parking is never really an issue either, which is always a drawcard as well.

00:27:23Lyndell Murray: And there's a big playground here as well, and all of the amenities. I will vouch it is a pretty course. The river's absolutely beautiful. The bridge is bright red. Anyone who lives in Brisbane or the Gold Coast and travels up and down the M1, it is...

00:27:40Brett - Run Director and Co-Event Director, Logan River parkrun: It's the OG bridge. It was the only bridge that used to cross the Logan River, and that was part of the original Gold Coast to Brisbane Highway. And, yeah, so it's interesting because my family hails from the area, German settlers, and so that was the bridge that they would always cross. So, yeah, it's iconic and a bit of, you know, nostalgia there in regards to my family's history as well. So, yeah.

00:28:07Lyndell Murray: Terrific. Alrighty. Now, this podcast is for people who adventure around to different parkruns. Have you done much touristing yourself, Brett?

00:28:18Brett - Run Director and Co-Event Director, Logan River parkrun: Not as much as I'd like. I've got a younger family, so I'm usually chasing them around with sports now. But I love to tour around. I'm not one of those people who plan my holidays around where parkruns are or not. But if there's one in the vicinity, I'll definitely want to check it out. For example, we went down to Nambucca Heads and the nearest one was half an hour drive away. So I was contemplating doing it until it was torrential rain and then I passed. So, yeah, look, I love the idea of parkrunning, especially if I can go somewhere rural and get a faster and lower finishing position, that would be great too. So I've got to go one better. I'll finish second once at a parkrun, so I've got to go that one better. But I'll have to go very rural and very small to get that, I think, with my running speed. So, yeah.

00:28:49[crosstalk]

00:28:59[crosstalk]

00:29:02Lyndell Murray: All right. Is there anything else then that you would like the parkrun adventurers to know about Logan River parkrun?

00:29:10Brett - Run Director and Co-Event Director, Logan River parkrun: I think most has been said. I think it's just a really friendly community. As you said, people linger and have a good chat after the event. It's not something that a lot of people just run and leave. Our volunteers are great. I've always got help packing up. I don't expect that, but I always have some hands to help, which is fantastic. And like you said, plenty of space, great for young families. The park's great. Yeah. the dog parks as well um but yeah just a pretty course with you know lovely people um great bunch of volunteers so yeah we welcome everyone um and especially you know if people are wheelchair bound um our course is all on paths too so that's an absolute um you know talking point and a key key um factor in that course as well so yeah

00:29:42[crosstalk]

00:29:56Lyndell Murray: Brilliant. Well, thank you, Brett. Thank you for talking to me today. Thank you for everything that you have done for parkrun in your local community and the community itself. Thanks, Brett.

00:30:03[crosstalk]

00:30:05Tony O'Connell: Thank you. Alrighty.

00:30:07Lyndell Murray: Well, that is where I'm going to leave my roving report from Logan River parkrun today. Thank you, Brett, for telling us what a community hub the parkrun is and also sharing a little bit of history of the famous Logan River Red Bridge. I just wanted to just do a little bit of housekeeping before I went about Meadowbrook parkrun. Brett mentioned Meadowbrook in his interview with me. And Meadowbrook, of course, was mentioned on the podcast just a few weeks ago when Simon was in. And Simon was saying that Meadowbrook was south of Brisbane. And I think he said it was southwest of the Brisbane city. It is, in fact, southeast of Brisbane city. And just 5km or so up the road from where I am today at Logan River. So both of those events, about half an hour, a little bit more maybe, south-southeast of Brisbane City. Alrighty then, that is it for me on the parkrun adventurers and I'll check in with you next time.

Roving report Alison Fraser (King) — Queen's parkrun

00:31:11Alison Fraser (King): Kia ora koutou, it's Alison here reporting in from my final parkrun of this long adventure. [Te Reo Maori: "Hello / greetings to you all (plural, three or more people)"]

Talking to Brendan — Run Director, Queen's parkrun, Belfast (Northern Ireland)

00:31:18Alison Fraser (King): I have travelled over the Irish Sea to Belfast and I'm at Queen's parkrun and with me is Run Director Brendan. So welcome to the podcast Brendan. Thank you very much. Can you please tell us about your parkrun here?

00:31:31Brendan - Run Director, Queen's parkrun, Belfast: Yeah, our parkrun is now 10 years old. We are lucky enough to have the facilities of Queen's University available to us. They own this whole sector, this whole park and you can see there's loads of pitches for GAA pitches and hockey and soccer. So we've been based here for 10 years and the association with Queen's University gives us our name, Queen's parkrun and of course that's a queue. So every Saturday we have lots of visitors here to get their cue. They all love coming to Belfast for the weekend.

00:31:57Alison Fraser (King): You've had quite a few visitors lately, haven't you?

00:32:00Brendan - Run Director, Queen's parkrun, Belfast: Yeah, just this morning we got a lot of people from GB, I think from Kent, Manchester, Stratford-upon-Avon and Warrington, but today we also had visitors from Seattle, from South Africa, from Australia and from New Zealand. everyone's bagging those queues because there's only nine in the world exactly uh so we get every every weekend we get at least a 10 or a dozen visitors here and sometimes even more than that you've got a good local community brilliant absolutely brilliant so there's a there are Eight of us who are Run Directors obviously we share that out and we've got a core of volunteers every week as well and we always think that we're going to be stuck for volunteers but of course we never are because come the Friday and the Saturday we always get people and we're lucky as well that we have the pavilion behind us over my left shoulder so people do gather in there afterwards for tea and coffee and Because we've got so many runners, usually about 160, 170, usually someone's doing their 100th or 150th or 200th, so there's usually cake.

00:32:54Alison Fraser (King): No cake today?

00:32:56Brendan - Run Director, Queen's parkrun, Belfast: There's a little bit of cake today because last week we had a runner who got into a bit of difficulty. She had a spasm in her back and she was in pain and she was helped out by some of the runners. So to say thank you, she's brought cake today.

00:33:08Alison Fraser (King): Nice.

00:33:08Brendan - Run Director, Queen's parkrun, Belfast: Can you describe the course for us? Yeah, so it's a little bit hilly at times. We had to change the course about five years ago. We just got a little bit too busy. We used to run through this car park and finish at the pavilion. So with the agreement of Queen's, they asked us to take it out of the car park. Hence, we now do a little part of the course twice. And within the part that we do twice, there are two U-turns, so it's not the fastest course there are faster courses in Belfast and and so especially first-time visitors sometimes do find it a little bit hilly or maybe a little bit slower than your normal or average parkrun course but we still think it's a lovely course what's your parkrun story, Brendan uh I started coming in 2012 I had never I used to run a little bit and I sort of gotten out of running And friends then said, look, there's this thing called parkrun. And I sort of thought, why does someone do that for nothing? Or why do they do your timing? That all sounds great. So I came along and got to know the guys who organised Queen's parkrun. And after a couple of years, I would have volunteered pretty regularly. And then Fiona, who's around the corner here, is our Event Director. She said, look, we're sort of stuck for Run Directors. Do you fancy doing it every couple of weeks? So I became one of the core team of Run Directors then, and every Saturday morning so if we go on holiday I'm looking up is there a parkrun where we're going or can I fit in another parkrun so I love it it's great cool and one question we like to ask the people we interview on the podcast is not including your home parkrun what are your top three parkruns that you've run that's a really that's a good question well Maybe my favourite was Lucca in Italy. It's a small town in Tuscany, very low numbers. Like the time we did it, there might have been 20 people, something like that. But it was the most scenic, I mean it was a gorgeous parkrun to do. I've done lots of Irish parkruns. We did Florida parkrun. We flew the holiday through Florida in 2017 with the jet lag and everything else. We were up nice and early the next morning anyway. So we did the Florida parkrun. So I would say that was... That's the one, yeah. So I'd say that's one of my favourite ones. And I think also Portrush here in Northern Ireland, it takes place on the beach and depending on how the tides are you can get your feet wet or else the sand can be quite firm and it's easier to run on but if it's not and it's nice and dry it's harder to run on so that's probably one of my favourite ones as well so I'll say those three.

00:35:32Alison Fraser (King): There's quite a few beach parkruns now but am I right in thinking that Portrush was the first beach parkrun within the parkrun UK?

00:35:39Brendan - Run Director, Queen's parkrun, Belfast: I think it was and it was definitely the first one in Ireland so I think it probably was one of the first ones throughout the UK as well, yeah.

00:35:46Alison Fraser (King): well what a fantastic top three yeah so thank you for your time here today Brendan it's been it's been pretty cool getting a queue was that was the reason why we came but I also like running on the university campus parkrun so ticked another box there I hope you enjoyed your visit to Queens yeah and it's wrapped up a great couple of days in Belfast it's definitely a place for people to come to

00:35:58[crosstalk]

00:36:07Brendan - Run Director, Queen's parkrun, Belfast: We're a great city and we love it when people come for a weekend. A lot of people come and fly in and fly out in the same day, which is absolutely fine. But I think if you're coming to Belfast to do a parkrun, if you build a weekend around it, we've got lots to do in Belfast. We love our city and we love showing it off as well.

00:36:21Alison Fraser (King): Cool. Thank you very much. Thank you. No problem.

Roving report Ruth Perkins — Gunpowder parkrun

00:36:25Ruth Perkins: Hi, parkrun adventurers, new voice for you. This is Ruth Perkins. I am based in the UK in Manchester, but I am a very keen tourist. And today I've come to Gunpowder Park and I've found quite a special person to chat to, Barry. He is celebrating his 250th volunteer today, all at Gunpowder. So I'll catch you in a bit with Barry, hopefully.

Talking to Barry Hooper — Gunpowder parkrun volunteer and Lee Valley Park volunteer, celebrating his 250th…

00:36:56Ruth Perkins: Hello parkrun adventurers, I'm here with Barry Hooper and it is his 250th volunteer today and am I right in thinking Barry that all your volunteers have been at Gunpowder?

00:37:09Barry Hooper - Gunpowder parkrun volunteer, 250th volunteer credit: They've all been at Gunpowder Park.

00:37:11Ruth Perkins: What got you into helping out at parkrun here then?

00:37:15[background music]

00:37:16Barry Hooper - Gunpowder parkrun volunteer, 250th volunteer credit: Well I'm a volunteer for the Lee Valley Park. And this is run on Lee Valley Park ground. So they wanted me just to keep an eye on things, see that they weren't disrupting too much of the park. And I sort of got, I started helping out. And they persuaded me to do some running. So I, to me, sometimes I ran, but mostly I volunteer.

00:37:45Ruth Perkins: Oh, brilliant. So how many times have you run a parkrun here then?

00:37:49Barry Hooper - Gunpowder parkrun volunteer, 250th volunteer credit: I've done 250 volunteers and I've also run about 180.

00:37:54Ruth Perkins: Oh wow, that's quite a lot then, so you know the course well then?

00:37:59Barry Hooper - Gunpowder parkrun volunteer, 250th volunteer credit: I should do, I do voluntary work here to keep it spick and span.

00:38:05Ruth Perkins: You were saying about the wildflowers before, is this quite a special place for wildflowers?

00:38:11Barry Hooper - Gunpowder parkrun volunteer, 250th volunteer credit: Yes, we try and keep it as natural as possible. It's not like your standard park where you bring your kids over to play ball. This is where you go for a walk or you take a bike and you see nature as it was intended. We try to keep it as natural as we can.

00:38:31Ruth Perkins: That's wonderful to hear. It sounds like we've got a really good person here keeping an eye on the nature and making sure that the parkrun's running smoothly.

00:38:39Barry Hooper - Gunpowder parkrun volunteer, 250th volunteer credit: Yeah, we had an inspection a couple of weeks ago. They're a green flag and I believe we got it again.

00:38:47Ruth Perkins: Oh, congratulations. That's brilliant. Well done. So parkrun adventurers like to travel around. Have you been to any other parkruns anywhere else?

00:38:57Barry Hooper - Gunpowder parkrun volunteer, 250th volunteer credit: I haven't actually, no. I'm a local lad.

00:39:01Ruth Perkins: Do you think one day you might go to Bushy Park, where the original parkrun started?

00:39:08Barry Hooper - Gunpowder parkrun volunteer, 250th volunteer credit: It's possible. I haven't got it on my immediate plans.

00:39:13Ruth Perkins: So I think we can take from that. If you want to meet Barry, then the best place to come is Gunpowder Park.

00:39:18Barry Hooper - Gunpowder parkrun volunteer, 250th volunteer credit: Gunpowder Park, that's right.

00:39:21Ruth Perkins: Wonderful. Thank you so much for your time, Barry. And good luck for the next 250 volunteers.

00:39:25Barry Hooper - Gunpowder parkrun volunteer, 250th volunteer credit: I don't know if I'll be around for that. I'm nearly 85.

00:39:31Ruth Perkins: Wow. Fingers crossed. I bet you will. Thank you so much, so that's a wrap from me and from gunpowder park it's a beautiful course flat tarmac and it is two and a bit loops and they it's really unusual in the UK because they don't have marshals on the course because it is so obvious where you need to go so if you're someone prone to getting a little bit lost this could be a good choice for you there's a car park right by the start it's limited so I would get here early if you want to get a space and there are toilets right next to it occasionally they have a community cafe so we had that today which was brilliant things like tea coffee Barry had a cake wonderful 250 cake and there was even some Turkish delight and some bananas so what more can you ask for So thank you so much for listening and I hope to be bringing something to you again. Thank you. Bye.

00:40:35[background music]

00:40:46Tony O'Connell: And Mel, coming back in, it's great to hear a couple of roving reports scattered far and wide. We heard from Lyndell at Logan River. Must be one of Lyndell's last parkruns before she heads over to be one of the chief referees at the Olympic Games. How amazing is our wonderful Lyndell? We're very proud of her. We also heard from Alison, who came to us from Queen's parkrun in Belfast, with her interview with the Run Director, Brendan. And she says it's her final parkrun on this trip. but it's her final running parkrun. She's actually volunteering next week at Stratford-upon-Avon. And one of the things on our trip, and I keep bouncing back to our trip because all the memories are popping up at the moment, but Alison actually gave me lots of places to go and look at when we're in Stratford-upon-Avon because she knows the town so well, obviously, with family living there. And lastly, but certainly not leastly, we heard from Ruth Perkins at Gunpowder parkrun. Um, Great to hear from Ruth. Ruth's first roving report, and hopefully one of many. Her comment was, Hi Mel, my trip to Gunpowder parkrun in Essex, UK coincided with one of the volunteers' 250th volunteer credit. He was such a lovely bloke, so I leapt on the chance to record him. I hope you enjoyed listening to it. Many thanks, Ruth. And Ruth was talking to Barry Hooper, who was 85 years old.

00:42:14Melissa Ellis: I know. Congratulations to Barry. And good job, Ruth. You did a great job with your very first roving report. We really enjoyed it and we hope we hear from you again. Now...

Dazza's

00:42:25Melissa Ellis: Public service announcement. This week, in the interest of brevity, we are omitting the Dazza's posts. We thought we would have a longer than normal pod due to the issues we were addressing earlier. So no Dazza's, however. I wanted to give a special shout out to Eric Banner for his very clever comment, which read, a frankly fabulous frond for me at Nagambie Lake today. My fans walked, shuffled and ran the parkrun, but I really have no yen for pounding the track with them. And then in brackets it said, I'm really sorry. I have a reputation for bad puns, but they were terrible. Andrew. So there was obviously a few references to the challenge we gave.

00:43:16Tony O'Connell: Lots of financial references there, Mel. He's certainly crammed them in.

00:43:21Melissa Ellis: They were clever, weren't they?

00:43:22Tony O'Connell: Yeah.

Emails

00:43:24Melissa Ellis: Now, the first email today came to us from Monty Slade. And I've sort of titled this, Ross-on-Wye called. They want their baton back. And Monty said, hi, Mel and Ollie or Ollie's sub. That's you, TOC. Just to say I will ask Monty Slade for some audio on the Ross-on-Wye baton for the next time I am back there. It was instigated by the father and daughter ED team just over 12 months ago to tour the UK and we're so pleased to hear that it went via Europe to Australia. We are hopeful it will return for our fifth birthday at Ross next month. Best wishes, David. Oh, there's a peek behind the curtain. David's friends with Monty. Maybe they're brothers.

00:44:14Tony O'Connell: Let's see if we can get one to talk to the other.

00:44:16Melissa Ellis: They want to get it back. Ooh, that's a tight schedule by next month.

00:44:21Tony O'Connell: It's got to get to me first. It's only got a couple of parkrun days to do it, so it's going to have to hop, skip and jump fairly quickly. It is. It is. Well, in line with all the other gates that we've had this week, I'd like to introduce you to Bridgegate. Someone set out the challenge last week, and I suggested our lovely little bridge at Inverloch. It's a significant cultural and historical milestone in Inverloch that was built a couple of years ago over a very small drainage ditch. But we had another email from Brett Bailey who's claiming even greater things. Hi team, this is Bob's Bridge at Pegasus. We cross the bridge twice on our summer course during daylight savings time. We don't cross it during the winter as it can ice up and be slippery. It does wobble a bit when there are a few parkrunners on it. There's also a smaller bridge that we cross each lap just before the big bridge. So Pegasus has two bridges to cross on each lap. Bob's bridge was named after Bob Robertson, who originally developed the town. Cheers, Brett and Tanya. And they sent in a lovely photo of the bridge, and it actually is... A decent little span and a good little bridge to run over. I like the bit about it wobbling a bit when there's a few parkrunners on it because I initially read that in my head as the parkrunners wobble a bit as they cross the bridge.

00:45:53Melissa Ellis: I wobble a bit when I cross bridges. Coburg also has a bouncy bridge that I traversed on Saturday morning. There's lots of bridges, yeah, but I'm the adjudicator. Yeah.

00:46:07Tony O'Connell: I still think one of my favourite ones is still the Studley Bridge. I like the bridge that crosses at Studley.

00:46:14Melissa Ellis: Cairns Bridge, yes.

00:46:15Tony O'Connell: I always thought it was the Scotty Trickett Bridge.

00:46:19Melissa Ellis: Scotty Trickett had a bridge at just about every parkrun that he went to. There was one named after him at Highlands too, I seem to remember. And there was one named at Shellharbour. That was one of those just over the drain bridges.

00:46:32Tony O'Connell: A well-known man.

00:46:34Melissa Ellis: But I wonder if it's a better time to discuss the baton in this section than where I had previously put it in the outro. So you heard our idea last week, TOC, about sending a baton to Danny and Nicola.

00:46:49Tony O'Connell: I did, Mel, and I've been casting my mind back trying to think. What exactly we could use for the baton? Because there's plenty of different ideas that float around from different parkruns, but you need something that's uniquely Australian that represents, if you will, the wider parkrun Australia audience for the parkrun adventurers. And something that covers our friends across the ditch as well, so... Yeah, my first thought was let's send a penguin over because naturally living near Phillip Island, all I think about is penguins because they're a big tourist input. But that's not really representative of our broader audience. So, Mel, did you have any ideas or is it still a work in progress?

00:47:37Melissa Ellis: Well, Simon and I were discussing it after we recorded last week. And I don't remember which one of us came up with the idea of it being an aeroplane. It might have been Simon, although Simon has previously worked for Qantas, so it wouldn't surprise me if it was Simon's idea. But I thought that was a great idea, a little toy aeroplane, because we do our Zoomies, so that is representative of the adventurers. And if we got a little Qantas plane, that would be very Australian-ish.

00:48:04Tony O'Connell: It would be.

00:48:05Melissa Ellis: And it could fly over there. And I thought we could encourage it to do a lap of every state and territory in Australia before it goes to the UK.

00:48:17Tony O'Connell: That sounds like a bit of a challenge, Mel. Yeah. We'd have to track it. How do we track it? We'd have to work that bit out as we go.

00:48:25Melissa Ellis: Well, people have to post it in Dazza's. Duh. Oh. Sorry, it's late at night. I'm brain dead. We can just read out every week where it is. But, yeah, if we can get it around Australia to every state and territory and then we get it, I know somebody who's headed to Bushy at Christmas.

00:48:45Tony O'Connell: We want it to touch over into New Zealand before it goes there.

00:48:49Melissa Ellis: Oh, damn. Maybe I'll buy it at the airport. I could be the first one. I could take it to New Zealand.

00:48:57Tony O'Connell: If only someone was going to New Zealand very soon that could do it.

00:49:01Melissa Ellis: Oh, my gosh.

00:49:03Tony O'Connell: Okay.

00:49:04Melissa Ellis: There's the plan.

00:49:05Tony O'Connell: There's a plan.

00:49:06Melissa Ellis: Am I allowed to bring it back? Oh, it's my rules. I guess I can. Do I have to leave it there?

00:49:13Tony O'Connell: You need to find someone that's coming back from New Zealand that can take it.

00:49:16Melissa Ellis: And does it have to be? So, like, do you have to hand it on to the next adventurer? I reckon it has to go adventurer to adventurer.

00:49:22Tony O'Connell: That'd be a good rule.

00:49:23Melissa Ellis: And it needs to be handed on at parkrun.

00:49:26Tony O'Connell: Yep. Yep.

00:49:26Melissa Ellis: Actually, at parkrun, you can't just go, oh, my neighbour's going to be going to, you know, Queensland. I'll give it to them and ask them to give it to old mate down the road who will take it to parkrun. No. We're going to make it a bit hard or it could get there next week.

00:49:46Tony O'Connell: Right.

00:49:47Melissa Ellis: Right. There's a challenge.

00:49:48Tony O'Connell: There's a challenge.

00:49:49Melissa Ellis: There's a challenge. All righty. I'm on to it. So can I have permission? The Office Lady's not here anymore. Who do I get permission from to draw money from the office account to buy the plane?

00:50:01Tony O'Connell: It's the money sitting on Simon's desk. Just grab that. He'll never notice. All right.

00:50:06Melissa Ellis: All right. That's it for our email section.

Club Corner

00:50:12Melissa Ellis: Now it's time for us to throw to Rachel with Club Corner.

00:50:15[14 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:50:29Rachel - Club Corner contributor: This is Rachel with Club Corner, where we talk about the what and why of parkrun clubs, and I am coming to you from Arrernte Country. Today I'm going large, a triple treat, prospector, miner, and professor, but not long, never fear. The first group today is prospector, this is a group of events with a word in their name of gems, precious metals, minerals, etc. In Australia we have five, and they are, Copper Trail, Diamond Creek, Emerald, Golden Beach, and Goldfields Reservoir parkruns, and they are in SA, Vic, Queensland, Queensland and Vic. Perhaps this should be called, My Precious. Can one of the boys do a golem impersonation? Our second group is related to the first. It's the miners. It's all the prospector events plus any with a name that includes rocks, sand, etc. in their name. So we have those five, plus another eleven, and a special bonus event. The prospectors include Gladstone QLD in Queensland, Kalgoorlie Boulder in WA, Karkarook in Vic, Quinns Rocks in WA, Rockhampton in QLD, Rockingham in WA, Rocks Riverside and Sandgate in QLD, Sandon Point in NSW, and finally Tannum Sands and White Rock in QLD. These are all pretty obvious, noting that, Karkarook, means, sandy place, in the Kulin languages. And what is the bonus event for this club? That would be Cairns in Queensland, get it? A cairn? Cairns? A stone cairn? Get it? Anyway... The final group for discussion today is the Professor Club. This one is crowdsourced, so is likely very incomplete, and is intended to be events that are on, or border, a university or school. In New South Wales we have Armidale, Avondale University College and Nulkaba parkruns. In Queensland we have Noosa, South Bank and St Lucia parkruns. Vic has Churchill and Gardiners Creek parkruns, and WA has Edinburgh Oval and Home of the 2023 Palm, University of Western Australia parkrun. If you know of more entries to the Professor Club, please drop parkrun adventurers an email on parkrunadventurers, all one word, at gmail.com. And remember, in parkrun life, all non-Milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun, so stay tuned for our future club corners.

00:52:45Tony O'Connell: Hey, Mel, coming back from Rachel, we heard all about the different clubs there. We heard about the Prospector Club, the Miners Club and the Professor Club. We've heard about the Professor one a few times. There's a few people chasing that one around. But I kind of like the idea of the Prospector Club. I like the Precious Rocks. that are in that one. What about you, Mel?

00:53:07Melissa Ellis: Well, I haven't been actively trying for those challenges. I guess the Professor one because I went out to Armidale. So I've got Armidale and Churchill and Gardiners Creek and UWA. So I've got a few. So I guess that one, if any, that I would be interested in. Yeah.

00:53:32Tony O'Connell: The Miners Club could be a potential for you there. Rockingham, it pops up again.

00:53:37Melissa Ellis: I know. That's just another reason to go to Rockingham.

00:53:42Tony O'Connell: You could tick off about 400 bits of different clubs by just going to Rockingham.

00:53:47Melissa Ellis: Yeah. And again, I don't think they know how important they are. They are very important.

Consolidated Club Report

00:53:54Melissa Ellis: But, Tony, what else is important is the adventurers Consolidated Club report for Saturday, the 26th of, no, wait one. I didn't change the date. For Saturday, the 6th of July, 2024, of a total of 657 members, 457 took place, took part on this date in 11 countries across, across, across 245 locations. Oh, you're doing really well, Tony. It's me that's getting all the tongue ties. In the UK, there were adventurers at 48 events, six in South Africa, three in the USA, two in the Netherlands and Canada, and one in Denmark, Japan, Italy, and Germany. Locally, we had adventurers at... 46 events in Kingsland, Victoria, and we were runners-up because the UK took us out again. There were 35 in New South Wales, 16 in South Australia, who had the money on West Australia, who only had 14. Tassie, the ACT, and the North Island were all on six, the South Island four, and there was one in the Northern Territory. Now, we did have a few comments on the Consolidated Club report. There is a possibility that it was a little bit inaccurate this week, but that is we can only report what we're given, and that is drawn from parkrun's very own Consolidated Club table.

00:55:19Tony O'Connell: Yes, Mel, sometimes it's a little bit difficult to extract the exact information that we need.

the Frond — Bridgetown parkrun, South Africa (largest international frond, five adventurers); Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan (largest Australian frond, ten adventurers)

00:55:25Tony O'Connell: But what we did extract was our largest international frond. There were five at Bridgetown in South Africa. They were Gurna Vandewoetmere, Bertie Sawyer, Marianne Smit... Kino Lee Classen and Joanna Wessels. We also had three at Queen's Belfast with our very own Alison, three at Southampton in the UK and we had three at Ambleside in Canada and I believe that might have been part of the Canada Special Day celebrations.

00:55:58Melissa Ellis: I would say so. And now the pilgrimage. We had Adrian Luscombe at event. No. Why have I got number 392? That must be how many people? No, that wouldn't be how many people were there, and it's not how many. I don't know.

00:56:14Tony O'Connell: That might be Adrian's 392nd parkrun. Maybe.

00:56:18Melissa Ellis: I copied that from somewhere. That's curious. Anyway, he ran 27.56. So good job, Adrian. And drop us a line to explain number 392. See where I got that. Maybe he came 392nd. That's what it was.

00:56:34Tony O'Connell: That'll be it.

00:56:35Melissa Ellis: Yes.

00:56:37[crosstalk]

00:56:37Tony O'Connell: Oh, Mel, it has been a long episode with all the gates. And Bushy didn't even have a gate.

00:56:42Melissa Ellis: No, but Sunil did confirm last week that he did in fact run the pilgrimage at Bushy. So thanks for letting us know that, Sunil. Ah, now, the largest frond in Australia was 10 adventurers at the Australian Botanic Garden, Mount Annan, and it was Philip Mount Stevens, and he's the giant barcode guy. There was Andrew Blanda, Darren and Lucille Pead, Natalie McMullen, Mark Weber, Wayne Whiteley, Vincenzo Cocco, and Ian and Lydia Knox. Now, Andrew Blanda popped into Dazza's and he said, I adventured out to Australian Botanic Garden, Mount Annan parkrun to keep my Rayfarer status and get myself a number twos. Oh, he's after the pooper scooper challenge. Found a friend, Mark Weber, who had decided to do this on the way out west. I was so not prepared for the course. Rolling hills, trail run and mud. Lots of slippery mud. Reminded me of a Spartan race or Tough Mudder. Glad I brought my old shoes. They're not really worth a dollar these days. Met Wayne from Wildflower after the race. Then met another Wayne from Dolls Point at the Gardens Cafe afterwards where Dazza's disciples served me a hot chocolate. And extra points to Andrew for slipping in the dollar reference.

00:58:02Tony O'Connell: Yep, got a couple in there again, Mel.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

00:58:04Tony O'Connell: Mel, the parkrun fairies have smiled upon me this week. After the last couple of weeks of being no launches and Simon getting all the launch glory, I'm proud to report that Sheriff Creek Wildlife Sanctuary parkrun launched this week in Canada. They're located near Elliott Lake in Ontario. The town was formed around uranium mining in the 1950s. The course itself has the shortest ever parkrun course description that I've ever read. Some of them go on and on and they get you confused. This one simply says, two loops on a trail through a conservation park. End of story, Mel, nice and short. This week they had 36 finishes, and would you believe 92% of those, or 33 out of the 36, were first time ever to parkrun? That's got to be the highest percentage I've ever seen, possibly due to the fact that they're a few hundred kilometres from their nearest parkrun.

00:59:06Melissa Ellis: It's not a prison parkrun, is it, TOC?

00:59:10Tony O'Connell: back check that no it's not no it's a public access one um we had only one of the field has done more than 50 parkruns um two of the field I think were on either two or three and 33 of them were first timer ever and they picked a great week to launch because there would have been a lot of excitement with uh Canada day so maybe they slipped under the radar I They slipped under the radar there. Speaking of slipping under the radar, Mel, I did miss Lightning Ridge two weeks ago, but they didn't process the results till Tuesday and that might have had a little bit to do with it.

00:59:51Melissa Ellis: I think there's a lot of people that know we record on Monday nights because a lot of things seem to happen on Tuesdays these days.

00:59:57Tony O'Connell: A lot of media releases come out on Tuesday, don't they? They do.

01:00:00Melissa Ellis: It's very annoying. Anyway, we also had a launch at Malling Rec parkrun in the UK. Now, it's got a double L, so I'm going to say it's Morling, but maybe it's Melling. I don't know. Anyway, they're just north of Brighton, and their launch saw 283 people complete the double out and back up an old railway cutting. A whopping 34 volunteers pitched in to help, and there were 19 first-timers. So welcome to the parkrun family.

01:00:33Tony O'Connell: Welcoming to parkrun, Mel, this week at Wishart in Queensland. There's a Wishart wedding themed event for Adrian and Lynette. They're asking people to dress up and bring some flowers from your garden to help celebrate. We'd love an event full of flower girls, ring bearers and groomsmen.

01:00:50Melissa Ellis: But apparently not bridesmaids.

01:00:53Tony O'Connell: Oh, there we go.

01:00:54Melissa Ellis: I just, you know, I just noticed. But no, that's wonderful. Congratulations to Adrian and Lynette, whoever you may be. We have adventurers that frequently frequent Wishart. So hopefully we might get some audio or we might get some reports coming out of Wishart to hear how the family or the new bride and groom enjoyed their day. So good luck to Wishart.

parkrun adventure challengelistener challenge

01:01:20Melissa Ellis: Hope you have a fun morning. But moving on, we probably should set a little challenge for next week, Toc, because it'll be Simon and Sarah next week, which we also plan to announce. But there you go. I just did. I think we said it last week. It's no surprise. I'm going to be away. So Sarah's stepping in for me. So what do you think? What are we going to get the adventurers to do this week?

01:01:43Tony O'Connell: No, I reckon we've made it pretty easy. We've had emojis. We've had different bits and pieces. Let's make it a bit of a challenge this week. One of our good friends from the UK, Helen Patricia, is very well known for her photos where she balances on their pop-ups that they have over in the UK. Or actually, people need to go and have a look and do a quick search. Go through Dazza's. You'll see Helen posts most week in Dazza's. So the challenge this week is to get a picture balancing on the top of the selfie frame, mean actually balancing on the selfie frame because they're only core flute you might need to have a think about that and think about how you can get a photo of yourself above the selfie frame we're open to interpretation yes I like that challenge and I guess for our international listeners that don't have selfie frames which is the UK people they can just do the On the pop-up or anything parkrun related, I think. Because not all events have selfie frames, even in Australia. A lot of events don't take them along. They only bring them out on special occasions. So think of it a little bit laterally.

01:03:00Melissa Ellis: Hmm. Okay. All right. So that is done and that is done and we're up to next parkrun day.

Sign-off

01:03:08Tony O'Connell: Mel, where are you next week? I think it's somewhere close by and handy.

01:03:13Melissa Ellis: It is. So I've changed my plans. I was all set to be going to Dunedin, but when I was at Junior's on Sunday morning, the lovely Nicola Wright was showing a lot of interest in my trip and we actually got the New Zealand map out and zoomed in to where my son actually is living. Now, I know that the closest major town is in fact Dunedin, which is why I kept saying that's probably where I was going to go. But guess what? He lives in some little country town that's outside of Dunedin. And the closest parkrun, well, there's two. One's Gore parkrun and one's Balclutha. So I'm actually thinking I am going to head to Balclutha. And do you want to know why?

01:03:57Tony O'Connell: Why is that now? They've got a bridge.

01:03:59Melissa Ellis: Oh. They've got a bridge that you run across. So I thought I might head there. So that's the plan so far. And it's also a 9 a.m. start. And it's a lot closer. It's about only 20 minutes from where Jake and Leah live. So when I need to get Ezra up and get everybody moving in the morning with the dog as well, that has to come with us. That should be a nice, convenient and maybe a little bit easier parkrun because I keep getting told Dunedin's a hard one. So I was a little bit concerned about that too, trying to drag the kids along to a difficult one and keep them all enthusiastic. Yeah, because they're actually only coming because it's my birthday. Well, the day before is my birthday. So that's my birthday present. They come to parkrun. Anyway, that's me. And what about you?

01:04:49Tony O'Connell: Well, I'm venturing far, far away to Inverloch. We're Inverloch parkrun this week. There's going to be a bit of an announcement after Inverloch parkrun. The team that are going to be running an Inverloch Running Festival next year are having their launch with the Shire just after parkrun. So I'll hang around and get some more details about the Inverloch Running Festival.

01:05:13Melissa Ellis: Oh, we've got a scoop.

01:05:15Tony O'Connell: That's it.

01:05:17Melissa Ellis: Okay. Fabulous.

01:05:18Tony O'Connell: So I'm looking forward to having lots of visitors in March next year for the Inverloch Running Festival.

01:05:26Melissa Ellis: And you can tell us all about it and what role you will be playing.

01:05:31Tony O'Connell: When I get told, you'll know.

01:05:32Melissa Ellis: Okay. Yes. So as we mentioned just before, Sarah and Simon will be joining you next week, bringing you all the week's adventures. And thank you very much for joining me again, TOC.

01:05:46Tony O'Connell: It's been my pleasure, Mel. It's always a pleasure to have a chat, even if some of our monologues were a little bit long tonight.

01:05:55Melissa Ellis: Yes, congratulations if you made it this far. But, everybody, as always, you can contact us via parkrun adventurers on Facebook or our email, which is, of course, parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. That's it for another week, and we'll see you all next week for more adventures.

01:06:05[outro theme playing]

01:07:06Unidentified speaker: Bye. Bye.