Episode 391 - The Rookie

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

Welcome

00:00:24Simon Mackley: Welcome to episode 391 of the parkrun adventurers Podcast, a podcast about life, if your life is all about parkrun. I'm Simon Mackley, and I'm coming to you, as always, from Quandamooka Country.

00:00:36Melissa Ellis: And I'm Melissa Ellis, coming to you from Wurundjeri Country. Hey Mel, how are you? I'm good, I'm good. How are you doing, Simon? Good. How's the nerves?

00:00:46Simon Mackley: Good. Let's rip the band-aid off. That was going to be right at the end. Yeah, it still can be. I've had plenty of nights where I've woken up at stupid o'clock in the morning thinking, have I done this? Have I done that? Do I need to go and buy this?

00:01:03Melissa Ellis: And, of course, we're referring to Simon's Ultra – no, Backyard Ultra that he is going to be competing in next weekend. But we can leave that till later if you like. Sure. Thank you. You've got another thing to talk about.

00:01:16Simon Mackley: I do. I do. I have been back through the Dexes because I haven't actually been on with you guys since this whole Dex thing came up. So I've looked at my Melodex. I've looked at my Tokidex, my Olidex, and my Ceradex. And the person that comes out on top is Mel with eight. Hooray! We don't want a chicken dinner. Exactly. Toc and Ollie tied on six and Sarah on five, which is pretty good seeing as though Sarah lives on the opposite side of the country.

00:01:47Melissa Ellis: That is pretty good. Now, did you perhaps know who might be your highest overall dex?

00:01:55Simon Mackley: I do know who my highest overall dex, and that would be Dorota on 124. Wow.

00:02:01Melissa Ellis: Wow.

00:02:01Simon Mackley: So yes.

00:02:03Melissa Ellis: Dorota wins.

00:02:06Simon Mackley: But she doesn't listen.

00:02:07Melissa Ellis: Oh, nevermind. Nevermind. But how was your parkrun day Simon?

00:02:15Simon Mackley: My parkrun day was lovely. I got to spend it with, um, I get to spend it on Quandamooka Country with Peter Pohlman and his sister, Jeanette. Uh, there was 61 people scans their barcode, uh, and 10 volunteers. Lota is a very small parkrun in comparison to a lot around it. So I had a look to see Wynnum, which is only a couple of Ks away. They had about 280. So yeah, 61 at Lota and 280 at Wynnum. But the course is quite different. Wynnum is all on concrete, whereas Lota has mixed terrain, grass, some concrete path. And as they said in the run, the run brief that there had been some the tide had come in overnight and that it was going to be wet down the southern end of the course so that made Peter laugh seeing as though he's come from The Beaches and The Beaches was almost cancelled on the weekend because of how big the surf actually was they had very little beach to go so yeah I ran it myself and then once Peter and Jeanette came back past the start line I joined them and walked the last sort of kilometre and a half going south and coming back. How was your parkrun day?

00:03:34Melissa Ellis: Oh, mine was very good, thank you. I went out to Peppertree parkrun on the lands of the Wurrung people and it was my sixth visit at event number 167. Interestingly, my fastest time on the course. I don't really know why. I must never have tried in the past because I'm certainly not at my fittest at the moment, but I joined fellow adventurers Adrian Hillyer, who you all know as the ED, and Emma Toll, Donna Markwick, Kylie Cooper and newest member David Johnston. And I enjoyed brunch with the event team afterwards and it was just a nice relaxed close to home parkrun morning. Excellent. Nothing quite remarkable at all, but I did. Did I say where I was going last week? I think I did not.

00:04:25Simon Mackley: Yeah, I don't think you did. No, I did not.

00:04:27Unidentified speaker: No.

00:04:28Melissa Ellis: Anyway, stay tuned. I know where I'm going next week.

00:04:30Simon Mackley: Oh, good. Yes, of course you do. I think you might have already announced it.

00:04:33Melissa Ellis: I did. Yeah, I pre-announced.

parkrun news bulletin

00:04:35Melissa Ellis: But anyway. Now, news and discussion. We heard, and we're going to bring it up here because it's Olympic related and the Olympics are going on at the moment. So it's topical. It is. We heard from Richard and he wrote in and said, hey, guys, for the list of international parkrunners, I can add the gold medalist Alex Yee from England and the silver medalist Hayden Wilde from New Zealand from the men's triathlon. So thank you, Richard, for letting us know about that. I do believe Alex Yee's been mentioned in parkrun social media already, this Olympic campaign.

00:05:12Simon Mackley: Yes, his grandfather goes as well. So I know Danny talks about it on With Me Now that, yeah, Alex Yee's grandfather goes to one of the parkruns in London as well.

00:05:23Melissa Ellis: I wonder where Hayden Wilde comes from in New Zealand. We can always. Somebody can write in and tell us. Yeah. Have you been enjoying the Olympics, Simon? What's your favourite event?

00:05:33Simon Mackley: Oh, gosh. I loved seeing, what's her name, Saya Sakakibara. Oh, yes. Amazing. And I had no idea about her brother's story about crashing out and having a traumatic brain injury as well and now he's a Paralympic rower yeah so he got to be there to see his sister get a gold and yeah her boyfriend as well won a medal as part of the French team and yeah all three of the sorry all three of the medals went to French riders in the men's event so that was a bit of fun I've also enjoyed the skateboarding as well seeing the young Chinese skateboarder who was just so cool up against you know some people that are older than her and Yeah, I think it's more the action sports at the Olympics. It's really, it's really been interesting. And last night watching 110 metre hurdles. And the 400 turtles as well. That's been interesting. I'm not just watching the Australians. I'm watching for anybody that, yeah.

00:06:31Melissa Ellis: There's other countries?

00:06:32[crosstalk]

00:06:32Simon Mackley: Yeah, apparently.

00:06:33Melissa Ellis: I like the swimming.

00:06:34Simon Mackley: I love the swimming.

00:06:35Melissa Ellis: I've been getting up in the morning and putting the telly on at a ridiculous time. Well, because I'm up at a ridiculous time. But it's nice to put the TV on. And as I'm moving around the house preparing for my day, Watching gold medals be won is kind of cool.

00:06:51Simon Mackley: It's kind of like we expect it, though, for the swimmers. Like, I love watching the swimming and I will sit there and watch. And I did watch it for all last week. But it's nice to also see those people you've never heard of that come from Australia or, you know, like the woman from St. Lucia who won the first medal ever for St. Lucia in, what was it, 100 metres, the sprint the other night. Like, that's, yeah, that's the stories I like to see.

00:07:16Melissa Ellis: Yeah, and it's been in the media, that shooter. Oh, yeah, the Turkish shooter. The guy who didn't have any of the fancy equipment standing there, just pointing his weapon and hand in the pocket.

00:07:28Simon Mackley: I love those stories. In his jeans and a T-shirt.

00:07:31Melissa Ellis: Yeah. Yeah. He's no frills kind of Olympian. Exactly.

00:07:35Simon Mackley: It's like the.

00:07:36Melissa Ellis: I like that.

00:07:37Simon Mackley: What was his name? Eddie the Eel from, was it Uganda? The swimmer that, at the Sydney Olympics. Yeah, it's nice to see these people that are, Yeah, not that well-known, and they're just giving it a go for their country.

00:07:50Melissa Ellis: But what else is of news this week, Simon? There's a special day.

00:07:55Simon Mackley: There is a special day. So Singapore gets their special day, and we've been told that they're going to get 40 millimetres of rain predicted, according to our friend Tony O'Connell. So, yeah, the only event that's declared so far is Bishan, and Singapore will be commemorating Bishan their independence from Malaysia in 1965, this Friday coming. So that will be exciting for Singapore.

00:08:22Melissa Ellis: And we will have some adventurers over there, I know for a fact. Excellent. Our friend Janet Reid is headed over for the special day. As is the very famous Eric Banner. Oh, really? Yes.

00:08:35Simon Mackley: Okay. He gets around. He does. He does. Very famous. That's awesome. Is he going via Jetstar? You don't know. I don't know.

00:08:46Melissa Ellis: I don't know. But that wraps up our news and discussion. It does. Short and sweet this week.

00:08:50[background music]

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:08:52Melissa Ellis: So time now for us to listen to some new voices in our roving report.

00:09:04Unidentified speaker: Thank you.

Roving report Ruth Perkins — Rotherham parkrun

00:09:07Ruth Perkins: morning parkrun adventurers I'm coming to you from the UK it's Ruth Perkins and I have taken the perilous trip this morning across the pennines from Manchester over to Rotherham which is near Sheffield and I have seen such a beautiful parkrun I have to say it's a gorgeous three lapper and it's undulating some might say Yorkshire flat There's lots of things to see on the course. And yeah, I'm just really taken aback by how lovely it is. So I will come back to you in a moment with an interview with one of the people who set up the parkrun here at Rotherham.

Talking to Kim Phillips — Co-founder of Rotherham parkrun, former Rotherham Council officer, 300+ volunteer credits

00:09:54Ruth Perkins: Hi parkrun adventurers, I'm back and I have Kim Phillips with me here and I've asked her to tell us a little bit about Rotherham parkrun. So I understand you were involved with setting up the parkrun here?

00:10:06Kim Phillips: Yes, so we set up the parkrun 11 years ago now. It was the Rotherham Council volunteers that started, myself and Kate Green, who is an amazing person Kate had a massive stroke a couple of years ago and has worked her way back she's still one of the volunteers now she's absolutely amazing so Kate and myself and somebody called Chris Siddle who was the development officer for sport set up the parkrun here and it's just gone from strength to strength we used to have about 20 odd people We average around 180, 200. It's a beautiful park. Lots of trees, all hard surface, although we've got a few hills. So it's absolutely lovely because we have quite a lot of locals coming regular. You can also see them developing and really having the benefit of running and parkrunning, the social aspect. We have a lovely cafe here, everybody can have a drink after and have a little chat to each other we very much support we have again today we've got a Duke of Edinburgh student who's doing the timekeeping actually along with the others so we support lots of other activities and everything as well as very much trying to make sure that everybody's enjoying the running we've got a particular volunteer that's a little bit different here because we have a move-in volunteer who the focus of that is to just help the the runners towards the end to get over the line they might be new runners they might be new to Our Park but it's a little bit different we've we've put that one out there so we have that

00:11:46Ruth Perkins: I can see that wonderful person charging up the hill right now. Well, the undulation. I think I've seen him come up here about three or four times already, helping people up the hill.

00:11:59Kim Phillips: That particular volunteer will do about 7 or 8k, I think, instead of the five because they just keep going back checking out on the ones that might be struggling or might just need that bit of extra encouragement we call it our moving volunteer because that's it they're still cheering they're still encouraging but they're running with them so it's a wonderful idea I can see it on people's faces as they're coming towards you towards the end how they're

00:12:25Ruth Perkins: They really are pushing themselves with that support there.

00:12:28Kim Phillips: Just to get them over the line, that's what we want to do. We just want to get them over the line. We have a lot of groups that do the Couch to 5K, and the 5K is their first parkrun. So we always celebrate that with the local groups. And I think, you know, we do get quite a lot of tourists, and they come and sort of say, oh, it's a bit hilly, but it's also a lovely park.

00:12:52Ruth Perkins: Yeah, it's so beautiful. I'd kind of describe it as Yorkshire flat. Would you agree with that? Oh, yeah, definitely Yorkshire flat. Yeah.

00:12:56[crosstalk]

00:12:59Kim Phillips: Well, let's go with that just after Yorkshire Day as well, yeah.

00:13:01Ruth Perkins: Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, so for people who don't know, the 1st of August is supposedly Yorkshire Day, but a lot of people would tell you that every day is Yorkshire Day.

00:13:12Ali Sheppard: Oh, my God, so true.

00:13:13Ruth Perkins: As someone who lives in Manchester, you know, I'll think about that. So as I've been around the course, it's so beautiful. There's loads of really little interesting things to see. There was a pond we passed at some point.

00:13:28Kim Phillips: Yeah, we've got ponds, we've got children's play areas, lots of bits that are turned over for wildlife and try and get the biodiversity and the different sort of habitats and everything, so yeah it's a lovely park it's absolutely fantastic and we just we'd love to see more people come and actually experience what a fantastic parkrun it is here oh yes I agree everyone should come to this one I've really enjoyed it today so um we'd love to know a little bit about your parkrunning history so you set this one up had you done many parkruns before then had you visited many not at all to be perfectly honest I was uh let's say encouraged by my colleagues because I did work for uh Rotherham Council so I was encouraged by my colleagues to be fair it was on the back of a lot of stuff that was really really obvious around the country 2012 Olympics and everything so it was on the back of we wanted to set something up in Rotherham we set this one up in Rotherham four weeks before the one at Rother Valley which if anybody knows is quite close we try and do everything a little bit better than Rother Valley a little lower local rivalry but no I've not done any parkruns before I've still not actually run a parkrun after all these years nearly well over 300 volunteers but I have volunteered at other parkruns I've volunteered at Northwich I've volunteered at I went to Jersey wherever I can if I'm going on holiday if there's a parkrun that I can get to and my husband thinks okay go on then I will get up early on the Saturday on my holiday to get you there jersey is fantastic amazing parkrun there they've got a little local rivalry with the guernsey one oh yeah but obviously they've they have the situation that they could have like hundreds more one week from next dependent on the tourism so uh so yeah it was he's a really lovely one at Jersey. Northwich is amazing as well, really lovely place at Northwich I've been there a few times But, yeah, I'm generally stuck to my home parkrun.

00:14:39[crosstalk]

00:15:41Ruth Perkins: Fair enough, yeah. And have you made any trips abroad at all for park trip?

00:15:47Kim Phillips: No, I haven't. I did look. I mean, we tend to go to Canaries and I'm not too sure why they don't. They've not got one set up in the Canaries. Not yet. To be honest, we also, we go to Gibraltar quite a lot. And although they haven't got officially a parkrun yet, they have their Canberra Lever on a Saturday morning so again I've been to that just to see what goes off there and I'm in their group so whenever we're there on a Saturday I always try and get an encourage and support the Canberra Lever there so yeah they're they're kind of I've tended to go to places unfortunately they don't have parkruns but I always check it out I always check it out before we go to see if there's one that we can just pop into get get you know a little bit of inspiration from a point of view of they're doing it slightly different and can we do that um Just one that we were thinking about. We've discovered that a volunteer role that they do in some parkruns is having somebody come in early and doing a bit of litter picking. So we're thinking about changing that in the next few weeks. So he's just getting information really from other parkruns, which is fantastic.

00:16:24[crosstalk]

00:16:45[crosstalk]

00:16:53Ruth Perkins: Yeah, that's lovely to hear that you're still looking for ways to innovate and improve and encourage more people. That's really wonderful. Thank you so much for chatting to me. Hopefully you'll see lots more lovely people here. Thank you very much.

00:16:59[crosstalk]

00:17:08Kim Phillips: Absolutely. Thank you.

00:17:11Ruth Perkins: So there you have it, Rotherham parkrun, and I can see the lovely moving volunteer bringing a few more people in up the hill, and that's really lovely to see. Oh, there are some big smiles on their faces. So that's it for me for today. I hope you've enjoyed this report and I look forward to bringing you another one from somewhere else pretty soon. Take care, everyone.

Roving report Ali Sheppard — Thames Path parkrun, Woolwich

00:17:40Ruth Perkins: Bye.

00:17:41Ali Sheppard: Good morning, parkrun adventurers, or should I say g'day? A new voice for you here. This is Ali Sheppard in London, in the UK, and I am currently at Mile End Tube Station on the London Underground on my way to Thames Path parkrun, Woolwich. A new parkrun for me. It's one I've tried to get to a few times before and something's always gone wrong. Speak to you when I'm there. So I have arrived at Woolwich and I am standing by one of the features of this parkrun. At the start there are a number of iron figures, shall I say? It's a sculpture of a number of figures It's actually called Assembly by Peter Burke. And when you arrive, when you walk down towards Woolwich, you look and you think, gosh, they've got a lot of volunteers. Because these statues on a Saturday morning are decorated in the pink parkrun hivers that we use in the UK. And so it's a great place for people to gather at the Assembly, at the Assembly Point, and have their photos taken with a pop-up sign, and standing next to these iron men and it's a beautiful day here this morning I'm hoping it's not going to be too hot um but at the moment it's sunny it's um about 15 degrees so it's it's perfect for a parkrun and I'll tell you about the other feature later on Morning parkrun adventurers, it is now 10.20pm and I'm back at the Assembly, the sculptures of the Iron Men, having completed Thames Path parkrun, Woolwich. It was an amazing parkrun, it was absolutely wonderful, we had a beautiful day for it. This parkrun is unusual, as I mentioned before, for a number of features. One is that it's not in a park. It actually goes along the path that runs alongside the River Thames on the south side of the river. And we spiral up the hill and from the top of the hill there are fantastic views across East London. And the hill is a source of controversy. So this parkrun has been going for just over a year. It's event 61 today. And when this parkrun started, there was a lot of talk that this hill was a curly-whirly because it goes up around the hill. And there is a famous parkrun, a curly-whirly famous parkrun in Somerset called Somerdale Pavilion. Now, when this Thames Path Curly Whirly course was built, there was a lot of banter between the two parkruns and they said this one isn't because it goes up a hill. So it's actually a walnut whip.

Talking to Lawrence Wong — Run Director, Thames Path parkrun, Woolwich

00:20:43Ali Sheppard: Now, also with me here today is Lawrence Wong, who is one of the Run Directors. So tell us a little bit about your parkrun history. So did you parkrun before this one started?

00:20:55Lawrence Wong: I did, yes. I used to run a lot at Victoria Docks, which is just up the road from here near the Excel Centre. It was our local, but other than that, I was not a big parkrunner.

00:21:09Ali Sheppard: Oh, wow. Okay.

00:21:10Lawrence Wong: Not really.

00:21:11Ali Sheppard: Okay. So how many parkruns have you done? I think I've done about five.

00:21:16Lawrence Wong: 37 of one, probably a similar number volunteering.

00:21:21Ali Sheppard: Fantastic, fantastic. Can you name your three, well, I don't like to say favourite parkruns because it's like naming your favourite child, but maybe three parkruns and you're not allowed to say your home one, so you're not allowed to say Thames Path. Three that are memorable or...

00:21:26[crosstalk]

00:21:37Lawrence Wong: Okay, so I've done one in Dublin, so I've done Peel and that's gorgeous views going out into the harbour which I think is absolutely stunning. Holyrood in Scotland is absolutely fantastic and it was actually the weekend just after Nicola Sturgeon resigned. That is my honourable mention to you guys. And I think Whitley Bay down in the northeast. So that was the weekend of the Great North Run.

00:22:11Ali Sheppard: Right.

00:22:11Lawrence Wong: So that's a beautiful, beautiful parkrun. Go right out to the coast towards, just past South Shields. And it's a great little, it's a good gig that is actually.

00:22:21Ali Sheppard: Fantastic. And I do love a parkrun that goes along the coast. And in some respects, this Thames Path, you know, you're going along the Thames, you can see the boats and you can see the Woolwich Ferry going backwards and forwards.

00:22:35Lawrence Wong: Yeah, you can do. I think it's a bit of fun. It's a good gig. I would say it's in one of the poorer parts of London we are at the moment and so it is a community offering trying to get members of the community who aren't necessarily so associated with health and well-being And it's getting them out. We've got a really, really great ethnic, diverse community, significant African community here, and members of them have joined us. And, you know, it's been really, really lovely to have this started here. And it's really, really exciting, to be honest.

00:23:16Ali Sheppard: Yeah, absolutely. And today all the volunteer positions were taken by a local running club, is that right?

00:23:25Lawrence Wong: That is right. So Thamesmead Running Club took us over today. They all filled up all of our positions and they were all fantastic today.

00:23:35Ali Sheppard: Yep, fantastic. And people are packing away now. I can see the Run Director is packing away. And it's amazing. We're right by the Woolwich Royal Arsenal Pier. And where it was a hive of activity now, it's a lot calmer. And you can see the Ironmen statues without people, around them and a number of cannon behind us because we're right by the the old Woolwich Arsenal where the the gun factory it's a very historic location and a very unusual setting for a parkrun and um I think it's it's absolutely fantastic and I'm sure I will come back again brilliant please do excellent thank you very much Lawrence thank you bye adventurers

00:24:15[background music]

00:24:29Simon Mackley: And we're back from our roving reports. So we had two roving reports from two UK listeners, Ruth and Ali. And I'm very jealous of Ali at Woolwich, as it's somewhere I used to go when I was living in London back in the mid-90s. Both Woolwich and Greenwich on a Sunday summer afternoon was a great place to hang out. That was well before I was a runner, though. And I had this sneaking suspicion that Ruth was a bit of an adventurer. And oh my gosh, is she ever. She's done 143 parkruns at 143 different locations. So hasn't doubled up anywhere yet. And she's done 75 volunteers at 74 different locations. So a massive parkrun adventurer is Ruth Perkins.

00:25:17Melissa Ellis: Well done. Nice to hear from both ladies coming to us from the UK. Yes.

Dazza's

00:25:23Melissa Ellis: But this week, Simon, our Dazza's challenge was to insert the word jumpy into your Dazza's post. And we did have quite a few jumpies.

00:25:34Simon Mackley: We did. And this week, Dazza has said, it's International Clown Week this week. Unfortunately, you'll never see any of us adventurers in colourful or odd outfits, and we, just like Dazza, take everything very seriously. How did you parkrun this week? Did you juggle all your commitments to get your parkrun in? Maybe the cold gave you a bit of a red nose? Or did you fit a lot of people in a small car to get to your adventure? However you went to parkrun this weekend, park your unicycle at the door and come on in and tell Dazza.

00:26:08Melissa Ellis: And first we heard from Rex Gream, continuing his American adventures in, obviously, the USA. And he said, I was a bit jumpy at the start of my third US parkrun at Renton parkrun, but I leapt out at the start and sprung into stride to settle in at the five miles. miles per kilometre pace. Is that correct?

00:26:29Simon Mackley: It should be five miles per hour. Not Colombo, MPK, it should be MPH, I think. I don't know.

00:26:37Melissa Ellis: Anyway, no other kangaroos, aka Aussies, but at least there was shade for the majority of the course, something the first two sadly lacked. Completed adventurer Zoomy to finish. RD Sarah ably led a good group of volleys, has become my favourite US parkrun in a single bound. And then he had in brackets, sorry, no photo.

00:26:58Simon Mackley: And we also heard from Andy Airey. So he said, completed my fielding today, which is 250 different UK events at Medina on the Isle of Wight, a small island eight kilometres south of the UK mainland. 80 of the Airey Airways posse joined me for the 10 minute jumpy hovercraft crossing, which is a unique way to travel to an event. We filled all 70 seats each way and others had to take a later crossing. And there was a photo of the posse in front of the hovercraft.

00:27:30Melissa Ellis: Wow. Back in Australia and in the Great Estate, we heard from Adrian Homburg. And he said a nice morning at a mini frond at Birdsland Reserve parkrun this morning. This was followed by a fabulous breakfast nearby afterwards. It was nice to meet some fellow jumpy adventurers. So there was no photo, but I did look up the Consolidated Club report and to see who joined Adrian. And it was Cindy Robins, Bill O'Donoghue, Dawny and Jodie Maisie.

00:27:59Simon Mackley: Fantastic. And over on the West Side, we heard from Chloe Bravos. We were up before the sun and took the long drive down to the beautiful Jarrahdale Heritage parkrun. But there was no clowning around with the chilly temp. We were a bit jumpy at the start line, trying to keep warm. And those noses sure were red. Such a lovely welcoming group of regulars with milestones to boot today. Do we have a heritage challenge? If not, let's start one. I know there are a few around. And there was a family pic of Team Bravos as we used in the Consolidated Club report post.

00:28:35Melissa Ellis: Hmm. We do have a few heritages. I think Victoria has a few. Yes. Now, we heard from Eric Banner, who came to us from Tasmania, and he said, I jumped on board a plane to get to Kate Reed parkrun today. With some rain at the start, I decided to jump back in the car after my media appearance and let Martine Barrot and Andrew Johnston go out to jump the puddles on the trail. And there was a photo of Eric with Martine and Andrew.

00:29:04Simon Mackley: and next we heard from Sherry Brandtman from New South Wales rd Panania parkrun to celebrate Abby Brantman joining the hundred volley milestone club all dressed in black for the occasion there was cake and lots of cheers all round and some jumpy jumpy involved to avoid muddy shoes fellow adventurers in attendance in volley roles and on the course And there was a volley pick. The other adventurers at Panania were Cathy and Brett Crispin, Dave So and Joanne Lowe.

00:29:35Melissa Ellis: Now back over to the UK, we heard from Ian Thompson and he said, went to Salisbury parkrun this morning with the dude, coordinated in matching shorts with him, then jumped on scanning afterwards, despite being eight or nine minutes slower than I would be normally. There was two kangaroo emojis and I don't know what that other emoji is. I'm a bit worried it's a shooter, but I don't know. Then Park faffed while in town after breakfast, subjecting the boy to multiple charity shops and a laughing emoji. I don't know if the boy doesn't like the shopping part. Anyway, there was a pic of Ian wearing his adventurer's buff and his little friend in said matching shorts, which were very bright, with the pop-up. And nice work on the jumpy emojis.

00:30:21Simon Mackley: Yes, indeed. And staying in the UK, we heard from Ali Sheppard again. I missed a turning at Orpington today and was going completely the wrong way until I heard the Tail Walker shout, sunflower lady, you've gone the wrong way. I had to retrace my steps and was cursing having added about 45 seconds onto my time. But I was jumping for joy like a jumping kangaroo. When the results came in and I found I'd completed stopwatch bingo on my 238th parkrun. If I hadn't gone wrong, I wouldn't have got it. Afterwards, we went to visit nearby Chartwell, the home of Winston Churchill, where one of his famous quotes was written on the wall and seemed particularly apt today. Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never in nothing, great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. And there was a photo of Ali in her sunflower hat and skirt at Orpington. And Ali also shared a screenshot showing she completed stopwatch bingo. Congrats, Ali.

00:31:30Melissa Ellis: I'm jealous. I'm jealous. 238. I'm still going at 445. And still got one to go, right? Yeah. So good. Well done. Now, we heard from TOC, and he said, Sorry, Dazza, I don't do bright clothes. Might have to change my wardrobe with a laughing face emoji. Latte and cheesecake, please, with the praying hands emojis. Won't get a chance to listen to the podcast till later. I'm a bit jumpy about missing the code word. Ah, he was being a bit cryptic, but it's lies. Toc was zooming in his adventurers top on course at Trebeck Reserve and he looked very cold. And he is well known for wearing the brightest shorts you'll find on a man in the entire parkrun community.

00:32:16Simon Mackley: I was going to say exactly that. Like, you can't miss Toc. If you're not sure that it's Toc, wait till either he opens his mouth or you look at what he's wearing.

00:32:28Melissa Ellis: Of course, you just mean because his voice is distinct.

00:32:31Simon Mackley: Correct. That's all I mean. That's all I meant was that you can hear TOC's voice. Yeah. Anyway, Calum Burrell from the UK again. The last time I ran a parkrun, I was a bit humpty dumpty. So the road to recovery means less of the jumpy. Lyme Park can be a little bit lumpy and bumpy, but a great day was had. So I was a lot less grumpy. As the Stone Roses once eloquently put it, I'm no clown. I won't back down. Don't need you to tell me what's going down. And it wasn't going to be me falling at Lyme Park. And there was a picture of Calum and Lindsay with the pop-up at Lyme Park.

00:33:12Melissa Ellis: Good job, Simon. I'm glad I gave you that one. Yeah. Or did you give it to yourself? I don't know.

00:33:17Simon Mackley: No, I didn't give it to you. You gave me that one and Winston Churchill's quote. I'm like, gosh.

00:33:23Melissa Ellis: Do you want to know the trick? The names were already there and I just went do-do-do-do-do, finding all the Dazza's contributions, not looking at whose names they were. I promise. Fair enough. I hand on my heart.

the Obi Award — Ian Thompson

00:33:36Simon Mackley: Fair enough. Hey, Mel, I think you've got the Obilope.

00:33:39Melissa Ellis: I do. Have you got the camera?

00:33:42Simon Mackley: Oh, I do have the camera. Let me just get that out. Obilope, yep. Got that.

00:33:48Melissa Ellis: Okay. And this week's Obi goes to... Ian Thompson! Well done, Ian. Congratulations on your very brightly coloured attire this week. Closely followed, I would say, too, in a very impressive sunflower outfit. Oh, yes, indeed. It was a toss-up this week, wasn't it? Ali Sheppard coming a very close second this week.

00:33:50[background music]

Emails

00:34:23Melissa Ellis: Now... Maybe over to you to read the email?

00:34:26Simon Mackley: Okay, sure. We haven't put a name against it, so let's go. We've got mail. You've got mail. So we heard from Greg Garner, and he said, Hi, Mel and team. In last week's episode of the pod, you asked the question on whether there was a kangaroo mascot called Matilda at one of the games held here in Australia. You are correct, as Matilda was the mascot of the 1982 Commonwealth Games held in Brisbane. Most people recall the iconic moment when she was winking while travelling around the stadium during the opening ceremony. Also at another stage during the ceremony, a number of children performing in it came out of her. Fun fact is that Matilda still exists and is located at a petrol station located about 20 minutes south of Gympie at Traverston, just off the Bruce Highway, as you're heading towards Brisbane. Another big thing for people to visit.

00:35:17Melissa Ellis: I can recall those Commonwealth Games in Brisbane. I think I kept a scrapbook. I would have been maybe in grade six when those games were on. And I also see Matilda feature regularly on social media because there's a Facebook page for big things in Australia and people will frequently stop at that service station and get a selfie or a photo with the giant Matilda and post it in that Facebook group. And as I am an avid fan of anything that is big and great, hopefully I can locate Matilda myself one day. Now, the Bruce Highway, was that one that Rachel mentioned?

00:36:02Simon Mackley: No, it wasn't the Bruce Highway. That was the Olympic Highway.

00:36:07Melissa Ellis: Ah, okay. What a shame. Oh, well, no, we would need a Commonwealth Highway. I give up. Anyway, we did have another email, but we're going to read that one a bit later and you will see why.

Club Corner

00:36:20Melissa Ellis: But for now, let's throw to Rachel for this week's Club Corner.

00:36:24[13 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:36:37Rachel: 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. A little birdie has whispered in my ear about another highway that could do with some love, and unlike the non-Olympian effort required to get two events to tick off the Olympic Highway route, this one covers two states and has 14 events along the way. Today, we are talking about the New England Highway. It goes from Yarraman in Queensland down to Hexham in New South Wales, or visa versa. North to south it travels past Highfields, Toowoomba, Picnic Point Parklands, South Toowoomba, Warwick, Stanthorpe, Jubilee parkrun, Tenterfield, Australian Standing Stones Open Bracket Glen Innes Close Bracket, Armidale, Tamworth, Bill Rose Sports Complex Open Bracket Scone Close Bracket, Karoola Park Open Bracket Muswellbrook Close Bracket, Singleton, and Maitland parkruns. Phew! This is an option for those travellers who take one of the inland routes on the eastern coast. What else do we have for today? How far is a parkrun? As we know, every course is 5,000 metres aka 5K long. And that this 5,000 metres has been accurately measured by a professional measuring wheel. So how better to celebrate this 5K than by collecting 5Ks. There are 21 options to choose from. Kadina Trail. Kalgoorlie-Boulder. Kamay. Kangaroo Island. Karkarook. Karoola Park. Kate Reed. Katherine Hot Springs. Kawana. Kedron. Kelvin Grove. Kennington Reservoir. Kerang Regional. Kilmore Racecourse Walking Track. Kingscliff. Kingston Park. Kirkdale Reserve. Kirra. KM Reedy Reserve. Koonwarra. Or. Kununurra. The final club today is small, but appealing and is eponymous with an Australian TV media drama. First hint, it ran for 12 years. Second hint, it was on Channel 7. Are you yelling into the void about which teledrama that was? I know that that description doesn't narrow it down much... Okay, it's not a country practice, as that ran for 14 years. Nor is it, GP, as that was only 8 seasons and was on the ABC. Nor is it, The Flying Doctors, as that was Channel 9 for 6 seasons. Do you give up? It is all Saints, and the parkrun club consists of St. George, St. Lucia and St. Peter's. A neat thing is that all of the Saints are also in the people club, so get ticking on those boxes. That's your lot for the week. And remember, in parkrun life, all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun. So stay tuned for our future club corners.

00:39:17Simon Mackley: And we're back from Rachel, who went through a few more clubs. So we have everything on the New England Highway, which, yeah, there was quite a few in there. And I see, Mel, that you have South Toowoomba and Armidale. I've got two. Yay. And I've got just South Toowoomba. So I need to pull my socks up there. And then there was the 5K Club. So 21 options in Australia. And I see, Mel, that you have how many? 10Ks. 10K. Amazing.

00:39:48Melissa Ellis: That is something I track, how many letters. I've got a spreadsheet for that, a page in my spreadsheet. Cool.

00:39:54Simon Mackley: I've got six. And it's interesting. There was, like, a lot of them seem to be, like, I mean, you've done a lot in Victoria. I've done a lot in Queensland. There doesn't seem to be a heap in New South Wales. Like, I have done Kamay and I've done Kingscliff. But, yeah, most of mine are Queensland. And then the last one was the All Saints. And I was a bit thrown by the TV reference there. I do remember the show, but I was thinking more of the English pop band All Saints, which was around the time of The Beach, the movie with Leonardo DiCaprio.

00:40:30Melissa Ellis: Oh, okay. I'll believe you.

00:40:33Simon Mackley: You're like, ooh. So I have two of the three and the other one is a five and a half hour drive away.

00:40:41Melissa Ellis: And I've only got one, St Peter's. Yeah. And that popped up, didn't that pop up last week when I was talking to Ollie? Oh, that was only because that's in our index.

00:40:51Simon Mackley: Oh, you've done together.

00:40:52Melissa Ellis: We were both at St Peter's. That was the first parkrun Ollie and I ran together at. Another reference. Okay.

00:40:59Simon Mackley: That's the first parkrun I ever did, St Peter's. Wow. They're event number one and my event number one.

00:41:06Melissa Ellis: So, yes.

Consolidated Club Report

00:41:07Melissa Ellis: Very good. But, Simon, time to turn our attention to the adventurers Consolidated Club Report for Saturday, the 3rd of August, 2024. Of a total of 669 members, 510 took part. I think that's the first time we've got over 510. It is because I've been listening, waiting for months for us to go over 500. Yes. On this date, in nine countries across 258 locations. In the UK, there were adventurers at 45 events. There were six in South Africa and the USA, three in Ireland, two in Italy, one in Denmark and Germany. But locally, we had adventurers at... 58 events in Queensland. Yay! Gold medal. And 45 events in Victoria, tying with the UK. Coming in next was New South Wales with 43. There were 13 on the West Side, 11 in South Australia, 10 in Tassie, 6 in the ACT. The North Island had 5, 2 in the Northern Territory and 1 on the South Island.

00:42:14Simon Mackley: Excellent.

the Frond

00:42:16Simon Mackley: And the largest frond. So the largest frond in Australia was a frond of 12 at Pirrama parkrun, which is the newest one in Sydney. And we had Ingrid Botha, Laura Amos, Helen and Steve Davis, Renata Koch, Sheila Sharma, Rosie Aloe, Sam and Luke Schroder, Roberta Winters, Stephen Cox and Kevin Pickup.

00:42:42Melissa Ellis: And the pilgrimage this week, nobody at Bushy. No. Never mind. But the international frond the largest of that sort was Medina Isle of Wight with seven adventurers, which is the before-mentioned Andy Airey Airways adventure. Yes. And it was... Stuart Henderson, James Avery, Mark Perkins, Martin Waller, Heather Morgan, Rhianna Taylor and Andy Airey, of course. Now, I have a special mention for Ross-on-Wye parkrun. They had four adventurers, being Nigel Lane, Monty Slade, Nadege Rudder, and Pauline Warrender. And Monty Slade popped into Dazza's, and he said, Pace 25 at Ross-on-Wye parkrun's fifth birthday for my blue heart. I don't know what that means. Did Monty have a milestone? Anyway, in brackets, still waiting for the return of the baton. But here it's coming back home soon. And he added some kangaroo emojis, which I assume was in light of our jumpy theme. Yes. We interrupt this broadcast to say that we did do our homework after the fact, and it was, in fact, Monty Slade's 500th parkrun. We want to wish you congratulations, Monty. It couldn't go unheralded.

00:43:45[background music]

00:44:13Simon Mackley: And remember, parkrun adventurers, that you can add the Adventurers Club as one of your five affiliations on your parkrun profile.

00:44:15[background music]

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

00:44:30Simon Mackley: as last week we did and we had one in New Zealand called Ashburton Domain and it makes New Zealand parkruns now 50 events wide which has been amazing so I think there's been seven launches this year so far so they're on an absolute run at the moment and I know there's more upcoming So instead of reading out the normal thing that comes from the event page, I'm actually going to read an email, and this is the email we've held over from earlier. Hi, team. Tanya and I ventured one and a half hours southwest to Ashburton on Friday night with our little caravan in tow. We stayed at a local camping ground very similar to the Bathurst Showgrounds camp. A 6.30 alarm found us waking up to minus five degree frost. We defrosted the ute and drove 10 minutes back into town for the inaugural Ashburton Domain parkrun. Many friends and parkrun acquaintances made the journey to Ashfagus, a country town of around 35,000 people. The snow-capped Southern Alps looked amazing in the background. The new parkrun is in the town's domain. It's a two-lap course through garden paths and parkland in a two-loop bowtie shape. 185 people attended the inaugural parkrun. 68 of those were first timers to parkrun and 29 volunteers. After we went to black and white cafe for park faff, coffee, scone and muffin. The volunteers did a great job and the gardens will be amazing in a few weeks with spring flowers on show. We hear that more new events are on the way soon and we will also have some touristing planned to Invercargill and Wellington in the coming weeks. Brunner will be missing a few more parkruns, but he enjoys his holidays at the canals. And we're back at home at Pegasus next weekend, so we'll be in full flight. So I'm towed around the lake. Bye for now, Brett and Tanya.

00:46:30Melissa Ellis: Very good. And has New Zealand had any events that have closed? Or is that literally they got to 50 without having lost an event?

00:46:40Simon Mackley: I had this conversation with Alison King only this afternoon.

00:46:44Unidentified speaker: Oh.

00:46:45Simon Mackley: Sorry. They've had one that has been closed because they're doing some major renovation works to the park, but another one opened in its place. I'm trying to think of the name of it. I think it was Puroroa and it was replaced by, I want to say it was something like Te Hakaki or something. So that's one of them. And yeah, I think there was a second one.

00:47:14Melissa Ellis: Doesn't matter. So my point really was that the 50, is it 50 active or is it 50th launch?

00:47:22Simon Mackley: It's 50th launch. And I know that, yeah, that one that is on hold for a couple of years. So if you look up the wiki page, there's actually... two in there with a very similar name. They just haven't removed one of them. I think it was Cornwall has become Cornwall, New Zealand. And it actually says 53 on the wiki, but there's two of them that have actually had something like Lake added. It might be Hamilton. I'm going to get this all wrong. You've backed me into a corner.

00:47:50Melissa Ellis: Nevermind.

00:47:52Simon Mackley: 50 launches. There we go. Yay.

00:47:53Melissa Ellis: Hooray. Moving on. Okay. So we had one other launch coming to us this week and it was Coal Creek Trail in the US. And it is located in Cedar City, Utah, which is about two and a half hours northeast of Las Vegas or three and a half hours southwest of Salt Lake City. The course starts close to the main car park in West Canyon Park and follows an out-and-back course along On concrete and asphalt, that winds its way up into Cedar Canyon along the Coal Creek Trail to an elevation of 1,850 metres, which is 6,070 feet. The start and finish are close to the main car park, and this week saw 30 finishes, 10 volunteers and 22, which is 73%, first-timers to parkrun.

00:48:40Simon Mackley: It's a little event, but lots of first-timers.

00:48:43Melissa Ellis: Excellent. And I like the name, Coal Creek Trail. Yeah.

00:48:48Simon Mackley: So yeah, it's north of Grand Canyon as well. If anyone is in the Grand Canyon area, and if you go via Bryce Canyon, which is another nice canyon, it's in that bottom left-hand corner of Utah.

parkrun adventure challengelistener challenge

00:48:59Simon Mackley: So Mel, the challenge for this week is...

00:49:01Melissa Ellis: Yes, we better not forget it. We better make an effort to let the adventurers know. We are up to having an action, I think, Simon, in the photograph. So we're going to ask you to strike a pose, if you like, this week at parkrun. And we thought, in the spirit of Olympic Games, we're going to ask you to do a bolt. Do you want to explain that?

00:49:22Simon Mackley: Yeah, I'll try and explain it. So like the dab, if you have a young one around, ask them what the dab looks like. But it's, yeah, like putting your hands up sort of...

00:49:31Melissa Ellis: hands up pointing to the to the air off at an angle I'm doing it mel's taking a photo excellent like usain bolt used to do yes let's see you do that while you're running, adventurers prove that you listen to us anyway everybody is so I am really impressed and let us know if you're enjoying the engagement as well yes Now, let's talk about what you're up to, sir.

00:49:40[crosstalk]

Sign-off

00:49:58Simon Mackley: Yes, I will be missing my parkrun day, but I'm missing it for a good reason. So I'm doing the Clint Eastwood Backyard Ultra starting on Friday at 9am. I don't expect that I will still be going at parkrun time on Saturday morning, but I also don't expect that I'll be moving forward. So I will be attempting my very first backyard ultra so very inspired by our friend Phil Gore and obviously TOC doing one earlier in the year as well I know that mine is nowhere near as hilly as his so I actually had a look at the elevation of mine and when I did a recce a couple of weeks ago and I did three yards I went up an entire 75 metres which I think TOC was a little bit jealous when I told him that over the weekend

00:50:46Melissa Ellis: Yes, well, I did a little bit of research into your Ultra. Oh, did you? Your Backyard Ultra. And it's Oxley Creek Common is where it starts, I do believe. And it says that each lap runs out to the secret forest and back via Pelican Island in both directions. It says it's 69 metres of ascent descent each lap.

00:51:07Simon Mackley: I would disagree with that. Because, yeah, I did 75 metres over three laps, so... Yeah, I don't know. Oh, sorry, that's 75 metres elevation gain. But, yeah, I don't know whether that's your ascent descent. Anyway, moving on.

00:51:23Melissa Ellis: Moving on. So, I've got some news about our little Jetstar aeroplane baton that we are going to name Budgie because we did like that idea and we didn't get any more recommendations after the other week. So... Now, Budgie has been engraved. So the top of the plane says his name, Budgie, and it's got our email address, parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. So he is ready. I've also bought a little blue pencil case for him to travel around in. So, you know, for ease of packing, he can pop into his little blue pencil case. And I've written a little instruction for... to put inside as well, which says, Hello, my name is Budgie and I'm travelling from Australia to England. These are my rules. Number one, I must be handed on at a parkrun event. Number two, I must travel with an adventurer. Number three, I must visit every Australian state and territory before I head to England. Number four, once I arrive, I must find my way to Danny or Nicola from With Me Now. Now, I've also got the barcode, which was created for me by Sarah Jefferson. And the barcode takes the adventurers to our Facebook page, if it's scanned with a phone. And I also say, please document my parkrun attendance in our weekly Saturday post and listen out for updates of my whereabouts on the podcast. So what we would like adventurers to do, if they receive Budgie, take it to parkrun, get a photo of yourself with Budgie, and then pop onto Dazza's and show us the photo and tell us where Budgie was. Yes. So we can follow him around Australia before he heads off to the UK. Okay. This is the plan, Simon. It is the plan. I'm very hopeful. Exactly. Now, where has Budgie already been, Mel? He has already been to New Zealand. He was purchased on my outgoing flight. So he attended Balclutha parkrun with me. And I do have photographic evidence, which I believe I did put in Dazza's.

00:53:32Simon Mackley: I think you did. Yep.

00:53:33Melissa Ellis: At the time. So he's been to New Zealand and he is going to travel with me this coming weekend to the Ponds parkrun. Yay! Yay! So that's where I'll be for my Saturday parkrun. Ollie and I did mention that last week. Ollie will be at Rex Jackson.

00:53:50Simon Mackley: He will, yes. You will be not running. Yes, I will not be running. Or collapsed? Or collapsed. Let's hope I'm in my own bed collapsed. I'm not sure where Toc will be. If any listeners are actually going to Clint Eastwood or accruing for someone, please get in touch with me because I know absolutely no one going to it. But my wife is coming to crew for me. So this is a big thing.

00:54:16Melissa Ellis: Wow, Caroline. She's taken the day off and she's coming to crew. Oh, God bless her.

00:54:22Simon Mackley: Yep. So she's got no idea.

00:54:26Melissa Ellis: Oh, you're in for a long day. Oh, what a shame. I wish I was around. Simon needs some help, guys. Caroline needs some help.

00:54:36Simon Mackley: Caroline will need some help, yes.

00:54:38Melissa Ellis: I just realised I'm zipping up my pencil case while we're on air and that'll come up. It's okay. It's all good. Well, congratulations. Well, not congratulations. You haven't done anything.

00:54:48Simon Mackley: Well, good luck, Simon. Thank you very much. Godspeed. I'm hoping that Carolyn will be posting on behalf of me. I don't know. And I've looked for a Facebook page for the Clint Eastwood and I can't see anything. I must say I was very impressed with Red's Backyard Ultra over the weekends. They were posting a lot. And I noticed that, let's say, friend of the pod, Kate Corner, she was competing in it. Oh, yes, definitely friend of the pod. Yes. So she was competing in reds on the weekend. And when I saw the list, it was down to, there was only two women left in it. And I know, I think it was Marika. I think you say her name. She ended up doing 30, yards and I don't think Kate was that much less might have been 27 fantastic what about do you have um Garmin so that you can do live track oh that will drain your battery it will drain my battery but I'm hoping that Carolyn like Carolyn's pretty good at taking photos so I'm hoping that she will take photos and post yeah okay

00:55:50Melissa Ellis: All righty. Excellent. Well, we look forward to hearing how you've done. So make sure you keep in touch with us. Of course. At the end.

00:55:57Simon Mackley: Yes, at the end. Don't expect you to do it mid-race. No, thank you. I might be a little preoccupied.

00:56:03Melissa Ellis: All righty. Well, that's it. I shall see you again in a few weeks. No, I won't, Simon. Your next recording, you will be with Sarah from the West Side again.

00:56:11Simon Mackley: I will be, yes.

00:56:12Melissa Ellis: So I look forward to hearing the aftermath of the Ultra.

00:56:18Simon Mackley: Oh, you'll be editing as well, so yes.

00:56:20Melissa Ellis: Oh, yes, I'll get to hear it first. Yes. But everybody, as always, you can contact us via the parkrun adventurers on Facebook or our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. That's it for another week, and we'll see you all next week for more adventures. Bye.

00:56:25[outro theme playing]

00:56:46Unidentified speaker: It's free, it's free, it's free

00:57:16Unidentified speaker: you