Episode 399 - Das Ist Gut

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

Welcome

00:00:23Melissa Ellis: Welcome to episode 399 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. Podcast about life, if your life is all about parkrun. I'm Melissa Ellis and I'm coming to you from Wurundjeri Country.

00:00:36Simon Mackley: And I'm Simon Mackley coming to you from Quandamooka Country. Thanks for having me back, Mel. It's been eight weeks. Eight weeks. That's just ridiculous.

00:00:45Melissa Ellis: How did that happen?

00:00:47Simon Mackley: You know, things moved. You had the week off with Ezra. with a musical and that sort of thing. And I've recorded twice with Sarah since I've recorded with you. Oh, well, how have you been? Doing well, doing well. Yeah, can't complain. A little bit of touristing, a little bit of sticking at home and volunteering and that sort of thing. So yeah, it's been good. That's good. Guess who else has been touristing? Oh, well, I know you know who that is. So why don't you tell us?

00:01:13Melissa Ellis: Budgie. Yay. We've got news. Budgie was, he's had a couple of adventures in the last week and a bit. Firstly, he was at Unity Day at Alstervorland parkrun, which I believe is in Germany. Is that how you say it, Simon? I don't know.

00:01:31[crosstalk]

00:01:31Simon Mackley: I think you've done a great job there. Go for it.

00:01:35Melissa Ellis: Karen has also reported that the German word for Budgie is Budgie. Wellensittich. So he also followed it up on the Saturday just gone with a trip to Moorbek parkrun on International parkrun Day with Karen. So we should thank Karen very much for taking Budgie overseas for a big adventure. But he is returning. [German: "Wellensittich - budgerigar (budgie)"]

00:01:59Simon Mackley: Okay. I was going to ask whether you've heard. Okay.

00:02:01Melissa Ellis: Yes. So he is coming back. And congratulations, Karen, on your German marathon.

00:02:07Simon Mackley: Oh, she did Berlin, did she?

00:02:08Melissa Ellis: Yes.

00:02:09Simon Mackley: Wonderful.

00:02:10Melissa Ellis: She did. She absolutely did. And she backed it up, which I thought I put in the show notes, but maybe I did a bad job of that. I thought I put that Karen had come second place. Oh, I did. Look, the cell's not showing all my information. Now I can see it. She was our lone adventurer at Moorbeck and she took first female finisher out of a field of 72. Wow. With a post-marathon parkrun time of 22.46. So she's swift. She is.

00:02:42Simon Mackley: That's very impressive. Good job. Wonderful. So talking of Unity Day, that was back on the 3rd of October, so middle of last week. We had 30 adventurers at 15 locations in Germany. So I'm going to murder this, but I'm going to say it.

00:02:59[crosstalk]

00:02:59Melissa Ellis: We talked you up last week, so just say them quickly and be confident.

00:03:04Simon Mackley: So Georgengarten had one. Küchenholz had one. Nidda had five. Hasenheide had two. Schwanenteich had one. Alstervorland had one. I'm going to say Aachener Weiher had one. Luitpold had one. Volksgarten had three. Riemer had three. Oberwald had two. Dietenbach had one. Rheinpark had three. Rosensteinpark had two. And Havelkanal had three. Good job, Simon. So we had a spread. So, yeah, a few adventurers going together. Yeah, that's amazing. It was very good. Shows how many international listeners we have. And people like Karen that went to, yeah, went for Berlin and stayed for the excitement.

00:03:59Melissa Ellis: Yeah, that was good timing with the marathon and Unity Day. But Simon, would you like to tell us about your parkrun day just gone?

00:04:08Simon Mackley: Sure. Nothing huge for me. I was at Redland Bay... for event number 342 on the lands of the Quandamooka people. So there were 99 active participants supported by 12 volunteers. It was a hot morning, but it didn't feel too humid, which was nice. The bay breeze, which once you get out on the course and you've done the oval twice, was keeping everyone cool, as well as the spray bottle that is handed out for the turnaround. So yeah, it was a nice morning. It wasn't a very big So I'd volunteered there the previous week and they had 86 and it was a much cooler day. So people, Queenslanders were complaining about how cold it was. I think it was like 21 degrees. So I'm standing there still in shorts and a t-shirt and everyone's complaining about how cold it was. So anyway. Where did you go, Mel?

00:05:03Melissa Ellis: Oh, well, much as I said last week, I was heading off to Pucka, which I did do. Dave and I went off to Pucka. And, yes, we had beautiful weather, actually. Nice, mild morning in Victoria. It turned a little bit colder later in the day, but the morning was quite fine. There was 11 participants out at Pucka. And, yeah, it was quite good. I think we came... second and third oh wow so I'll take that okay yeah yes that's so anyway that's that um but also to share some personal news in just under 208 weeks time there will be a new junior parkrunner joining me on a Saturday morning so welcome to the world grandson yay So, yes, my eldest daughter surprised us last Friday by bringing my grandson into the world three weeks early. So that's going to keep me busy for the next, well, Long time, but I should say, you know, initially, first grandchild. So doting Nana here will be lots of visits and, yeah, lots of cuddles and... Lots of parkruns on the other side of Melbourne, right? Yeah, that's right. And in the southeast, might get to see me a little bit more in the coming months. Nice.

00:06:30Simon Mackley: So it should come of no shock to anyone that parkrun celebrated its 20th anniversary over the weekend. So I think it was last Wednesday was the actual date. So Bushy Park had 1,818 participants and 124 volunteers. So it seems that people listened to the plea to go to their local parkrun and celebrate there. I know we had a few adventurers do their pilgrimage, well, one did their pilgrimage, but we will hear about that later. But yeah, happy birthday to parkrun, and as we celebrated International parkrun Day, which I heard the other day was actually started by Australia.

00:07:13Melissa Ellis: Yes, Tim Oberg came up with that idea. Yeah, great. And pushed for that back in the day. But you know what? I wanted to mention something that I got a little bit of joy out of. So I was volunteering at Eynesbury Juniors this last Sunday morning. Yep. I wasn't RD. I was, what was I doing? Funnel managing.

00:07:34Lynsey Burrell: Okay.

00:07:36Melissa Ellis: And at the start line, the RD of the morning, Andrew Reynolds actually had the kids all sing Happy Birthday to parkrun. So that was really sweet. I videoed that and I put that on our social media, the Eynesbury Heritage Trail Junior social media. But we had 13 finishers.

00:07:55Simon Mackley: And I just thought that was a nice little synergy. And how many volunteers? Oh, 16 probably.

00:08:01Melissa Ellis: Oh, thank you.

00:08:03Unidentified speaker: Okay.

00:08:04Melissa Ellis: Don't spoil it. I'm sorry.

00:08:06Simon Mackley: No, that's good.

00:08:08Melissa Ellis: Yeah. Yeah. So it was just nice to think, oh, there's 13 kids. That is awesome. Running in a forest. Yeah. We're small, but we are mighty.

00:08:19Simon Mackley: Indeed. So you had more at Eynesbury than you had at Pucka.

00:08:23Melissa Ellis: We did. Okay. That is correct.

00:08:27Simon Mackley: And obviously Pucka is a closed event, but yeah.

00:08:30Melissa Ellis: Well, yes. But it just goes to show that, yeah, we're the smallest junior parkrun in Australia when it comes by numbers. Sometimes we're only a few under Thorndon. Okay, right. Sometimes we even beat them. Okay. But it's not a competition. No, it's not. And, yeah, and there is plenty of 5K events that have less than we do at juniors, so... You know, I personally often feel under pressure because of our low numbers. I find that there's others sometimes in the community that also feel we're unsuccessful because of our low numbers.

00:09:11Simon Mackley: That's harsh.

00:09:12Melissa Ellis: Yeah, it's hard. It's argued that because we have the requirement for so many volunteers, that makes it different to a 5k parkrun. But yeah, I'd be interested... in more feedback from from my community on that but yeah you know I I have my own personal views about what constitutes success and I thought the parkrun ethos was that it's not about the numbers yeah but that's just I guess your feelings on it yeah yeah I guess so but yeah good on us good on us for having 13 and being like the original parkrun exactly right Anyway, Simon.

00:09:55[background music]

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:09:58Simon Mackley: Shall we throw to the roving reports?

00:10:00Melissa Ellis: I think so.

Roving report Calum Burrell — Epworth Equestrian parkrun

00:10:09Calum Burrell: Hello good morning parkrun adventurers it's Calum and I'm in North Lincolnshire so where the place where I'm going to or where myself and Lindsay are going to today is between Scunthorpe and Doncaster in North Lincolnshire so kind of on the east side of England So yeah 57th event of Epworth Equestrian, a bit of a unique situation because this is the third last event for this particular parkrun. I believe the landowners have basically said that it can't go ahead after the middle of October so lots of parkrun tourists are making their way to Epworth Equestrian to make sure that they get to experience the course before they are no longer allowed to go. So, yeah, interesting times. But hopefully we get to speak to one or two people when I'm there. So catch you there. So, parkrun adventurers, it's Calum and I'm here with Ade. You're the sole ED at FWD. Sole ED, yes. Yes, and it must be a sad time at this moment in time because we've just finished our, was it the third last time of running FWD?

00:11:26Ade - Event Director, Epworth Equestrian parkrun: Yeah, we've got two more left and that'll be it for this episode.

00:11:30Calum Burrell: particular adventure yeah well can I just say thank you for hosting this today it was a gorgeous day for it and ground still firm on the foot you know obviously talking equestrian terms being an equestrian centre so so you set up the parkrun here did you it was a team of us to be honest I mean I was involved early on in it but I wasn't ED then I was just one of the bunch of people

00:11:54Ade - Event Director, Epworth Equestrian parkrun: And then we had Joanna, who was our kind of first ED, but she emigrated to Perth before the first parkrun started.

00:12:02Calum Burrell: So I kind of got pushed forward in that position, and here we are now. Brilliant. Okay, well... I mean, how many did we have today?

00:12:12Ade - Event Director, Epworth Equestrian parkrun: Over 370, was it? 373, I think, today.

00:12:13[crosstalk]

00:12:15Calum Burrell: 373, you've broken your course record. And I'm sure you'll do the same again next week and probably your final in a couple of weeks' time.

00:12:21Ade - Event Director, Epworth Equestrian parkrun: I keep saying we're going to drop down in numbers a little bit, but it's not happening. It's getting more and more. Yeah, people are crazy. I mean, it's great. Because everyone just wants to come and experience it before we're gone, which is great.

00:12:30Calum Burrell: You know, it's lovely. And there's been people literally all over the country. People I was speaking to literally all over the country here today. And it's fantastic that people are coming together in such a way to help celebrate this. And I take it there's a plan for somewhere to replace this.

00:12:47Ade - Event Director, Epworth Equestrian parkrun: We've got a course agreed. We've got a parking spot agreed. We've got a cafe agreed. We just need, the legalities need finishing off, and it is the legal side that needs signing when we can't really say anything. We don't want to say anything until we get all that sorted. And parkrun haven't, we've given a few name proposals, but we haven't had a confirmation of the name yet, so we can't. I mean, we'd love to tell everybody, and we just can't.

00:12:52[crosstalk]

00:13:10[crosstalk]

00:13:12Calum Burrell: That's fair enough. Is it still in a round F with, is it?

00:13:16[crosstalk]

00:13:16Ade - Event Director, Epworth Equestrian parkrun: About a mile or so from here, yeah, so it's not too far away. So we wanted to keep it as close as possible because we've got a great core team, we've got a brilliant core team, and we want to keep them all together as much as we can, which, fingers crossed, we're going to be able to do.

00:13:27[crosstalk]

00:13:29Calum Burrell: Brilliant. So about your part-run journey, where did you first start part-running?

00:13:33Ade - Event Director, Epworth Equestrian parkrun: I think it was about nine, ten years ago, Sandall Park, Doncaster. That was my first one, and I didn't know anything about it. I ran anyway with my brother, and someone mentioned parkrun, and I was like, what's parkrun? And we turned up, and we were like, wow, okay. And yeah, it's opened up a whole new world for me. You know, because you can consider yourself a runner, but... parkrun is just different. It's not all about running. It's about community. It's about social. It's about running, obviously, but it's so much more than that.

00:13:37[crosstalk]

00:14:03Calum Burrell: It's for everybody, which is brilliant. Yeah, brilliant. So what would be your top three in the area or even top three in general?

00:14:10Ade - Event Director, Epworth Equestrian parkrun: How far can we go?

00:14:12Calum Burrell: What were your top three experiences in parkrun?

00:14:15Ade - Event Director, Epworth Equestrian parkrun: I think my favourite course has got to be Conyngham Hall in Knaresborough. We've got a soft spot for Knaresborough. We've been going there for years. It's just a lovely course. It's a bit of everything. A bit of hills, a bit of off-road, a bit of tarmac. It's lovely. Apart from that, Sandall Park. Sandall Park's got to be one of my favourite ones. It's my first one. I've done most parkruns there. It's pretty special. I know most of the core team as well. And one other? Oh, now then. I think the best, the prettiest one I've ever done, it's got to be Fountains Abbey, I think. It's a really nice one.

00:14:40[crosstalk]

00:14:53Calum Burrell: It's a little bit awkward, there's a few pinch points, but yeah, it's lovely. Really nice. Okay. Well, good luck with the new course and good luck with the final two events here. I'm sure you'll smash your course record again in the next couple of weeks again.

00:15:05Ade - Event Director, Epworth Equestrian parkrun: I've got to say, I mean, I've got to say that we're used to a lot lower numbers. We're used to 30, 40, 50 people. Yeah. But the team have coped fantastic with the big numbers. It's as if they've just done it every week. Yeah. I know, it's great. It's good to see.

00:15:18Calum Burrell: But yeah, great to see Jeff on the course. He's a bit of a superstar, Jeff. I know the next thing is, I've not been to the CAF yet, and I believe there's a couple of cats that people like to come and give us over.

00:15:26[crosstalk]

00:15:27Ade - Event Director, Epworth Equestrian parkrun: Mario and Luigi, they do tend to, they do like a breakfast of themselves, so just be careful.

00:15:33Calum Burrell: Right, okay. But thanks again, Ade. Brilliant.

00:15:33[crosstalk]

00:15:35Ade - Event Director, Epworth Equestrian parkrun: Okay, no, you take care. Take care. Thank you.

00:15:39Calum Burrell: Right, we're in the cafe post-parkrun, and I'm here not only with the Run Director today, who's Janice. We've got Annette. Say hello.

00:15:48Annette - visiting parkrunner, home parkrun Burnley: Morning.

00:15:49Calum Burrell: And we've got Lorraine.

00:15:50Annette - visiting parkrunner, home parkrun Burnley: Hello.

00:15:51Calum Burrell: And Lindsay, parker scanner. And, of course, Janice.

00:15:55Janice - Run Director, Epworth Equestrian parkrun: Hello.

00:15:55Calum Burrell: Hello. So how did it go today, Janice?

00:15:57Janice - Run Director, Epworth Equestrian parkrun: It was good. It was our best attendance so far, 373. Brilliant. So, yeah, we coped quite nicely with it.

00:16:06Calum Burrell: Yeah, and just before I go to ask you more questions for Janice, what were your thoughts on today?

00:16:12Annette - visiting parkrunner, home parkrun Burnley: It was a nice course, it was flat, a few divots here and there, so you had to watch your footing, but yeah, I really enjoyed it.

00:16:18Calum Burrell: Thank you Annette, and Lorraine?

00:16:19Lorraine - visiting parkrunner, home parkrun Burnley: A beautiful course, and I'd definitely say that your volunteers managed well, because it was perfect all the way around. Good. Well done.

00:16:26Calum Burrell: And Lindsay, what were your thoughts today?

00:16:29Lynsey Burrell: It was great. The volunteers were lovely as well.

00:16:32Calum Burrell: Yeah, the barcode scanning was superbly well, it has to be said. Well, thank you. And I was actually part walking, because I had one of the pink bibs on, people kept saying Fanky Marshall, which was unusual, so I was kind of like a roving Marshall kind of feel today. Yeah, good. Mate, yeah, you must be sad. How long have you been run directing here at Epworth? Since the start. Since the start? Oh, right. Oh, wow.

00:16:38[crosstalk]

00:16:47[crosstalk]

00:16:55[crosstalk]

00:16:57Janice - Run Director, Epworth Equestrian parkrun: Well, it was my daughter who was involved from the beginning. And then unfortunately, she emigrated to Australia before it got up and off the ground. And she's not been able to run it. So I come and volunteer.

00:17:11Calum Burrell: Actually, I'm interested. Does your daughter do parkrun in Australia? Yes. Oh, right. Which is her local?

00:17:17Janice - Run Director, Epworth Equestrian parkrun: Her local is Shelley parkrun in Perth.

00:17:18[crosstalk]

00:17:19Calum Burrell: In Perth. Ah, right. Okay. Interesting. So another Western Australian parkrunner. She might know this. It's a parkrun adventurers podcast, which is Australian-based. So you at least pass this on when you... So, yes, two more events to go at Epworth Equestrian. And I'd say, as highlighted before, the team do an absolutely superb job. The way you've got everything laid out for the car parking and what you do in terms of... I mean, you would never know that there was nearly 400 people there today. You did all this superbly well. And I love the Marshal with the dog, Jeff. He's an absolute superstar.

00:17:29[crosstalk]

00:17:50[crosstalk]

00:17:57Annette - visiting parkrunner, home parkrun Burnley: You just have to say his name and he looks at you. Yeah.

00:18:01Calum Burrell: So what's been your highlights over your tenure at Epworth Equestrian? I know it's just been over a year, but what have been your highlights?

00:18:08Janice - Run Director, Epworth Equestrian parkrun: Oh, it's the same every week. We come and we enjoy it. The volunteers all enjoy it. And it's nice that when people come off the course and say they've enjoyed it.

00:18:18Calum Burrell: So did you do parkrun before? No. Not at all?

00:18:21Janice - Run Director, Epworth Equestrian parkrun: Yes, I did. I did one in Canada with my daughter because she went across to Canada to do the National Day and the Saturday. So my first ever parkrun I volunteered at was... river oaks in Canada and then I've done some in Australia.

00:18:39Calum Burrell: Go on, you have to tell the ones in Australia because they love to hear that.

00:18:42Janice - Run Director, Epworth Equestrian parkrun: What have I done in Australia? Shelley at Durian Bay. Canning River yes that sounds familiar I'm going to go and do South Beach because we had a boomerang here the other week oh brilliant I'm going to go and claim my coffee there's a coffee to claim if we've had the boomerang here I've taken with it so I'll be going there at Christmas to do that one brilliant

00:19:09Calum Burrell: well you have to look out for a parkrun adventurers roving reporter at South Beach then you never know you might bump into one so go on Annette tell you what Annette what's your top three parkruns experiences Malbork that was my first overseas one two years ago remind me which country that is it's in Poland Poland right ok

00:19:18[crosstalk]

00:19:26[crosstalk]

00:19:29Annette - visiting parkrunner, home parkrun Burnley: Yeah, we were in Gdansk for a week, and I said, we need to go and do Malbork, because we can easily do a G at home, but can't do a Z. So we hired a car for our last day, our last 24 hours in Poland, and drove to Malbork and did that. Mura di Lucca in Italy earlier in the year for my 150th parkrun. Just beautiful, just walking and running around the city walls. And Somerdale Pavilion in the summer on the way down to Cornwall for a holiday because it's just pure bonkers.

00:20:02Calum Burrell: We can safely say that is absolutely bonkers. Go on, Lorraine, what about you? Anything you want to say? Are you a journey and you're a top three?

00:20:09Lorraine - visiting parkrunner, home parkrun Burnley: A top three, it's difficult to say, but Huddersfield always is a good one. Halifax that I did last week. is a personal milestone. So if I just bore you with this, I did my 366th run, my 71st tourism, and it was so hilly. So the 366, that means you've run for a year, including the leap year. 71 was my year of birth, and my surname was Hill. So, you know, it just fitted all in one. Stars aligned without me realising. Absolutely superb. Yeah.

00:20:33[crosstalk]

00:20:39Calum Burrell: And go on, Lindsay, tell us what your thoughts are and what your favourite things are about parkrun. And your top three, why not?

00:20:50Lynsey Burrell: My top three, I think, would be Pavilion Gardens when I did my 100th volunteer location, just because of the volunteers there and everyone who came along to help me celebrate.

00:21:04Calum Burrell: And that's in Buxton, yeah.

00:21:05Lynsey Burrell: Yeah, I think Somerdale Pavilion as well. Yeah. because it's just so unique and we did that on our wedding anniversary as well so there's that and then it's hard to choose the phoenix as well as another one yeah possibly phoenix because that was my 50th volunteer location yeah but when people ask me which is my favourite parkrun I always say that it's hard to choose one, but it's the one with the friendliest volunteers.

00:21:16[crosstalk]

00:21:32Ade - Event Director, Epworth Equestrian parkrun: Yeah.

00:21:33Lynsey Burrell: That makes such a difference for me as a volunteerist.

00:21:36Ade - Event Director, Epworth Equestrian parkrun: Yeah.

00:21:37Lynsey Burrell: Can I just add to that?

00:21:38Lorraine - visiting parkrunner, home parkrun Burnley: I did Southport parkrun the weekend after the events over in Southport, and I went over and asked the Run Director if he'd put his volunteers on sugar that morning. They were so hyper. They were fantastic, Southport, yeah.

00:21:53Calum Burrell: Right, OK, well, quite a cross-section of experiences and thank you all for your time and, you know, hopefully all the best for your new venue. Thank you. Ade has said, obviously, something's in the pipeline, obviously not revealing too much, but I wish you all the best.

00:22:08[crosstalk]

00:22:10Janice - Run Director, Epworth Equestrian parkrun: Well, we hope to see you at our new one.

00:22:11Calum Burrell: Absolutely, yeah, that'll be great just to see you all and hopefully Jeff will be along and...

00:22:16Janice - Run Director, Epworth Equestrian parkrun: Oh, Geoff will be there. I can't guarantee he'll be there every week, but he'll come.

00:22:20Calum Burrell: Brilliant. OK, no, thank you for your time and good luck for the future. And thank you, everyone, for your time today. Thank you. Bye-bye. So that wraps up Event 57 of Epworth Equestrian parkrun. Thanks again to Janice and her team that had an awesome morning. And just for context, people that were interviewed at the end, we had Annette and Lorraine who have Burnley as their home parkrun. Yeah, so Lindsay, that is my wife that I spoke to, yeah. And also we had Janice, the Run Director so we had 373 participants at Epworth Equestrian and just again for a little bit of context with it being the third last and people wanting to get to Epworth before it finishes it's actually out of the 373, 333 were first timers to that event so quite extraordinary to have such a high proportion of people that have only done that event for the first time today uh yeah fab morning um fab course fab uh cafe uh saw the cats at the end as well um mario and luigi and of course we had the uh dog Jeff who is marching on course so fab little event and it's a shame it has to end but uh all good things come to an end okay uh Calum over and out

00:22:24[crosstalk]

Roving report Tracey Wood — Point Hut Pond parkrun

00:23:49Tracey Wood: Good morning parkrunners, it's Tracey in her tutu and I'm freezing my little fingers off down in Canberra. I have arrived here at Point Hut Pond parkrun. Now this is on the lands of the Ngunnawal peoples and Point Hut Pond parkrun is located approximately about 25 minutes south of the city. It is adjacent to the Gordon Adventure Park it has public toilets nearby plenty of parking I found a coffee shop on the way which is awesome also unusual for me in that it has a eight o'clock start um I arrived here at the start and people are setting up and people look like they know where they're doing what they're doing and everything looks good so far it is a cracker of a day down here albeit it's cold have I mentioned it's cold It is cold. I am wearing my winter weather gear. It is freezing. Anyway, I'm going to go get my Tail Walker vest on and get myself sorted and I'll go chat to someone. Alrighty team, I've started off on the Point Hut Pond parkrun course. It's started off on a trail. It looks like we're walking around a very lovely lake. I've seen lots of bird life here so far and I found someone to chat to. Good morning Tyson. Good morning Tracey, how are you? I am well, thank you. Now I believe that you are one of the founders of this fine parkrun.

00:25:18Tyson - co-founder and Co-Event Director, Point Hut Pond parkrun: Yes, I am. I had a little dream there probably about four years ago to establish another event down in the south of Canberra in Tuggeranong. There's quite a few that are north of the bridge, Tracey, but we needed an extra one down here to accommodate people's love of parkrun in the ACT, especially down south.

00:25:40Tracey Wood: Now, I could see it is a really nice location, but why in particular did you choose this location?

00:25:46Tyson - co-founder and Co-Event Director, Point Hut Pond parkrun: I think, as you've touched on already this morning in our own conversation, is the location. You've got the pond that it concludes around, the final 2.5km of the course, with the Brindabella Ranges as a backdrop. Just the hills in general around the course are absolutely divine, and you've got a crystal clear morning to see that for yourself.

00:26:10Tracey Wood: Did you have any difficulties in setting up this parkrun?

00:26:13Tyson - co-founder and Co-Event Director, Point Hut Pond parkrun: It's quite a process, as you know. But you've got to remain dedicated to it because there's a lot of benefit for community to get out of it. So I stuck with it alongside Anya, my Co-Event Director. And, yeah, we had, look, a few little setbacks in there. But at the end of the day, as I just touched on, it's all for community and it's all for their enjoyment on a Saturday morning. outside you know fresh air five k's an hour's worth of work for for a walker or

00:26:46Tracey Wood: So can you describe the course? Do we go around the lake? Do we go near the lake?

00:26:51Tyson - co-founder and Co-Event Director, Point Hut Pond parkrun: So the course, if you're looking at it as a map, would look like a figure eight. Yep. It is close to an infinity course. We go through the suburb of Gordon firstly. Yep. And when you get to about 1,500 metres, it is very flat and then goes downhill for quite a way. So people enjoy that. People don't enjoy going uphill. No. Although, you know, Canberrans are pretty good hill runners. Anyway, the top part of what a figure eight looks like is around the pond. So you have the beautiful views of the pond to conclude your run or walk. And I think that's where people fall in love with the course.

00:27:32Tracey Wood: Excellent. All right. We'll continue on. Thanks for chatting with me. Hey, team. I think I'm about four k's around Point Hut Pond parkrun course, and I've picked up a Marshal on the way. I have found Luke. Hi, Luke. Hi. How's it going? Yeah, good. Thanks. Now, you're a seasonal volunteer here, I believe. You like to marshal. You like to tail walk. How long have you been part of the parkrun here?

00:27:57Luke - marshal and volunteer, Point Hut Pond parkrun: I want to say roughly a year, probably a little under. We started probably about a year ago where we'd just come for the parkrun, just a walker at the start, and slowly began to know the community around here and sort of got into the marshalling slash volunteering roles.

00:28:16Tracey Wood: You were telling me that you're very keen to support the community and be a volunteer here. Is that right?

00:28:21Luke - marshal and volunteer, Point Hut Pond parkrun: Oh, absolutely. We will do just about any different volunteer role that's available here. And as I said, we also love to do the parkrun. So if there's ever an opportunity that we can do both, we try and do that as well.

00:28:36Tracey Wood: Awesome. And are you adventurers as well? Do you go to different parkruns or do you volunteer elsewhere?

00:28:41Luke - marshal and volunteer, Point Hut Pond parkrun: We love the idea of it. However, we only ever go to the Point Hut because it's local and it's a beautiful parkrun. So we're very lucky.

00:28:51Tracey Wood: Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you for marshalling and volunteering today, Luke.

00:28:55Luke - marshal and volunteer, Point Hut Pond parkrun: Thank you.

00:28:57Tracey Wood: Righto team, I've finished the course and I've found the Run Director of the day. I have the lovely Em with me.

00:29:03Em - Run Director on the day, Point Hut Pond parkrun: How are you? Not too bad. A great way to start my Saturday morning down here at Point Hut Pond. Now, tell me, this is your second? Second Run Director. Well, well done. Any problems? No. No, except that I was delayed in counting the finished tokens and did that this morning and we were missing two. But that's all right.

00:29:24Tracey Wood: It happens. Whatever. We troubleshoot. Tell me your parkrun history. How long have you been involved in parkrun?

00:29:31Em - Run Director on the day, Point Hut Pond parkrun: How did you get into it? Why are you here? My partner introduced me to parkrun. So I started in the Hunter area. So I've done most of them around the Hunter Valley. Oh, a tourist. Yeah, and so I was very disappointed and moved to the Northern Territory for a bit, so I had a bit of a gap because there wasn't one in Catherine at the time, but there's now one set up there, so I'll have to go. But I moved to Canberra at the end of last year and used parkrun as a means to work out where I wanted to live, and the community here was what attracted me to actually find a place in the south and make this one my local.

00:30:09Tracey Wood: Beautiful, beautiful. Now, I'm going to pick on that part that you've been adventuring, we like to ask people, what are your favourite, what were your favourite parkruns in the past? Now, can be your best time, can be the people, can be the great coffee afterwards, can be the trip involved. Which parkrun stand out to you?

00:30:28Em - Run Director on the day, Point Hut Pond parkrun: Probably Dubbo. I really love the community vibe out there, so I've always done that as a bit of a community vibe. Probably... My favourite one as well, like I suppose in terms of a tourist, was when I did the one in Dublin. And so, you know, it was a three loop. Well, not necessarily a great course, but it was a small community vibe and everyone kind of knew me. So every time they passed me, it was like, go Aussie. And yeah, so it was a really nice way to break up a trip where I was travelling by myself. Yeah, excellent. And the third one? I'd say Raymond Terrace, which was my local before there. And that was really probably what got me into volunteering at parkrun was in the sense of community there.

00:31:06Tracey Wood: sorry for this ignorant one which state is that in? New South Wales. Excellent all right so it looks like everyone's packing up and heading off thank you very much for run breaking today and for chatting with me.

00:31:17Em - Run Director on the day, Point Hut Pond parkrun: Thank you.

00:31:18Tracey Wood: All right team it's Tracey in a Tutu heading off after finishing Point Hut Pond parkrun in Gordon ACT. Beautiful one lapper no sorry it goes around the course but a lake but it's a sort of figure eight course um lots of ducks and other bird life here apparently there is a kangaroo in the vicinity we didn't see it um had a great chat to the volunteers here really lovely people and now it's off to find some breakfast and coffee have a wonderful weekend

00:31:50[background music]

00:31:50Sarah Jefferson: Good morning, parkrun adventurers.

Roving report Sarah Jefferson — Otago Central Rail Trail parkrun Alexandra

00:31:52Sarah Jefferson: It's Sarah here from the West Side over in New Zealand still. And I'm at Otago Central Rail Trail parkrun Alexandra this morning. Lucky the sign's just there. I'm here with Sally. Thank you for having us this morning.

00:32:06Sally - Event Director, Otago Central Rail Trail parkrun Alexandra: Oh, you're welcome. Thanks for coming. Surely this is one of the longest named parkruns in New Zealand? I think we take it for that, surely. Otago Central Rail Trail parkrun Alexandra has to be the longest, especially for an email address. Oh, I bet. I bet. Now, it is a beautiful course. Can I get you to explain it briefly to the listeners, please? Yeah, sure. So we're on the Otago Central Rail Trail. So we, yeah, this is a trail established for all users of cyclists and walkers and runners. But we go up just about two and a half k's and then down and then a loop through the beautiful pines, which is a really nice addition to have. some trees and something softer underfoot. So it's got a bit of a good mixture for the participants. Definitely.

00:32:35[background music]

00:32:53Sarah Jefferson: I must say, as much as the trail was beautiful, I really did enjoy the pine cones and sort of the tree canopy, I guess, this morning. Now, this is a new event. Everyone's wearing tutus because it's the 22nd event here this morning. So it was set up in June. Can you tell me a little bit about the parkrun and setting it up and your journey so far, please?

00:33:14Sally - Event Director, Otago Central Rail Trail parkrun Alexandra: Yeah, so this kind of came about in December 22, talking to a friend about parkrun. She's a parkrunner from Mackay in Australia. And she said, hey, have you done a parkrun? I was like, no, because I've been wanting to set up a running event. And she said, well, parkrun, check it out. So I did. And I thought, wow, what an amazing... kind of community of runners or walkers that something's already established that I don't need to create and I can just find a course and bring it to Helix. So finding a course because we've got so many different kind of river trails and it took quite a few months to find the right trail but we found this one so that was amazing. We got permission from the landowners to go ahead with it so Yeah, we kind of ticked all the boxes and got it going. So we started on May the 15th, was our kind of inaugural parkrun. And the community's been really excited. The council's been fantastic. So people have just been, yeah. You hear people talk in the community, and that's what I really love about it. Definitely. And there's no kind of intimidation about it. You can just kind of rock up and... arrive and do your own thing just be you and enjoy it so yeah we love it we love it great lots of and lots of volunteers this morning lots of walkers yep really lots of young people lots of children coming along all ages I think that's what I love about it it's just you know it's just for everybody very inclusive yeah yeah

00:34:07[crosstalk]

00:34:35[crosstalk]

00:34:47Sarah Jefferson: Now, normally it's a nine o'clock start in New Zealand. So this is the first week of an 8am start. Do you think that the numbers are a little bit down given it's the first 8am start for the season, I guess?

00:34:57Sally - Event Director, Otago Central Rail Trail parkrun Alexandra: Yes, I think so. And I think the weather, you know, does play a part in it too. Mind you, in the winter when we had minus six, people still... arrived so we were so proud of everybody definitely dedication but yeah eight o'clock start yeah I think it's just getting people into just a different routine with that eight o'clock I love it I think it's awesome yeah definitely I'm a morning person me too yeah yeah for sure

00:35:05[crosstalk]

00:35:18[crosstalk]

00:35:20[background music]

00:35:22Sarah Jefferson: Now, in terms of the area, I guess what puts this on the map? We travelled over from Queenstown this morning, about an hour and 20 minutes, I think. A bit foggy, but definitely achievable. So why should people come to this area and check out this parkrun?

00:35:37Sally - Event Director, Otago Central Rail Trail parkrun Alexandra: Well, I think because you've got the rail trail to start with because you can go from Middlemarch and there's so many different places you can start cycling. And then we've got the Lake Dunstan Trail, which takes people up from Clyde to Cromwell. We've got wineries, we've got eateries, we've got scenery. I think we have everything in Central. Clyde is just a... must-do location it's just a nice hub yeah awesome place so I think it's just um the environment the um yeah it's just beautiful just come and experience it yeah definitely I would agree and on the the hill or mountain as you go into town there's actually a big clock

00:36:12[crosstalk]

00:36:21Sarah Jefferson: I noticed this morning. I was like, oh, it's 7.35 as we arrive. No one can ever be later than Alexandra because there's a clock to tell you the time.

00:36:24[crosstalk]

00:36:27Sally - Event Director, Otago Central Rail Trail parkrun Alexandra: That's impressive.

00:36:28Sarah Jefferson: So how did that come about? Do you know? No, I'm not sure about the clock.

00:36:32Sally - Event Director, Otago Central Rail Trail parkrun Alexandra: No, but it has lights that change to, yeah, the different lights that change colours. Very impressive. Yeah. But there's also a lookout up there where the road heads up. There's a lookout that you can drive to and look over Alexandra. And you can walk to the clock too, so that's a lovely, a nice thing to do as well.

00:36:34[crosstalk]

00:36:46[crosstalk]

00:36:54Sarah Jefferson: And now normally you have a coffee van? We do normally have a coffee van.

00:36:58Sally - Event Director, Otago Central Rail Trail parkrun Alexandra: He's not here today, Rob, but we have an industry cab just further down the rail trail and they are...

00:37:04Sarah Jefferson: yeah yeah well renowned for a beautiful coffee and nice food so yeah nice um plenty of parking here the only thing there's no toilets but I know that we stopped it's only probably four minutes or three minutes away anyway yeah so I guess if you're thinking of visiting this parkrun just to make sure you get here nice and early to head into town for that so um is there anything else that you think the listeners need to know about this parkrun aside from that they should check it out It is an O as well. Sometimes O, I know this would be my fourth letter O, but this can be a rare letter for some people.

00:37:22[crosstalk]

00:37:33[crosstalk]

00:37:37Sally - Event Director, Otago Central Rail Trail parkrun Alexandra: No, I just think it's another unique experience. And yeah, we love visitors. We love people who rock up at our parkrun. Crazy people like us travelling from the other side of Australia.

00:37:47[crosstalk]

00:37:51Sarah Jefferson: And then if you're lucky, depending on the time of year, you'll also get the snow-capped mountains, the view as you're driving into town or around town as well. It's quite beautiful. So thank you for all that you do for parkrun. It was a really lovely event. Thanks for having us this morning. You're so welcome. Thank you.

00:38:00[background music]

00:38:13Melissa Ellis: Thank you to our roving reporters. So Calum out there at Epworth Equestrian in North Lincolnshire. Sad to hear about their needing to close due to the landowners withdrawing permissions. But thank you to Calum for bringing us the news from that event. Glad to know that they are planning a replacement event. So look forward to hearing about that in the coming months, and that Janice uh the rd there of the day is going to be visiting south beach parkrun because they've had a boomerang at ebworth Simon awesome one of south beach's 10 10 isn't it 10 boomers yeah apparently they get free coffee if they've hosted a boomerang if they visit south beach Interesting, okay. I like that. So there you go, yeah. Now, we also heard from Tracey out there at Point Hut Pond, who spoke to Tyson, marshal Luke and RD Em. And of course, Sarah from the West Side over on the south side at Otago Central Rail Trail in Alexandra, New Zealand. Talking to Sally. Now, they did mention in that roving report the iconic Alexandra clock. So I did some homework.

00:39:32Simon Mackley: Cool.

00:39:33Melissa Ellis: And it turns out the Alexandra clock is a unique illuminated hillside timepiece. that has served the town since 1968. The 11-metre wide clock was a JC project involving many hours of voluntary work to install the components. The mechanism has been upgraded several times and is a reliable timekeeping feature of the Alexandra landscape. And I'm guessing that JC is like a rotary type organisation in New Zealand.

00:40:04Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:40:05Simon Mackley: I have heard of that. I think I've heard of it here as well.

00:40:08Melissa Ellis: And no, the only other point I wanted to mention is I saw video evidence of Matthew Stevens swimming in New Zealand. I also saw that it was snowing. So I think he's crazy. Apparently he's loving it and he's got the biggest kahunas.

00:40:25Simon Mackley: Oh, okay. Yeah, fair call. Has TOC been in the water ever? when he was in Tassie on the weekend.

00:40:34Melissa Ellis: Oh, I did not see such things.

00:40:37Simon Mackley: So Matt may have the biggest kahuna's mantle at the moment.

00:40:43Melissa Ellis: And I do believe New Zealand is further south than Tassie. Yes, agreed.

00:40:47Simon Mackley: Depends where you are in New Zealand, though.

00:40:49Melissa Ellis: Oh, rightio. But he was on the south of the South Island.

00:40:50[crosstalk]

00:40:52Simon Mackley: I know. I 100% agree.

00:40:54Melissa Ellis: Unless they were back up around Alexandra when he went for the swim. That could have been the case. But in any case...

00:41:00Simon Mackley: They're still a long way down.

00:41:02Melissa Ellis: Yeah, good job, Matt.

00:41:03Simon Mackley: Yeah, well done.

Dazza's

00:41:06Simon Mackley: And we are going to go over to Dazza's. So on Saturday, he said, it's International parkrun Day. I don't know what 13 people thought they were starting when they got together for a Saturday morning lap of a park in London, but I'm unsure they envisaged this. A community of 691 odd, some of us very odd, Adventurers of all ages, from all walks and runs and volunteers of life, faffing on Saturday mornings from all over the world. However you spent it, come into Dazza's, grab a bit of cake and tell us all how your Saturday morning was. And the first one we have is Gareth Arnold from WA. I heard about a robot-themed cafe, looked up the nearest parkrun, Woodbridge Riverside parkrun, and off we went. It's an out and back by the river with vineyards opposite, taught the youngest to Azumi and once the run was done,

00:42:02Melissa Ellis: happy kiddos thanks to robot waiter and there was a photo of the robot waiter yes which looks like c3po if I do know my star wars figures correctly that sounds like fun I'm always up for a themed cafe yeah and next we heard from josh button coming to us from New South Wales and he said stumbled upon Chipping Norton parkrun's 50th event today so a double celebration with the cupcake emoji and the what is that little emoji the celebrating one celebrating okay we'll call it that I can't tell when it's been copy and pasted there were cupcakes and fruit and it's got the banana emoji for post parkrun nibbles there was a pic of jock in the selfie frame and another pic showing the before mentioned cupcakes which were celebrating the 250th anniversary So, good job. Must also note that the secret challenge this week was to post celebratory birthday-themed emojis. So, tick. Josh did that.

00:43:09Simon Mackley: Excellent. Next, we heard from Nick Graney all the way from Canada. So, he said, Bonjour, Dazza. Happy International parkrun Day. Celebrated the 20th anniversary in French Canada. Ticking off the Jet Setter Challenge, too, great little event in Moussette, Quebec along the ottawa river fantastic volunteers pre-brief spoken in both french and english one to remember off to the UK next week and there was an emoji the aok emoji ca which I'm guessing was the canadian flag but it hasn't posted across a runner someone with a party hat on yay and the picture was of nick with the pop-up holding the canadian flag so what was the event called, um, Moussette oh was it oh maybe it's not was it just in musette yeah we might have to look that up yeah never mind I didn't check well maybe look it up while I read the next one we heard from Joanne blackbird and she came to us from Victoria

00:44:12Melissa Ellis: She said, Hey Dazza, for the 20th birthday of this wonderful event that has changed my life, I wanted to be amongst a bit of a buzz. I took the opportunity to pop down Punt Road and be a Funnel Manager at Albert Park, where a mere 985 parkrunners plus assorted volleys certainly provided the buzz I was seeking. I even spotted an adventurous t-shirt and went and said hello to Lisa and Hubby from Picnic Point parkrun. Thank you, PSH, for starting off that glorious community feeling. And she's got the clapping hands emoji. There was no photo, but thank you very much for writing or sharing that with Dazza's. I had missed it completely in the socials that Albert Park had got 985. That is huge. That's quite astonishing.

00:44:57Simon Mackley: Yeah. Wow. Nick Graney was at Moussette.

00:45:01Melissa Ellis: Oh, okay. I've never heard the name of that parkrun before.

00:45:07Simon Mackley: It's 137 events in as well, so 62 parkrunners. Every day's a school day. Exactly. Next, we heard from Peter LaRue from South Africa. Nice walk and catch up at Homestead Lake parkrun with 9th Benoni Scout Group. And there was a picture of the scout group dressed in purple in a giant Homestead Dam selfie frame.

00:45:32Melissa Ellis: And there was lots of little candle emojis, in case you're wondering what they are. Oh, is that what it is? Birthday candles. Yeah, Peter was getting creative.

00:45:42Simon Mackley: Indeed. Maybe there's 20. Is it called Homestead Lake or is it called Homestead Dam? Because there's two different names there.

00:45:50Melissa Ellis: Homestead Lake is probably at... Oh, I see what you're saying.

00:45:55Simon Mackley: A giant selfie frame. Is that, sorry, I didn't see the photo.

00:45:58Melissa Ellis: It was one of those ones that's in the community. It wasn't parkrun.

00:46:03Simon Mackley: Oh, okay. So it could be, okay. Homestead Dam selfie frame, like one of those. Okay, I get it.

00:46:08Unidentified speaker: Okay.

00:46:09Simon Mackley: So yes, the parkrun's called Homestead Lake, but the selfie frame was at Homestead Dam.

00:46:14Melissa Ellis: Correct. All right. So we also heard from Brett Bailey coming to us from New Zealand. And he said, hi, Dazza. It's daylight saving now. So you know what that means. Yes, we are back onto the loop course. So two laps around the lake with four bridge crossings. Park walked with Tanya and Brunner and 192 others on a nice spring morning. Home for spa and pastries, but no cake. I think there might be some next week for my 200th, and there was a celebrating emoji and a cake emoji, happy birthday parkrun. And the photo was of Brett, Tanya Brunner and co. park walking on course, which I assume was Pegasus.

00:46:52Simon Mackley: I'm assuming so too. We heard from Helen Rutter from Wales. So she said, Tremorfa was cancelled last minute, so we diverted to Trelai Park. It was very small and lovely, multi-surface around sports pitches with football being played as we ran. Again, a very happy morning. We got buns with 20 on them. And there was a picture of the green countryside with Helen, Andy and friends holding the pop-up.

00:47:20Melissa Ellis: Next, we heard from Mark Walls coming to us from Queensland. And he said, last minute change of plans today. I was planning to do our home parkrun with the fam, but the kids pulled out at the last minute. So I took the opportunity to head to Chermside parkrun today. and crossed the sixth sea in my parkrun challenge. And he's got the little pirate flag there. It is a beautiful out-and-back course with plenty of shade on a warm morning. Perfect for trying out the parkrun birthday shoes. And he had a shoe emoji and a celebration emoji. Happy 20th birthday parkrun. Cake and balloon. And a photo there of Mark in the selfie frame. Thanks for coming to Dazza's, Mark.

00:47:59Simon Mackley: And we heard from Janet Reid, surprisingly from South Australia. She said, Hi Dazza, we celebrated aboard the mothership Lochiel on an overcast morning. It was an all apricot affair for us from top to toe. Yes, I bought THE shoes and they are great. So in keeping with my colour theme, could I have a skinny flat white and an apricot slice please? Hope everyone enjoyed the 20th celebrations and there was two of the celebration emojis, and a photo of Janet and Jeff in their apricot showing their new shoes. Oh, have you bought the new shoes, Simon? I have not yet, no.

00:48:36Melissa Ellis: I've seen lots of people getting on board. No, I haven't, no. I might at some stage, but I haven't decided to at this point in time. But we knew Janet would because Janet likes all the things.

00:48:50Simon Mackley: All the merch.

00:48:52Melissa Ellis: Now, last but not least, we heard from our very own TOC coming to us from Tassie and he said, last minute change of plan. We were going to O'Connor's Beach parkrun to celebrate International parkrun Day with Val, Stephen, Charles and Jackie, but somehow ended up at O'Connor's Beach parkrun and he's got the... laughing face emoji, I think the microphone, and a happy face. Is that a microphone or a magnifying glass?

00:49:16Simon Mackley: Magnifying glass.

00:49:17Melissa Ellis: Oh, okay. Rightio, and there was a group photo there with the very strange-looking selfie frame that actually had been doctored. I saw that. Toc had done a very good job of changing the wording from O'Connor Beach to O'Connell's Beach, so good job. That was funny.

00:49:32Simon Mackley: Yes, he did a very good job. It almost looked like it was supposed to be like that.

00:49:36Melissa Ellis: I actually looked at it and thought, how did they match that red? Yeah. Very good.

00:49:41Simon Mackley: Well done.

00:49:42Melissa Ellis: Impressed.

the Obi Award — Nick Graney

00:49:43Melissa Ellis: But Simon, this week's Obi, do you have the Obi Post-it?

00:49:48Simon Mackley: I do. And the Obi this week is going to... Nick Graney. Nick Graney, all the way from Moussette in Canada.

00:50:05Melissa Ellis: Hooray! Look forward to finding out where you pop up next, Nick. Indeed.

00:50:13Simon Mackley: So we didn't have any emails that I know of that have gone in here.

Club Corner

00:50:18Simon Mackley: So let's throw to our new person on the team, Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III.

00:50:20[background music]

00:50:34Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III: This is Reginald with Club Corner, where we talk about the what and why of parkrun clubs, and I too come to you from Arrernte Country. Why am I here, and not Rachel? She told me that her jokes were so good, she has gone to join the stand-up comedy circuit. Her loss will be our gain. As for myself. My full name is Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III, and I would appreciate being referred to as such lord knows what tunes our host and editor has placed upon my brow but irregardless from today you have me today I am beginning the volunteer journey in greater detail and I am going to start with the role not included last time Event Director each event in parkrun has either an Event Director or two Co-Event Directors henceforth colloquially known as an ed they are the corest of core volunteers they are responsible for the event happening at all as without an ed it is not possible to have an event in 2024 parkrun decided to recognise being an ed as a volunteer role even though it never takes place on parkrun day If you are an ED and are not on course, or otherwise volunteering, you now have an optional volunteer credit you can apply for, for volunteering for as an Event Director. What does an ED do? The ED is the person-slash-people who liaise with parkrun HQ, or their representatives, the event ambassadors or regional ambassadors. The ED are responsible for setting the tone of their event, and building the team of Run Directors. How they build that team is up to them, so we shall not get into team building 101. Henceforth Run Directors will be referred to as RD. parkrun owns all the processes and rules and regulations, the ED is responsible to following the process, rules and regulations, and the ED leads the team from which the weekly RD is drawn, and the RD is responsible for the event on the day. There will be more on being an RD another time. Another volunteer role that is mostly concerned with things not occurring on parkrun day is the Volunteer Coordinator. Ironically this role has never been shortened to VC. Presumably so that we do not think that they are anything to do with the university, nor performing acts of conspicuous bravery in the presence of an enemy, etc. Not all events use a Volunteer Coordinator, but if they do, they are the person who recruits the team of volunteers who staff parkrun on event day. Again, we shall not get into how the magic of being a Volunteer Coordinator occurs. The final preparation role that some events use is a communications person. This is the person who manages the messaging between the event team, specifically the ED, and the community of their event. The main channels for communications are Facebook and email. with some events using other social media channels also. Events also have the news page on their official website, but this has never really caught on in Australia, as we began operations in the heyday of the Facebook era. Next time we discuss volunteers, we shall include the start of a parkrun day. And since I do not have anything wittier than Rachel, I shall conclude in her manner. Namely, that in parkrun life, all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun. So stay tuned for our future club corners.

00:54:09Melissa Ellis: Well, this has been a bit of a surprise, Simon. Rachel's gone. She's out the door. She's left to join the stand-up comedy circuit. And we've got Reginald. Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III.

00:54:21Simon Mackley: They did a good job for their first one.

00:54:23Melissa Ellis: Yes, discussing all about the ED role. Have you performed the role of an ED in your parkrun career, Simon?

00:54:31Simon Mackley: Yes, I did it for about eight years at Mossman.

00:54:33Melissa Ellis: Oh, you were? Okay.

00:54:34Simon Mackley: I was a co-ED, so it was myself and Mary Botto.

00:54:38Melissa Ellis: Ah, before you stepped up to ambassadorship.

00:54:42Simon Mackley: Yeah, so I was both while I was in Sydney, but I haven't taken over even an RD yet.

Consolidated Club Report

00:54:50Melissa Ellis: up here I um have volunteered but yeah I haven't stepped into a team up here yet very good well thank you Reginald for giving us a little bit more insight into that role but now Simon the adventurers consolidated club report for Saturday the 8th no the 5th of October 2024 a total of 693 members edging closer to 700 yeah 524 took part on this date in 12 countries across 269 locations in the UK. Their adventure is at 40 events because there was 11 in Germany. All the Brits went to Germany. And there were six in South Africa, three in the Netherlands, two in Canada, Italy and the USA, and one each in Austria, Japan and Poland, but locally we had adventurers at 56 events in New South Wales and 52 in Victoria, 39 in Queensland, 20 in West Australia, 14 in South Australia, ACT and the North Island each had five, four in Tassie, three on the South Island and two in the Northern Territory. Fantastic.

00:55:59Simon Mackley: Those numbers are huge. 693 members and 524 took place. That is... Yeah, I remember when we were trying to edge over 500 and now it's really taken off, which is awesome.

the Frond

00:56:13Simon Mackley: So our largest frond, it was actually a tie between two different parkruns in two different countries and neither of them were the UK. So the first one was Westpark in Germany, where there were four, who were Bill Troy, Ellie Soper, Christopher Miles and Leonie Butler. And in the Netherlands, we had Amsterdamse Bos with four as well, where there was Laura, Caleb, Timothy and Tabitha Amos.

00:56:41Melissa Ellis: Yes, so all the Brits travelling this weekend to Europe. Yes. I was also going to mention there was actually five adventurers, I think. That was a large frond on Unity Day. One of the events there had five.

00:56:56[crosstalk]

00:56:56Lorraine - visiting parkrunner, home parkrun Burnley: Yes.

00:56:56Melissa Ellis: We didn't highlight that. No, we did not. Never mind. But the pilgrimage, there were adventurers at Bushy this week for the 20th anniversary. There was Adrian Muscombe, Lisa Ackerson and Branca Moss. Now, you've done some little... bit of research here for me Simon so we know that Adrian has actually been previously to bushy yep was his 19th time but Lisa was there for her pilgrimage her first visit and branka was there for their third time so Lisa looks like she might be from Queensland as well so oh

00:57:34Simon Mackley: Yes, big adventure for her.

00:57:37Melissa Ellis: Now, Adrian Luscombe popped into Dazza's and he had posted a glorious sunny autumnal morning at Bushy for the birthday celebrations and shared a photo of himself holding purple foil 20 balloons with the pop-up there. Now, largest fronds in Australia and New Zealand, there were 13 this week at Shellharbour. And there were 11 at Samford Parklands and 8 out at The Ponds. So this week we're going to highlight Shellharbour's fronds. That was... Ollie, Blake and Julie Wells, David Foster, Gordon and Julie Turner, James and Hannah, Bec Bailey, Louise Aitkin, Delvene and Kristen McKenzie and Sue Kean. Now, another reason I wanted to highlight Shellharbour was just so I could say Ollie's name and remember that today is his birthday. It is his birthday. MUSIC So we wish him a very big happy birthday, lots more cake, and hope you had a wonderful time with your family, Oliver.

00:58:25[background music]

00:58:50Unidentified speaker: Yes.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

00:58:52Simon Mackley: So we had a couple of launches over the weekend. So I am going to kick off with the hardest one to actually say, which was at, it was in Germany, in a place called Wetzlar, and the parkrun is called Naturlehrpfad, which I think it translates in English as Nature Trail parkrun. So a lovely name for it. They had 88 participants, 20 first timers and 12 volunteers. So for those playing along at home with their maps, Wetzlar is about 45 minutes north of Frankfurt. Yeah, it looks, yeah, obviously quite close. So described on their page, the course is as follows. Nach dem Start, oh, sorry. After the start, there's a short, slightly uphill section, followed by two laps through the forest and along a cow pasture, which is called a Kuhlmark, on asphalted forest and field paths, after which the participants return to the finish. [German: "After the start"]

00:59:54Melissa Ellis: Were you being clever there? Were you pretending you were actually going to read it all in German?

00:59:59Simon Mackley: I was. I did that with Sarah a couple of weeks ago as well.

01:00:04Melissa Ellis: Very good. All righty. Welcome to the family to them. I'm not going to try to say their name. You did a good job. Now, we also had another launch called Paisley Park parkrun. Oh, it's an alliteration. And they're in the UK. They kicked off with 112 participants and 24 volunteers. There were five first ever to parkrun first timers. And this event is located in Belfast, west, north, west of the city.

01:00:36Simon Mackley: Sorry, I wrote it's got eight parkruns within a five mile radius of it. So there's a lot of parkruns around Belfast, it seems.

01:00:42Melissa Ellis: Right, okay. The course starts on the Cinder Track, then through Paisley Park onto the Greenway and completes at two loops before returning to Paisley Park and finishing on the track. I just think that is a lovely name for a parkrun.

01:00:56Simon Mackley: It is. I actually looked up to see whether Paisley Park was some sort of iconic Cinder Track, but I couldn't read anything on there apart from there is a football club that is located at the same place in Paisley Park.

01:01:11Melissa Ellis: So I did also note the cinder track. I don't know what that means.

01:01:15Simon Mackley: I think Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile on a cinder track. I hear about it on, you know, from Danny and Nicola on With Me Now. I don't know what a cinder track is. I should have looked that up instead of trying to find out whether it was some iconic place.

01:01:32Melissa Ellis: Yeah. It sounds so romantic, a cinder track.

01:01:36Simon Mackley: Yeah.

01:01:36Melissa Ellis: Okay. Oh, well. Well, she'll bring you that news next week. Stay tuned. Yeah. Looking forward. Okay. The parkrun adventurers podcast listener meetup page. It's been spruced up, Simon, for the new location, for the new location of Queenstown next year, 2025. So... Keep your eye on that. If you haven't followed the page, now's a good time, especially if you're planning to come. We will be posting anything that relates to the Palm weekend, using that as our main source of communication.

01:02:11Simon Mackley: It's a separate page, so go looking for that. It's not our normal page.

01:02:17Melissa Ellis: No, it is not. It is called the parkrun adventurers podcast listener meetup page.

01:02:23Unidentified speaker: Yes.

parkrun adventure challengelistener challenge

01:02:25Melissa Ellis: And Simon, also last week we brought back the listener challenge.

01:02:30Simon Mackley: Yep.

01:02:31Melissa Ellis: With the birthday themed emojis. We didn't have a high take up rate on that. I think people are out of practice.

01:02:39Simon Mackley: They're probably out of practice and the pod coming out later in the week. I don't know. Maybe they didn't have time to listen because I'm going to put my hand up and say I didn't get to the end of it before we recorded.

01:02:50Melissa Ellis: And it was also hard to know because people might just have been using cake emojis because it was the 20th birthday and it might not have been because they listened.

01:02:59Janice - Run Director, Epworth Equestrian parkrun: So I kind of outsmarted myself in that respect.

Sign-off

01:03:01Melissa Ellis: But anyway, this week, it's not so easy. You can't. No. You can't accidentally get it right. So this week what we want you to do is give us a salute. Not a one-fingered salute for anybody who might want to think they can be a bit creative. No, we don't want rude ones. I am talking more of a military salute. Yep. Just because I'm running out of things to ask you to do. So anyway. Yeah. Chuck us a boxer. Where are you going the next parkrun day, Mel? Well, funny you should say that because on the – On the theme of salutes, I'm going to be back at Pucka parkrun.

01:03:34Simon Mackley: Excellent.

01:03:35Melissa Ellis: Two weeks in a row for me. Great. Looking forward to that. What about you, Simon?

01:03:40Simon Mackley: I am heading to Forte Forest, so not very far from home, to meet up with a few of the South East Queensland ambassadors. I actually don't know how many are coming, but yeah, we're catching up for our quarterly meetup.

01:03:52Melissa Ellis: That's good. Do you find them beneficial? What do you do?

01:03:56Simon Mackley: I do because I meet ambassadors that I haven't met before. Um, we always go for breakfast. Um, there is normally the, many of the same, um, people there. Um, but there's a few new ambassadors around, um, who haven't been.

01:04:09Melissa Ellis: So do you sit around and go, what new events are you starting?

01:04:13Simon Mackley: No, we never talk about new events, maybe very quietly, you know, one-on-one, but no, it's not about talking about HQ or like it's, it's just literally catching up and, and maybe sharing ideas or, um, Yeah, talking about our adventures, that sort of thing. Because I know there are a few ambassadors that are adventurers who listen to the podcast, is what I meant to say.

01:04:37Melissa Ellis: I've actually been bumping into a few listeners lately. It's been lovely. Okay. Yeah. I met Andrew, listener Andrew, at Mount Annan and also at Juniors. One of our listeners was a first-time volunteer, Bill. So that was nice, for me yes now we also need to uh announce where budgie is going to be this Saturday Simon excellent would you like to do the honours oh I can do it sure Budgie is flying into Shellharbour, so if there's any adventurers going to Shellharbour who are adventuring elsewhere

01:05:22Simon Mackley: it would be a good time to go and pick up Budgie.

01:05:24Melissa Ellis: Yes, go and see Karen, Karen Hamilton, and see where we can get Budgie to next. Now, next week is going to be myself and Toc, and it's going to be our 400th episode. Amazing. It's just kind of snuck up on us. We haven't even planned a party. No, exactly. No frills 400. It's not a thing.

01:05:45Simon Mackley: Yeah, there's no T-shirt for it, so rolling on for another 100.

01:05:50Melissa Ellis: Yeah, moving on. Well, thank you for joining me again, Simon.

01:05:55Simon Mackley: No problem. Thanks for having me back after eight weeks.

01:05:58Melissa Ellis: I won't see you in two weeks, will I? You'll be back with Sarah?

01:06:01Simon Mackley: I will be back with Sarah, yes. And yeah, we will be, maybe we won't be poking any fun at Victoria this time. I'm glad you took it in the manner to which we were meaning it. So as always, listeners, you can contact us via parkrun adventurers on Facebook or our email address, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. That's it for another week. We will see you all next week for more adventures.