Episode 401 - Adventurers Shine

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

Welcome

00:00:23Simon Mackley: Welcome to episode 401 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 from Quandamooka Country.

00:00:35Sarah Jefferson: My name is Sarah Jefferson and I'm coming to you from Noongar Country.

00:00:39Simon Mackley: Welcome back Sarah. Another month closer to the end of the year and palm25 and your little one arriving. Where have you been and how have you been?

00:00:49Sarah Jefferson: Yes, crazy summer. The year is definitely ticking along. I have had a busy month since we last caught up. It's been a busy month of travel for me and I'm certainly happy to be home for now. I'll be off on an adventure soon, but it's been nice to be home. However, I did head across the ditch to New Zealand, which was really nice to get away and enjoy the beautiful scenery. Over there, I know that it was mentioned in the pod, but I did have a little bit of a mishap with my flight. As we were leaving Perth, it took, so we have from Perth, we fly to Sydney and then on to New Zealand. It took an hour extra to leave. By the time we left, it was really great that the plane was safe. However, we sort of missed our connection in Sydney and that was the last connection to Queenstown for the day. So we got to hang out in the Qantas Lounge. They put us on a flight to Christchurch, so a completely different airport. And then we ended up arriving in Queenstown a day late. But I guess this might be some learning for Palm 2025 in terms of allowing a bit of extra time for travel if you're heading over to New Zealand or you need change or have connections to your flights. Got there. Um, and we, luckily we'd planned to arrive on a, on a Thursday. So we arrived on a Friday. Thank goodness. Otherwise we would have missed parkrun being the Saturday, but yeah, but it was lovely to, to get away. Certainly feeling refreshed, ready for my, well now I've got eight weeks left of work, which is pretty exciting.

00:02:20[crosstalk]

00:02:33Simon Mackley: Yeah.

00:02:34Sarah Jefferson: Single figures for a year. I know then the work will start next year, be busier next year, I'm sure.

00:02:41Simon Mackley: Different work, different work. And I hear you met someone pretty famous in the Corners Club.

00:02:47Sarah Jefferson: Oh, I did. I got to meet David Walliams. So I actually thought his surname was David Williams, but I learnt. Wow. But I didn't say that to him. Good. The kids at school actually corrected me on that. Kids are really great at correcting you. So the UK comedian, Britain's Got Talent judge and children's author, I believe. He's sold over 62 million books online.

00:03:11Simon Mackley: Unbelievable. I know, yeah, Jackson's had a lot of his books, yeah, more recently. So, yeah.

00:03:16Sarah Jefferson: Yeah, lovely guy. Gave me a really nice hug, actually. That was nice. Yeah. Oh, good. I was going for gold in the Qantas lounge, though, with the food, and he just sat back with his pot of tea. Oh, yeah. So, I guess that's, yeah, maybe not as much of a novelty for him, travelling all the time.

00:03:36Simon Mackley: Yeah, of course.

00:03:37Sarah Jefferson: Yeah. But, yes, that was nice.

00:03:39Simon Mackley: Yeah, I'm sure someone else is paying.

00:03:41Sarah Jefferson: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. But that was a positive of missing the flight, I guess.

00:03:46Simon Mackley: Yeah, you wouldn't have been able to meet him otherwise. So where were you on this past parker and day?

00:03:52Sarah Jefferson: So this past parkrun day, I was back home at Cottesloe parkrun for event 452. So this is my home event and it was the 70th time completing this course. So I'm slowly making my way towards the Singleton, which is difficult when you are an adventurer. There were 93 finishes and I did feel the parkwalker role for the morning. Had a lovely chat with some friends who I haven't seen in a while and Ben Turner, Kirsty Robertson. They brought along their seven-month-old son, Matty, as well as a friend, Kate Hewitt. Afterwards, we headed to the beach bus, which is about 500 metres south for smoothies, acai bowls and coffee by the beach. The weather was perfect, wasn't too hot or too cold. However, there were no swims afterwards, as Matt and I, I know, no swims. Matt and I had a very important date to get to in the Swan Valley for the 50th concert of Cold Chisel. which we were not missing. And that saw us getting home at 11.30 at night. So Saturday was a really big day for us, but we were lucky to get parkrun in before all of that. So, yeah, it was a great day. What about you, Simon? How did you go on Saturday?

00:05:13Simon Mackley: Well, I got to Fodder Forest, which I know I mentioned in the last time I recorded with Mel I was going that next weekend. I stuffed up my dates and it was actually last weekend. So I met up with, um, a lot of the ambassadors from Southeast Queensland. Um, it was a, it was a humid morning, but thoroughly enjoyable. I ran with pod listeners, uh, Lockie and Alan, um, and had a great catch up with all the ambassadors. Well, a lot of the ambassadors afterwards at a cafe. Um, it was Fodder's, um, third birthday and I was joined by 132 others. So there was 123 runners and volunteers.

00:05:53Sarah Jefferson: Lovely. Sounds like a nice morning and always nice to catch up with some listeners and some friends as well.

00:06:00Simon Mackley: Exactly right. I think there was five of us in total. Well, four listeners and me, but yes, there's five adventurers. Yeah, well, a little frond as we'll find out later.

00:06:13Sarah Jefferson: Lovely. Well, very good to hear. Well, Simon, I do have an update on Budgie.

00:06:20Simon Mackley: Okay.

00:06:22Sarah Jefferson: So Budgie's currently resting in the hangar at the moment. He's being checked out. He or she, actually. I'm not sure if we have a gender for Budgie. But Budgie is currently being checked out by the engineers after a big trip to Europe and back again. However, I do believe that Budgie is preparing and refuelling to take flights somewhere a little west of Sydney next week. So if any of the listeners are headed into west or out west New South Wales, namely near Lithgow parkrun this weekend coming, you may want a little frond as well. And you might be able to find adventurer Bec Bailey there and take possession of Budgie there. So feel free to check out this location if you are close by.

00:07:11Simon Mackley: So if you don't get to see Budgie at Lithgow on this Saturday, you might be able to pick up Budgie at Panorama Punish on Sunday. So, yeah, as I said, Panorama Punish is this weekend. There's still time to enter. But by the time this comes out, it may have already closed. Yeah, we don't know when the pub will come out. But as we're recording on Monday night, it is still open. So good luck to all of the adventurers taking part this weekend. A little reminder that this is a unique course. The 6.2K track does have 174 metres of elevation gain over the course of it. And this is the seventh panorama punish.

00:07:59Sarah Jefferson: Mm-hmm. Now, in terms of seeing Budgie at the Panorama Punish, I don't know if Budgie can be handed over there, right? It does have to be handed over to parkrun.

00:08:08Simon Mackley: That is true.

00:08:09Sarah Jefferson: Yes. Hopefully, it does manage to pass Budgie on at Lithgow. Otherwise, you can just wave at Budgie, I guess.

00:08:19Simon Mackley: Yep.

00:08:20Sarah Jefferson: All right. And since the previous pod was recorded, Simon, as well, we have some athletes and parkrunners who have completed the Chicago Marathon. So one of the world major marathons, as mentioned in last week's pod. So there are currently, just a little bit of a background on this, there are currently six races in the Abbott World Marathon Major Series, including Berlin, Boston, London, New York, Tokyo and Chicago. And I believe that Sydney is in the final stages of being determined as to whether or not this event will be added in 2025. The previous event was added to this list in 2013, and that was Tokyo. So in terms of adventurers, we had Jo McLean, we had Eman Vergara, who travelled over from Australia. This was Jo's fourth marathon, including Canberra, the Gold Coast and New York. So this was Jo's second world major marathon, and she completed it in a time of four hours and 40 minutes. Well done, Jo. So Jo shared that parkrun has been vital in keeping her active and enabling her to sign up to events such as this. Jo also wanted to share that this just shows that age truly is only a number and it isn't a barrier to getting out there and achieving what you want to do in life. We also had Eman, as I mentioned. Eman has completed some of the world majors and he said that this was actually his third world major and he completed it in three hours and four minutes. Cracking time. He mentioned it was really special for him having his two kids there and his wife, Christine. And we also had two adventurers joining from the UK to take part, Stuart and Vicky Henderson. Their times were 2 hours 55 and 3 hours 24 respectively. So it was great to have four adventurers there travelling from far and wide and all setting cracking paces.

00:10:22Simon Mackley: Oh, for sure. Yeah, great times indeed. Very impressive. And currently going on at the moment is the Backyard Ultra World Satellite Champs. Now, you might be questioning why I'm talking about this on a parkrun pod. We currently have 15, sorry, there's 15 people on the Australian team, there's 15 people on every world team, of which there are 63 countries currently competing. And of those 15 Aussies, I have been able to work out that at least 11 of them are parkrunners. So Phil Gore, we know, used to be the Event Director at Shipwreck. But, yeah, a lot of the others are parkrunners as well. So, as I said, it was a 15-person team. We currently have 12 Aussies still going, and they're out, as at right now, 6 o'clock-ish in Perth. They're out on their 46th yard. The only team that currently still has all 15 participants is Belgium. So they've now completed between them 690 yards. Wow. New Zealand has 10 still in with 669 yards. USA has 13 people with 667. And as I said, the Aussies are on, or they're actually coming in fourth on 656 yards between them. And there's still 23 countries competing. So they've already been going for 46 hours. There's a lot of people still left in it. But yeah, like I was talking to someone earlier today and they said that the Irish one had to finish because they had 60 to 70 mile an hour winds across their course. So... A lot of them dropped out between 18 and 20 laps, 20 yards, and it was raining as well. So it's happening all around the world. It's in WA at the moment on the Herdy's course, if anyone knows that course, which I believe, Sarah, you say there's a lot of snakes there. Is that right? Yes.

00:12:31Sarah Jefferson: I have been to this lake once in my life, Simon, and I don't know that I want to go back there again. I'm sure it's beautiful if anyone wants to go back there and walk around it. The time I was there, first thing, I nearly trod on a tiger snake. The second thing, Matt nearly trod on a tiger snake. And then the third one, I had to walk past a tiger snake sunning itself. So if you would like to see a tiger snake, It's pretty renowned for having a very healthy catchment area, I guess. Yeah, community of tiger snakes and swans. I guess there's lots of food and sort of frogs in this pond. But no, it's not my favourite place to visit. If there was a parkrun, I would definitely go in winter and probably once.

00:12:59[crosstalk]

00:13:17Simon Mackley: Fair enough. Yeah, fair enough.

00:13:19Sarah Jefferson: They'll be all running so fast and I'm sure they're fine and they're braver than what I am, that's for sure. Yeah. Anyway, so somewhere in the world, Simon, though, that does not have snakes, which I do love, is New Zealand. And as you know, we are headed there for Palm next year. And the beautiful course of Queenstown... that has been selected for our Palm has actually won an award. The Queenstown parkrun took out the People's Choice Award at the annual Spirit of Wakatipu Awards. So congratulations to this incredible team. Having already completed this event myself and having visited Queenstown twice and recently as well, it is such a special place. And everyone who does head over there for Palm next year really is in for a treat. And I will... I would just second as well, it was mentioned on last week's pod that it really is advisable to be looking into your flights and accommodation ASAP because things are expensive and they are filling up. So if you haven't, you're interested, jump on and have a look.

00:14:25[background music]

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:14:29Sarah Jefferson: So on that note, Simon, I think we might throw to the roving reports.

Roving report Lyndell Murray — Sirromet parkrun

00:14:41Lyndell Murray: G'day parkrun adventurers, it's Lyndell and today I find myself on the lands of the Quandamooka and Turrbal people and I'm at Sirromet parkrun which is one of Simon's local haunts but I don't think he's actually done any recordings from here for a little while so here I am and I've tracked down Liam who is today's Run Director. How are you today, Liam?

00:15:02Liam: Very well, thank you.

00:15:03Lyndell Murray: And things have gone pretty well?

00:15:05Liam: So far, it's a good crowd this morning. We had a few Calamvale locals and, yeah, good crowd, generally.

00:15:11Lyndell Murray: Yep, so a few tourists, and I can see you've just got one eye on the finish line to make sure everyone gets home safe. Yeah, yeah. So I'll try not to take too much of your time. But Sirromet parkrun... is based at a local winery, Sirromet Winery. So we're really lucky to have this great course. Tell us a little bit about the course on the grounds of this winery. Yep.

00:15:16[crosstalk]

00:15:32Liam: Well, it's obviously not a winery, so there's lots of hills, lots of things that make it a bit unique. There's lots of wildlife. There's always wallabies and things like that when we're setting up the course in the morning. It's really lovely. The course is interesting. It's got a few hills, which make it challenging for people who like a path run. We have a small field every week, so it's always good to run over the rolling hills by yourself. It's kind of lovely. It's very unique to parkrun in this sort of area.

00:16:06Lyndell Murray: Yeah, it is pretty unique. A few hills, it's mostly on trail and grass. What I really liked about the course, Liam, is your system with red and green cones because I'm a bit of a back of the packer. I often worry that I'm going to get lost, particularly in smaller fields. But in your run, you have this system where you follow the green cones, take note of the red cones. They're telling you not to go somewhere. That seems to work really well.

00:16:30[crosstalk]

00:16:33Liam: Yeah, I think that was a bit of an invention by Dad. He sort of came up with that one where we'd use the red and the greens to signify where to go where. The greens being you just run to and fro. I think it would be a really interesting idea if you had a load of green cones, like 100 green cones, and you just marked one every 20 metres or something. You wouldn't even need marshals or anything. You just follow the green cones all the way around. I think it would be a really funny idea. But yeah, it seems to work. No one gets lost.

00:17:03Lyndell Murray: No, haven't lost anyone yet.

00:17:04Liam: No, and there's a bit of subjectivity on this course, like how it goes. So the marking used to be good. And so, yeah, haven't lost anyone. So happy days.

00:17:09[crosstalk]

00:17:13Lyndell Murray: Brilliant. So the course here is beautiful. And I should just say our location, we are, I don't know how many kilometres. For me, it was a 30-minute drive from just over the other side of the river. So we're probably about 30 minutes southeast from the CBD of Brisbane.

00:17:30Liam: Yeah, yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, half hour out in the bayside. Yep. It's always nice.

00:17:32[crosstalk]

00:17:35Lyndell Murray: Brilliant. And there's lots of lovely parkruns out here on the bayside, which we won't go into today.

00:17:39Liam: Yep.

00:17:40Lyndell Murray: What I am going to ask you, though, Liam, is this podcast is for people who like to adventure. Yep. So have you done much touristing in parkrun? And would you like to tell us, you know, either a funny story or a great story from time you've been somewhere? Or the other... Choose your own adventure here. Pick your top three parkruns, not including Sirromet. Okay. I'm putting you on the spot, but I'm sure you're up to it, my friend.

00:18:05Liam: Top three parkruns. Okay. Me and Dad have fortunately had the opportunity to do a lot of the parkruns in the Brisbane sort of region. It's like an hour drive to a new one. So every time we go touristing, it's like, geez, it's going to be a big morning. Okay. So there's a lot of great parkruns, a lot of variety across Brisbane. Best three, I reckon, are a good story. See, now you've opened so many can of worms with that question. Too many options. Yeah, that's it. I was down in Melbourne at a work conference and had an absolutely huge Friday night, but I still had to get up on Saturday morning and go down to Albert Park parkrun, which I regard as my favourite parkrun of all time. Brilliant. I reckon White Rock. In Brizzy, that's a great parkrun. It's small, but it's a really good trail. Another cracker. The one in Adelaide along the river. I don't know if you've done that one. That's lovely.

00:18:46[crosstalk]

00:18:59Lyndell Murray: Is it in the middle of the town? I think that might be Torrens.

00:19:02Liam: Torrens, that's it. Torrens, yeah, that'd be my top three. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, brilliant so because they're in unusual places and they're nice courses that kind of thing well they they're just there's something unique about them um and I think with Albert park well firstly I love motorsport and that's an f1 track so it's wicked and then you know you've got the city in the background and there's always like cool Melbourne weather and um you know you're running around a lake and there's yeah it's awesome and probably same with Adelaide there's there's things of remark that make it cool um yeah yeah

00:19:05[crosstalk]

00:19:33Lyndell Murray: Alright, now that leads me on to things that are unique. The thing that I find is very similar at most parkruns is the community and the people. And that's what makes a parkrun great. So it seems like you've got a really nice little community and group of volunteers here.

00:19:39[crosstalk]

00:19:47Liam: That is the thing about Sirromet parkrun, which I think makes us the best. Our community is awesome. We have a core group of people who rock up every week and make this place great. You know, you rock up every week and you just, you know, all people of different ages and and things like that and you just check in on how people are going and rock up for a run every week that's that's the best part of it is seeing faces every week so yeah our community is awesome we have such a good group of core people yeah and making that connection I noticed that you said you just check in to see how everyone is a really great message for mental health month month and it was mental health day during the week as well so

00:20:21[crosstalk]

00:20:28Lyndell Murray: parkrun helps with that right absolutely absolutely all right actually that reminds me there was a sign out on your course that said uh running is cheaper than therapy another great message for mental health month although if you do need therapy please do seek professional help but running really does help to just clear the cobwebs and help you feel good

00:20:49Liam: Absolutely, getting out, getting a bit of exercise, right? Now, the funny thing is, I hadn't seen that sign. That's Dad's invention. Every week, he'll write a new message on it. And sometimes we just get crackers, which is a really good joke. Some of the weeks, it's like a bit, oh. But no, that's really good that that message was today. That's good to hear.

00:21:06[crosstalk]

00:21:06Lyndell Murray: Yeah, perfect timing. I didn't realise it was a different one every week. How brilliant.

00:21:10Liam: Yeah, yeah, there you go.

00:21:11Lyndell Murray: Great. Well, thank you, Liam. I'll let you get back to packing up your parkrun. I think the tail walk is just coming in now. Thanks so much for having me here today. Thank you for your contribution to parkrun here in Sirromet and in South East Queensland.

00:21:20[background music]

00:21:24Liam: Thank you very much. Thanks for the chat. Appreciate it.

00:21:35Simon Mackley: OK, so we're back from our one and only roving report of the week, which was from Lyndell. And she was talking to the RD of Sirromet, Liam. So fun fact, Sirromet backwards is T.E. Morris, who is the owner of Sirromet Winery. Well, the Morris family are, but yeah. So yeah, fun fact there.

00:21:57Sarah Jefferson: Clever. I love that you know that fun fact as well.

00:22:01Simon Mackley: Thank you. Well, it isn't far from me. So yeah, somebody told me that. So now I'm imparting that information on. So yeah, so as I say, we've only ended up with one this week and that's been held over from the previous week. We didn't get any in in this past parkrun day. So remember that you can actually submit a roving report. You don't have to be a Channel 5 News crew member to submit something. And we love hearing people interviewing interesting people that you come across at parkrun. But try and keep it somewhere between five and seven minutes if possible, because that makes it easier for us to

Dazza's

00:22:37Sarah Jefferson: hear a myriad of people across the parkrun day definitely and get a snap from snapshot from lots of different areas Simon I do love the sound of this parkrun being at a winery I know parkruns in the morning but sounds quite unique I like like the sound of it okay so throwing to Dazza's this week Dazza has said Today is New Friends Day. parkrun has brought me a lot of new friends. And whilst there's many of them, I never speak to outside of Saturday morning. A familiar greeting and a polite wave can mean a great deal. Did you meet a new friend today? Maybe you were lucky enough to see a blue adventurer's shirt in the wild and immediately knew you were in the presence of a kindred spirit. Whatever happened and whoever you met on your Saturday morning, your old friend Dazza would love to hear all about it.

parkrun adventure challengelistener challenge

00:23:27Sarah Jefferson: So we did have the listener challenge this week as well. And that was just a reminder was to form a letter with your body, with your body and with a friend through the parkrun selfie frame if you could and you wanted to level up. And they were impressive, Simon.

00:23:44Simon Mackley: They were. They were. So, yeah, this week we heard from Rex Gream. So he said, ventured down the mountain with Clancy and Samantha Skinner to meet new Saturday friends, at Horseshoe Bay Reserve parkrun. Warm and humid, but pleasant, a very pleasant spot. Two Laperon paths with a very scenic section through the scrub. Great set of volleys. Hopefully Sam's and my efforts count as the first initial definitely recommend. And there was a photo of Rex and Sam with their outer hand up in the air and the parkrun selfie frame representing the horizontal line across to form a capital H. This definitely represents a capital H well. Rex and Sam, great job.

00:24:30Sarah Jefferson: That was a great photo. So well done. We also heard from Lockie Miners, who came to us from Queensland. So Lockie said, ran and had a great chat with a familiar face at Fodder Forest parkrun this morning. And there was an emoji with a tree and a running man. There was also a photo of a well-known person, a celebrity around here, Simon Mackley, cruising through the forest with Lachie, both with a smile and thumbs up. And it looks like you were both having a lovely catch up.

00:25:03Simon Mackley: We were. And that photo was actually taken by Lachie's wife, who is one of the photographic ambassadors up here. That's Nicola. Next, we heard from Chloe Bravos from West is Best. She said, always lovely to see friends at Aveley parkrun. Beautiful morning, peacocks and ducklings on display and plenty of sunshine. Now time for a latte, thanks Dazza. And Chloe and Dave were creating a capital A through the selfie frame with both the Bravos wearing an apricot shirt. New parkrun shoes and Chloe has an adventurer's buff on her arm. Well done team Bravos once again.

00:25:45Sarah Jefferson: Coming to us from Victoria, we heard from Carolyn McRae. Carolyn says, I returned to Euroa parkrun with my bestie Jan Maines so she could tick off this event. And there was a photo of the besties, Carolyn and Jan, pictured in the selfie frame with jumpers and long pants on. So it looks like it's still cold down there in the supposed greatest state, Simon. I know in Western Australia we are into the shorts weather now and I'm assuming Queensland is well into that as well.

00:26:15Simon Mackley: Definitely, yeah, definitely too hot for anything other than shorts at the moment. Next we heard from Yvette Turner from the ACT. We made lots of new friends last night at an event in Canberra, so we took a few of them to Mount Ainslie parkrun with us this morning. Canberra had a lot of rain yesterday, so there were lots of puddles to get around this morning, but we were lucky to have a warm, sunny morning, always a great way to start the day. There was a photo of Yvette and seven others with the selfie frame. And I always think it's great to recruit one or two people from parkrun, but seven, way to go, Yvette.

00:26:56Sarah Jefferson: Yes, seven's impressive. To recruit seven people, well done. Well done, Yvette. And we heard from someone in Poland this morning. So Ali comes to us and says... I did make a new friend today. She was a friend of some old friends who we all met up to do a parkrun in Poland. And it says, good luck pronouncing that one if it gets read out. Although I've learned this week that if you type the name into Google Translate and press the speaker button, it will read out the correct pronunciation. So perhaps you could use that. In all the excitement, I totally forgot to do a J too. So rather than me saying, pronouncing it. Let's give this a shot. If I type this parkrun into Google Translate, it says.

00:27:46Simon Mackley: All right. I'm glad to put that in Google Translate. Next, we heard from Chris Horowitz from Tasmania, who said, my 96th different event at a very windy Montrose foreshore parkrun, plus my eighth state and territory. Now, I saw the Peel Club this week who entered it, and I can't actually see Chris on there. So when he's saying the eighth state and territory, I'm wondering whether it's seven states, but I can see that they've done South Island, New Zealand, which would be going for the Oberg Club. So there was a photo of Chris in the selfie frame with a smile on his face.

00:28:28Sarah Jefferson: So it sounds like Chris has the Northern Territory to get to. He does, yes. Coming to us from the UK, we had Adrian Luscombe this morning. So great fun with 1,116 new friends. That's a lot of friends. At a very wet Battersea in London. And there was an English flag emoji for their second event. A double funnel and brilliant volunteers work their magic. And there was a photo with Adrian with the Battersea pop-up in a very wet-looking park with long sleeves on. Brrrr.

00:29:02Simon Mackley: I can't believe over a thousand people turned up and it was wet.

00:29:07Sarah Jefferson: Wow. Crazy, in a double funnel.

00:29:10Simon Mackley: Yeah.

00:29:10Sarah Jefferson: Crazy.

00:29:11Simon Mackley: So the sugar people of Bushy turned up to Battersea. Anyway.

00:29:16Sarah Jefferson: Sounds like it.

00:29:18Simon Mackley: So we heard from Heather Patzel from South Australia, who said, first time as talker, so I'm guessing that's the first time as welcome, at Mount Gambier, South Australia. I ran 10 with my school friend last week at Melbourne Marathon. She had friends running from Queensland and one was running parkrun here. We had a good chat. Love my parkrun friends. My son started parkrunning more and now has several mates running too. So there was a photo of Heather with the first timer sign. And we are assuming that Heather ran the 10K event at the Melbourne Marathon weekend last weekend with her friend. So well done, Heather. It sounds like all of your friends and that your son is loving parkrun too. which is great to hear. Well done.

the Obi Award — Rex Gream, Clancy Skinner and Samantha Skinner

00:30:05Sarah Jefferson: So, Simon, I believe that you have cleaned up your desk in the last month. So does that mean that you can find the Obi post-it note easily?

00:30:17Simon Mackley: I have the Obi post-it note in front of me. And the Obi this week goes to... Rex, Clancy and Sam. Sam.

00:30:34Sarah Jefferson: Well done. That was very creative. That was one of my favourites, Simon. I thought that was great.

00:30:39Simon Mackley: I like the M from, was it Marriott Waters? Yes, Marriott Waters was good too. That's very good. So we don't have any emails this week. So yeah, it's been light on no roving reports, no emails.

00:30:41[crosstalk]

00:30:50[background music]

Club Corner

00:30:53Simon Mackley: So why don't we throw to Reginald?

00:31:07Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III: This is Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III, with Club Corner, where we talk about the what and why of parkrun clubs, and I am coming to you from Arrernte Country. I begin today with an invitation for you to provide me with feedback. Although I sound authoritative, I should not be considered the final authority on all things parkrun, I am only a voice after all. Perhaps I can match all comers on some parkrun topics, but not in all topics. Today I am going to continue with the what that happens before the 3, 2, 1, go of parkrun, and will cover the First Timers Welcome, Sign Language Support, and photographer. Sign Language Support is exactly what the box reads, a person fluent in the sign language of that country who assists those in the deaf and hard of hearing population. First Timers Welcome is a now compulsory role that has great merit and value to the parkrun community, especially the adventuring community. The role is primarily pitched at people who are new to parkrun overall, those doing parkrun number one, or another early number, and helping them understand what is going on. We all know that parkrun is an easy concept, once you understand, but there is a barrier to entry for those who have not experienced it. We all know of people who register many months, and sometimes years, before they first attend. And there is a marked drop-off between many people attending their first and subsequent parkrun. So First Timers Welcome is someone who explains how to do parkrun, and then also the specifics of that parkrun. The first timer briefing is a great forum to also introduce the parkwalker and or Tail Walker. This helps raise the profile for those roles and reinforces an inclusive event environment. Having the photographer involved is also a chance for those staged shots with the event core flute sign or simply with their family smiley face. And nicely done Reginald, here we are at the final role for today, photographer. Their role is to make a record of that week's event. Some focus on the environment, some on the volunteer team, some on the participants, and some can manage to do everything. A massive part of parkrun's embedding into acceptance in the early days was coupled with Facebook and the posting of event photos. For many participants, these were the first images of them exercising or running, or capturing the Holy Grail, a running shot with both feet off the ground. My final comment on photographer is to not be intimidated by the fabulous photographers out there, and just have a go. Do you know what is better than not having a photo? Having a photo. Simply grab your phone, and point and shoot. As a participant, the only thing you need to remember is to cross your arms in front of you if you do not want your photo taken. And remember, in parkrun life, all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun, so stay tuned for our future Club Corners.

00:34:15Sarah Jefferson: So we are back from Club Corner. So Reginald wants to hear from you, the listeners. But before we get into that, Simon, I do believe that the first-timers role is an incredibly valuable one, and I feel that personally it has made a difference to when I have been at an event, particularly a new event, or I've gone to an event on my own. It often sets the tone for the event, I feel, and a friendly face when you arrive and someone to check in with, carrying the First Timers Welcome sign is valuable. So thanks to Reginald for explaining this role in depth, also the Sign Language Support and photographer. Okay, so we wanna hear from you. So what is it that you, what do you think of Reginald? Is Reginald too fancy? Is Reginald informative for you? Is Reginald valuable? We'd love to hear. We'd love to get you to write in and let us know what you think. Yep.

00:35:14Simon Mackley: So write to us at parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. And we will pass that on to Reginald from Arrernte Country.

Consolidated Club Report

00:35:22Simon Mackley: So let's crack on to the Consolidated Club Report. So the adventurers Consolidated Club Report for Saturday, the 19th of October, 2024. of a total of 702 members. 513, yes, big number. 513 took part on this date in nine countries across 262 locations. So that is a growth of 12 members in the last month since we last recorded and we are continuing to grow. I know that one of those was Danny Norman from With Me Now because he mentioned it on the podcast in the last pod that they did So yes, welcome Danny. So in the UK, there were adventurers at 55 events, six in South Africa, three in the USA, two in Canada, one in each of Italy, Japan, and Poland. Locally, we had adventurers at 52 events in New South Wales, 47 in the greatest state, 41 in Queensland, South Australia had 16, pipping Western Australia by just one who had 15. Tassie had nine. The ACT had five. The North Island had five as well. South Island had three, but we had no one from the Northern Territory.

00:36:45Sarah Jefferson: Now, Simon, I'm sure that I entered part of this and I definitely did not put the greatest state had 47. So our notes have been tinkered with, because Western Australia is there as 15. So anyway, there has been someone getting into our data space, I think.

the Frond

00:37:04Sarah Jefferson: Moving on, we had the largest international frond was indeed in South Africa at Benguela Cove, hopefully I pronounced that okay, including Marianne, Johanna, Gerna and Nico. There was also a frond of four in New Zealand at Western Springs parkrun. This included Claire Taylor, Mandy Oliver, Helen Watson and Alison King.

00:37:28Simon Mackley: And pilgrimages to Bushy. We had zip, zero, diddly squat. Our largest frond in Australia. We had 12 at Macquarie University. We had nine at Shellharbour. And we had eight at Old Esk Railway Station, where we had Ryan, Rebecca, Sarah, Samantha, Simone, Belinda, Nicole and Carmel.

00:37:52Sarah Jefferson: Quite a frond.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

00:37:54Sarah Jefferson: Now, in terms of launches this week, we technically had two launches this week, but we will be talking about three launches. So the first one was Katy Trail in Denison, Texas, in the US of A. So Denison is located north of Dallas, very close to the border of Oklahoma, and it's about one and a half hours out of Dallas. It's three hours. out and backs on a moderately straight and flat two-lane paved trail. The launch was attended, believe it or not, by two finishers and two volunteers. This past week had two people scanned, one being unknown, and one of those was the Tail Walker. So this was actually launched in the previous week. Very small numbers. In fact, I thought, I better look up this town's population. However, it was showing around 24,000. So it's not a super tiny town. And I guess I can't wait to see this one grow as time goes on.

00:38:54Simon Mackley: Yeah, it'll have big percentage growth in the next couple of weeks, I'm sure.

00:38:58Sarah Jefferson: Definitely. And let's hope it's sustainable.

00:39:01Simon Mackley: So also in the States, we had Spring Rock parkrun launch, which is located in Spring Rock Park in Western Springs, Illinois, which is west-southwest of the city of Chicago. The course is three laps on a mixture of grass and trail around the perimeter of the park. The start and finish are close to the parking lot. The launch was attended by 53 finishers. 17 of those were doing parkrun for their first time ever. And 12 volunteers supported the launch. So, yeah, there's Go The USA. There's a noticeable difference with participants attending launches compared to other countries. That's for sure. Very small numbers for launches.

00:39:42Sarah Jefferson: Great, they've had two in the last two weeks.

00:39:45Simon Mackley: Exactly.

00:39:46Sarah Jefferson: And we had another launch in New South Wales this time. Macquarie University parkrun is in Macquarie Park, northwest of Sydney's CBD. This is the third new Sydney event this year, joining 32 other events in the Rayfarer Challenge. The course follows one lap of internal walkways around the scenic Macquarie University campus. The start finish line is on Wally's Walk near the intersection of Sir Christopher Ondaatje Avenue. The course is 100% on sealed surfaces and is predominantly flat. The launch was attended by 373 finishers, 25 of these were doing their first ever parkrun. Wow. there were 27 volunteers supporting the launch. So pretty big numbers for our first event there, Simon.

Sign-off

00:40:34Simon Mackley: So as we said before, we're going to keep the same challenge as we did last week because everyone was so creative and we hope we can give more people that chance to participate. Where are you going to be on the next parkrun day, Sarah?

00:40:47Sarah Jefferson: So as much as I said I'd love being home, Simon, I'm actually off on an adventure. Yay! An adventurer is never home too long. So I am headed down to Esperance Foreshore parkrun to finally complete my statesman again. Yay! So watch this space. There will be a group of us heading south, including Chris and Karen Gore. Abdul, Matthew Stevens and Andrew Yeatman, who I've decided is gunning for his statesman in Western Australia in 2025. So this weekend have a big road trip ahead. I did say that John's story actually regained his statesman in the last couple of weeks. And he posted something that I thought was really interesting for our overseas listeners. Just about, you know, I guess if you're in Australia, you sort of can understand how big the state of Western Australia is. But he shared that Western Australia is about the same size as Western Europe, but most of the population actually live around the Perth area. So there are still events at the opposite side of this region. As a comparison, that's like someone living in Lisbon. And there are some events as far away as Lubeck in northern Germany. So quite a big distance. But on that note, Simon, before I think about how long I'll need to sit still and drive down just to do a 5K walk or a run over the weekend, where will you be headed on Saturday?

00:42:14Simon Mackley: Well, I'm impressed, first of all, at you getting your statesman again, regaining it. And it sounds like a wonderful group of people to be going south with you as well. I will not be going to parkrun this week, but I will be doing Bondi to Manly Ultra, running leg two of the four legs. So that's Rose Bay to North Sydney for anyone playing at home. So yeah, I can't believe that I'm coming back to Sydney again, not parkrunning, and I'm now three behind in regaining my Rayfarers. So I need to get to Macquarie University, Pirrama and Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan.

00:42:53Sarah Jefferson: So a few trips back south, I guess, for you in the next little while, maybe.

00:42:58Simon Mackley: Well, we'll have to see, yes. I'm not getting down to Sydney for work as much as I used to be. Shame.

00:43:05Sarah Jefferson: Now, is there somewhere as well that people can follow or I can check out how you're going? Is this sort of live streamed, I guess, in terms of checkpoints, this event?

00:43:14Simon Mackley: There is, but I think it's only for participants. I can't remember. I know the app is called Sports Splits, but... Yeah, I don't know if it's been done live. If people are following Dirty Cheaters, then they might find it on there. I don't know. I'm sure we'll have a lot shared.

00:43:33Sarah Jefferson: Well, we'll have to sit tight for the next podcast to hear all about it.

00:43:37Simon Mackley: Yes.

00:43:38Sarah Jefferson: Well, good luck with that. I'm always impressed with people taking on these big challenges and can't wait to hear all about it. So just a little update as well. Next week, there won't be a pod. We'll actually be taking a little bit of a break. Dazza will still be posting. So we strongly encourage you all to get involved online. And as always, you can contact us via parkrun adventurers on Facebook or our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. That's it for another week. We'll see you all next time for more adventures.

00:44:05[outro theme playing]

00:44:23Unidentified speaker: It's free, it's free, it's free.