Episode 405 - B4s Return

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

Welcome

00:00:24Tony O'Connell: Welcome to episode 405 of the parkrun adventurers podcast, a podcast about life, if your life is all about parkrun. My name's Toc and I'm coming to you from Bunurong Country.

00:00:35Melissa Ellis: And my name's Melissa Ellis coming to you from Wurundjeri Country. And thank you for recording on a Sunday evening, Toc. Thank you for giving up your Sunday evening to give me an extra day of editing this week.

00:00:47Tony O'Connell: That is more than fine, Mel, and I think we'll find out later in the podcast what's happening at the end of the week that might have needed an extra day.

00:00:55Melissa Ellis: All the things, exactly. But yes, here we are, the two extrovert podcast hosts.

00:01:03Tony O'Connell: Well, so it's said, but I think the kids might be a little bit more extroverted than what they're letting on, Mel.

00:01:10Melissa Ellis: Well, they're both Run Directors. Well, Simon is an Event Director, so that's quite an extroverted thing to do, wouldn't you think?

00:01:19Tony O'Connell: I would have thought so. I think their casting slings our direction, but I think it's just having a crack at the Victorians. And look, we're big enough to wear it.

00:01:28Melissa Ellis: Anyway, there was fun and games going on over in South Beach, and we will hear about that a bit earlier, but I...

00:01:36Tony O'Connell: tasked you with some homework didn't I and that was about south beach I don't think they referenced attendance numbers in the audio we've got coming up but you um you found out about that I did happen to have a bit of a look Mel and after last week's um pretty epic 194 finishes this week they were down to 145 finishes but there was plenty of love for boomerang b4 returning home to south beach

00:02:06Melissa Ellis: Yes, and we've got audio coming up for you from Sarah in our roving report. So that's something to look forward to. And I found another little gem of trivia this week, Tony, because here in the Great Estate, of course, it was AFL draft time. And so that's a big thing for the end of the season, as you would well know. And the number one draft pick in the AFL, drafted by the Richmond Football Club, was a young lad by the name of Sam Lalor, who hailed from Bacchus Marsh. Now that's out my way. And it got me thinking, I wonder if he's ever done a parkrun. So I looked him up and guess what? He has. He's done one parkrun at Peppertree Park.

00:02:53Tony O'Connell: And I believe he might have been a reasonably quick finish on that occasion too. So, yeah, voting well for Richmond for their AFL selection.

00:03:03Melissa Ellis: But Peppertree, they're betting above their weight because they also, in 2023, so just last year, had the number one WAFL draft pick also as a Peppertree parkrunner. So there's something in the water out there at Peppertree and it ain't platypus.

00:03:24Tony O'Connell: And for those playing at home, Mel, the WAFL would be the Women's Australian Football League. Correct. Just for our friends from overseas that are thinking, what is this AFL thing they keep talking about?

00:03:36Melissa Ellis: It's our aerial ping pong.

00:03:40Tony O'Connell: And for a lot of us, it is our religion.

00:03:43Melissa Ellis: Yes.

00:03:44Tony O'Connell: Apart from parkrun. parkrun's our cult. Hashtag, not a cult.

00:03:51Melissa Ellis: Oh, they can intertwine. There's lots of crossovers with the tribalism, isn't there?

00:03:58Tony O'Connell: There is, in fun fact, St Kilda's my football team. And we actually had the St Kilda football team come down a number of years ago to Inverloch parkrun. And as part of their training, they ran Inverloch parkrun. So I was pretty happy that day.

00:04:13Melissa Ellis: You would have been. That would be good. Anyway, so that is just a little bit of feedback that came out of last week's episode. But Toc, why don't you tell us how your last parkrun day went?

00:04:28Tony O'Connell: Well, we're coming out of winter, and the last parkrun day, which was yesterday, was looming to be fairly warm, and as it turned out, it got very warm on the eastern seaboard of Australia. We had a special friend over. So Alison from across the ditch has landed in Melbourne, and she made the trip down to Inverloch to celebrate Inverloch parkrun. Coming from New Zealand, where it's been quite a bit cooler, I think... We could only describe it as a stinking hot day over here but we had 157 finishes all up and many took the opportunity to duck the 50 metres to the water and have a swim after parkrun. So in a good day all round we took Alison over to Phillip Island afterwards and enjoyed all the sights in about 34 degree temperature.

00:05:18Melissa Ellis: Oh wow we call that a scorcher don't we.

00:05:23Tony O'Connell: Yeah, especially in November. Come February, we're heat adapted and we know a little bit more about the warmth. But for November, a 30 degree day is very rare for us.

00:05:33Melissa Ellis: It is, and it rained today. It did.

00:05:37Tony O'Connell: What about you, Mel? How was your parkrun day?

00:05:40Melissa Ellis: Well it was great thank you for asking and I was at Peppertree parkrun and I was platypus hunting with Dave and also wearing my tribute to Christine Imbert on my very warm run. Now Dave and I were there early to do the course setup in the hope of spotting Mr or Mrs Platypus but unfortunately all we got was a lovely extra walk along the Lerderderg Trail and we actually crossed to the other side of the river to loop back to the start finish area which is the first time I've walked on that side of the Werribee River. I believe it was about 29 degrees as we ran, which is warm for that time of day in Melbourne. My run wasn't actually too bad, all things considered. And I came in just a smidge under 34 minutes. Apologies to the lovely folk at Peppertree as we didn't attend Lola's for the brunch because I was heading into Melbourne CBD to visit the Melbourne Ice Bar, if you don't mind, and see the new Wicked movie at Gold Class. It was thrillifying. Now Sunday, today, I was RD at Eynesbury Heritage Trail Junior parkrun with Ezra recording their last ever Junior event. Since the launch of Westerfolds Juniors on the 27th of May in 2018, Ezra has attended 78 Junior events with 24 at Westerfolds before I launched the one at Eynesbury. Then 53 at Eynesbury and one over at Thornton Juniors in South Australia. So Ezra was actually a little surprised when I informed them that they would no longer be able to complete a junior event officially. So let's cross our collective fingers that there will be more 5k events in their future. I know there will at least be Christmas morning as they have promised to come with me and they always keep their promises.

00:07:26Tony O'Connell: A great way to round out and come up to the 15, round out a junior career there, Mel.

Budgie update

00:07:32Tony O'Connell: Well done, Ezra.

00:07:33Melissa Ellis: But moving on to our update on Budgie. Budgie was with Jan Yates and Jan went to Zeehan this week in Tasmania. And he's now with Sherry Brandtman, who will be bringing him on next Saturday to Whitemark Wharf. Now, Sherry popped into Dazza's, so I thought I would read out what she had to say. She said, a lovely four days away in Tasmania, which culminated in three adventurers, myself, Kathy and Brett, completing the alphabet at Zeehan Golf Club parkrun. We had a group of six adventurers, five completing the course and Abby on barcode scanning. We had a group of six adventurers, We then met another three adventurers to form a front of nine. Budgie was along for the adventure and has been passed on to me and will be on another amazing adventure with me next week. I also park walked along with Jan Yates and Christine Imbert was along for the journey. So that's good to know that Budgie has now ticked off his first event in Tasmania, but also that Christine Imbert was again remembered. There was quite a lot of adventurers in our community that were wearing the photos of Christine for the Memorial Run Talk, and I know I did and I know you did as well.

00:08:48Tony O'Connell: Yes, we did it in Inverloch. So there's myself, Jacqui and Alison all had the Christine photo of Christine in her adventurer's top. So, yeah, very fitting, I think. So we made sure we wore our adventurer's top with Christine in her adventurer's top pinned to the front.

00:09:03Melissa Ellis: Oh, that's like a bit of, what do they call that?

00:09:08Tony O'Connell: It's a big word, Mel, and I'm a builder. LAUGHTER

00:09:10[laughter]

00:09:11Melissa Ellis: I think Inception. Inception. When there's a picture in a picture in a picture, it's Inception.

00:09:17Tony O'Connell: Okay, I'll take your word for it because I'm a builder.

00:09:20Melissa Ellis: Tell us about the next thing, Toc.

parkrun news bulletin

00:09:21Tony O'Connell: Well, in other news, PSH is writing or has written a book. And this has appeared on the parkrun UK website. Facebook page it's out for pre-sale at the moment and the description is our wonderful founder Paul Sinton-Hewitt CBE has written a book the inspirational memoir one small step the definitive account of a run that become a global movement will be published by Pan Macmillan and has just gone on sale for pre-order via the parkrun shop and other major UK retailers There are some treats for parkrunners who order via the parkrun shop. Reserve your copy for delivery from April 10th and we'll send you a free 2025 calendar right now. All of the exclusive parkrun shop copies are personally signed by Paul. The parkrun shop copies also come with a specially printed parkrun apricot edge. The book is in English but can be distributed around the world. One small step is an independent and personal project of Paul's, but as with all sales through the parkrun shop, profits of the special parkrun edition will support our charity. Thank you, Paul, and congratulations. We can't wait to read.

00:10:33Melissa Ellis: Oh, I'm going to order one. I need one of those for my parkrun book collection.

00:10:38Tony O'Connell: We're actually getting a few books in our book collection for parkrun, which is excellent because I enjoy reading them all and learning a little bit about all different places and the way things have come about.

00:10:51Melissa Ellis: Yeah, so this will be a little bit more insight from the great man himself.

00:10:56Tony O'Connell: So for more info, go across to the parkrun UK Facebook page and scroll back a few days and it was there. It hasn't appeared on the Australian page as yet.

00:11:07Melissa Ellis: Maybe it'll just mysteriously pop up like it did in our show notes.

00:11:11Tony O'Connell: Yes, we didn't know that was in there until we started recording.

00:11:15Melissa Ellis: But interesting that they're giving away free calendars. Yeah, not sure, Mel.

00:11:19Tony O'Connell: That might mean that calendar sales have been a whisk of slow.

00:11:23Melissa Ellis: They should have came to me. I've got really good ideas for calendars, but actually maybe I'll just save that for us. If I can ever find somebody... Do we have any printers out there in the community? Anybody with any specific skills?

00:11:36Tony O'Connell: Mel, we're opening Pandora's box here. Let's get our merchandising organisation organised first.

00:11:43Melissa Ellis: Oh, yeah. Do we have any? Oh, well. Okay. Moving straight along then. Talking about merch. Toc, parkrun in Australia has released a special 500 active event shirt. Now, this is controversial. The whole thing about parkrun Australia celebrating the 500th active event in itself is controversial. Do you want to tell the listeners why?

00:12:11Tony O'Connell: This is, and it came on the back of parkrun celebrating the 50th active event in New Zealand, which was actually the 51st event launched in New Zealand, parkrun, they're correct in that they're saying it might be the 500th active event, but we've had 514 events launch so far. And I just think... We almost seem to be forgetting the events that have been there before us and maybe some of them, you know, Heirisson Island, for example, that closed down. Are we forgetting those events? I think they're an important step in our history. And certainly when you look back at the video that was produced before, way back probably eight or ten years ago that the showman produced with the first hundred events you know some of those events are almost being written out of history so I don't know how as far as I look at it Jeune Park parkrun was our 500th event in Queensland and that's that's the one that I remember for being number 500.

00:13:17Melissa Ellis: I know. And parkrun are actually saying that Emerald Lake parkrun, the most recent Victoria one, is the 500th active event. So that's where the difficulty lies. And there's people who say pedantic. It's me. Like, I'm one of those people. Like, I like my stats. And this, like, doesn't sit well with me.

00:13:40Tony O'Connell: Yeah, I think we're just playing with words, calling it active events or, you know, we've had events, we've got a number. Personally, I attended Calamvale because it was the 100th event and I attended Roughton because it was the 250th event. Do they now not count as those numbers because other events have dropped off the list? It's a personal thing, but it doesn't sit too well with me.

00:14:07Melissa Ellis: What did you think of the shirt?

00:14:09Tony O'Connell: I won't be rushing out to buy that piece of merchandise. I'm going to file that with the collegiate.

00:14:16Melissa Ellis: So it's a black shirt. It's got a V-neck. It's got a 500 emblem on the chest, on one side, and the 500 is in the colour of the 500 Milestone shirts. And on the back, what does it say, Toc? Have you got it handy?

00:14:35Tony O'Connell: Yeah, Mel, the back of the shirt has the parkrun logo on it, and then it has in lowercase letters, so I'm glad that someone's listened there. Free for everybody, forever.

00:14:46Melissa Ellis: Okay, well, that's a nice little confirmation.

00:14:49Tony O'Connell: We've got some interesting merch stuff coming out. We've got parkrun in the UK have released an apricot sale coming out, and that's creating a little bit of a storm in a teacup as well, because in their apricot sale, at this stage, they have no apricot on sale. Hmm, not sure about that one either well I wonder why it's called an apricot sale then I'm wondering whether they're going to release more stuff as the week goes through getting closer to black Friday and the big specials on black Friday but at this stage it is predominantly the contra range that's on sale through the apricot sale link

00:15:27Melissa Ellis: You know what they could bring back, please, parkrun, if you're listening? The personalised parkrun tops or the ones there you can select your home event. I would very much like one of those again.

00:15:38Tony O'Connell: I very much like mine and I really loved it when we could personalise it during COVID because I have, you know, the Channel 5 News crew top and I bought a few of their apricot tops because we could personalise them.

00:15:53Melissa Ellis: Yes, and I maybe need a bigger size now. So I would like to get another one or I'll just lose weight.

00:16:01Tony O'Connell: Right, well, moving on to other things that have happened around the world and... What a big week for cancellations and storms this week. At the time of last looking, and this number's been going up quite rapidly, Australia had 19 cancellations on the weekend, and I thought, wow, that's a lot. So I went for a bit of a deep dive into where we were, across in the UK storm bert which sounds like sesame streets hit the UK with a disaster storm bert has caused a massive 391 cancellations of events this week there were 51 cancellations in Ireland and all up we had a total of 504 cancellations across parkrun global this week Wow. That's a huge number of parkruns.

00:16:51Melissa Ellis: That's equivalent to the whole of Australia.

00:16:53Tony O'Connell: It is. 504, that's more than the active events in Australia. LAUGHTER

00:17:00Melissa Ellis: Well, hang on, are we counting the custodial events and the junior partner? Don't go there.

00:17:07Tony O'Connell: Oh, don't get there. And it's interesting, I thought under our new AMS system that you couldn't put in reasons for cancellations other than a pre-selected list, but reading through the UK lists, it appears that there were reasons such as parts of the course are suitable for Torvill and Dean, and that's a reference to how much ice there was across the UK, and Another event had the Ice Queen and Weather Gods cast a spell on us. And my all-time favourite one, and I don't know whether we have to beep this or not either, Mel, but the reason given was risk of overly sudden arse to ground adjacency. Someone's got very creative there. So, yeah, look, 504 across the globe. It's a fairly large number of cancellations for the week. So I think the parkrun overall attendance is going to take a fairly big dip this week, hopefully just for the week. But as we move into, you know, we're talking about heat. and how hot it's getting. Across in Europe, of course, they're moving into winter and they are moving into that season where they have ice issues and snow. We certainly saw lots of pictures across the globe of parkruns covered in snow this week.

00:18:24Melissa Ellis: And it did impact our consolidated club report, as we will see a bit later. And we also had weather cancellations. I think most of our 19 in Australia would have been in Queensland.

00:18:35Tony O'Connell: Queensland, yes. Quite a bit of rain up that way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In other news Mel, launches. I remember I gave a report back first week of September about how many launches there'd been and I'm happy to say that there's been another 34 global 5km launches since the first week of September and that includes amongst the others and this is not a full list but there have been 6 more launches in Australia, 3 in New Zealand, 5 in the USA and 7 in the UK. As an interesting stat, across 2024, Australia's had 24 launches, so it's actually been a little bit quiet. There's been 12 in New Zealand, which is fairly significant when you think they were starting at a base of about 40 events at the start of the year. So they've jumped by nearly 25%, as a number of events that they've got in the country um there's been 14 new events in USA 10 in South Africa and 28 new events in the UK so been a little bit active on the launches and I can't remember the exact number but I think we're up to about 130 new events for the year globally in the 5k series so that doesn't include juniors thank you for bringing us the stats

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:19:54Melissa Ellis: well okay we've covered a bit there and we've had a winch so now let's get on to something a bit lighter let's uh go over and have a listen to our roving reports Kia ora koutou adventurers, it's Alison here reporting in from across the ditch

00:20:00[background music]

Roving report Alison Fraser (King) — Southern Path

00:20:17Alison Fraser (King): Firstly apologies for my croaky voice this morning. I was a bit croaky yesterday and it's not really been helped by the fact that I was at Coldplay last night and that is why I am in Auckland for an Auckland parkrun and not just any Auckland parkrun. I'm here for the launch of Southern Path, parkrun not to be confused with Northern Pathway parkrun this one is actually at the opposite end of Auckland surprisingly enough and I'm really looking forward to this launch I've just arrived I can see there's lots of cars flags up and so I'm going to see if I can get through the parkrun while holding on to what's left of my voice and then we'll come back to you after that So I've managed to survive with a little bit of voice at Southern Path parkrun and I'm now at the cafe Songbird with Event Director and today's Run Director Joyce. So thank you so much for putting on amazing parkrun Joyce.

00:21:12Joyce: Thank you, it's awesome to put on number one event and get this kick started.

00:21:16Alison Fraser (King): Can you tell us what your parkrun story is? How did you get into parkrun?

00:21:21Joyce: So my parkrun story, I was introduced by an old co-worker who was from South Africa and I'm sure a lot of listeners can relate to. South Africans seem to know about parkrun way much more than New Zealanders and introduced me and it took a while to go along but I got there and I haven't stopped.

00:21:41Alison Fraser (King): So where was your home parkrun before?

00:21:44Joyce: this one. I originally started at Barry Curtis and then when Owairaka opened up we found that that was a less muddy course for us and our shoes so we switched over to Owairaka and had been travelling there for the last few years.

00:21:59Alison Fraser (King): So you've set up a parkrun, before we started recording you said that your house is literally across the street from the cafe. Yes that's correct. And we're about 1.3 kilometres from the parkrun.

00:22:11Joyce: Yes that's correct. So pretty close. Yes, so we're heavily invested in it because it's something for our local community.

00:22:19Alison Fraser (King): When did you get the idea to start your own parkrun?

00:22:23Joyce: This will probably be when we moved into the area back in 2020. The area that's been developed and the wide walking path. So we actually thought we'll have one closer to home. I mean 1.3 is pretty close. But unfortunately the original course we thought of is awaiting a bridge. Along came the southern path and we found that as a great course to use.

00:22:48Alison Fraser (King): And I remember you have told me like often, I mean, previous correspondence about what you hope for this parkrun and the community. So what do you think this parkrun could do for the people who live in South Auckland?

00:23:02Joyce: so south auckland's a pretty special place to live and we've got a variety of cultures around here and and you know different wealth and stuff like that so when we talk about the low socioeconomic areas that surround south Auckland and what better way to get someone involved in something that's free because cost is no longer a barrier and so it's going to be awesome for the mental well-being physical well-being and social well-being for all of our community. We have an elderly community around here as well so we're looking forward to tapping into that community and getting them out and socialising.

00:23:40Alison Fraser (King): Well there were a lot of people at the parkrun today but do you know how many of those were absolute first-timers?

00:23:49Joyce: It is unsure to me at this moment. Haven't analysed the results yet. Yes, but there is a large majority who are first-timers to parkrun during the preparation and the discussions that we've had. So we're looking forward to tapping into a brand new community.

00:24:05Alison Fraser (King): Now this one's Southern Path and on the other end of Auckland we've got Northern Pathway. So that's at the north end of Auckland and it goes alongside the motorway. Is there a bit of competition now between the two of you?

00:24:20Joyce: No, I think we both have good things to bring to our communities. I have heard a lot of feedback today that people loved our course for being flat.

00:24:30Alison Fraser (King): Flatter than Northern Pathway, I'd say. Yes. I wouldn't say it's flat, flat, but a couple of undulations. But yeah, on the whole, it's... It's flatter than Northern Pathway. It is. And a couple of things that you have that they don't have, I noticed, was your level with the cars on the motorway. So we had quite a few cars toot, this morning so that was cool that's awesome support from the people driving by and maybe we'll inspire them to instead be on the motorway at eight o'clock on the Saturday morning they're joining us instead and you've also got the estuary yes we do unfortunately the tide wasn't in today so we couldn't put on that picture perfect view but do come back and check it out when we do have the tide in yes thank you so much so it's um out and back course two directions it's concrete so it's flat smooth surface you're not going to roll your ankle you're not going to slip over and then we finish in the park yes that's correct and you do also go through Takanani Point which prior to this path you couldn't access so that is a reason to come here yes and well thanks again Joyce for an excellent parkrun and I think everyone should come and give you a go and I think you're probably you're going to be the closest to the airport now are you vying for, um, with Barry Curtis for that still

00:25:51Joyce: I think we will be kind of in line with them.

00:25:54Alison Fraser (King): I'd need to look at the map to see. Head south and come to Southern Path Parkway, parkrun even. Anyway, that's it from me. I'll hopefully come to you for another parkrun adventure soon. I'm going to risk my voice. Thanks, Joyce. Thank you.

Roving report Tracey Wood — Old Esk Railway Station

00:26:10Tracey Wood: Good morning parkrunners, it's Tracey in a Tutu and I have travelled to the picturesque Esk.

00:26:18Melissa Ellis: Actually it's old Esk railway station parkrun.

00:26:22Tracey Wood: Esk is located on dungaburra country near where it borders with the lands and waterways of the yaggara peoples in the south and the jinabar peoples in the east it's about 100 kilometres uh west of Brisbane it's taken me about an hour and a half to get here There was threats of rain, lots of Brisbane cancellations happening this morning, but I've checked in several times before I left Brisbane and they assured me that it would go ahead. I've actually finished the parkrun this morning. It's been lovely out here, a little bit humid, very pleasant. I saw a couple of other Brisbane people I knew, which is great. I'm just going to find the Event Director and Run Director soon to have a chat. Okay team, I found an official looking person here. Who have I got and can you tell me your role?

00:27:16Catherine Wilkes: Hi, my name is Catherine Wilkes and today I was the Run Director. I believe it's your first time as Run Director. I am Virgin Run Director. You have done extremely well. Thank you.

00:27:28Melissa Ellis: No, it was awesome.

00:27:29Catherine Wilkes: Oh, that's fantastic. Yeah, we're very lucky. We get a regular crew of volunteers. We're trying to train everybody up because this was just number 10, our number 10 parkrun. And Sue Anthony-Smith has been our event coordinator. Yes. And she's been the driving force behind getting it going with the support of Alan and Tara from Gatton parkrun. Yes. So, yeah, it's been really good.

00:27:37[crosstalk]

00:27:52Tracey Wood: Right, excellent. And how did you get into parkrun? Have you actually done a parkrun?

00:27:57Catherine Wilkes: Yes, I've participated in Gatton and Clermont and here as well. But I just got involved because I knew what was involved in setting one up in Clermont because that's where we'd previously lived. And Sue put a post on the community page and said, you know, I'm looking at getting one up. Can anybody help? And I said, yeah, I'll help. Brilliant. And so a few of us do walking outside of the parkrun. Oh, yes. And if we have volunteer positions that mean that we're not going to be walking, we meet at the Brisbane Valley Roasters at five and we walk ahead of the event and then come back and do our volunteer.

00:28:00[crosstalk]

00:28:35[crosstalk]

00:28:36Sarah Jefferson: Oh.

00:28:37Catherine Wilkes: So it's great. It's wonderful. It's such a friendly parkrun. I've only got the other two to compare. And, well, we had a lady today and she said this was in her top five of parkruns. So I was like thinking that's a great recommendation.

00:28:48[crosstalk]

00:28:52Tracey Wood: That's a very good recommendation, yeah.

00:28:54Catherine Wilkes: That's right, yeah.

00:28:55Tracey Wood: Now for the listeners, can you describe Esk parkrun? Sorry, I'm abbreviating that as you know, Old Esk Railway Station parkrun. Could you describe the course?

00:29:05Catherine Wilkes: Tell people what it's like. So we start at the actual Old Esk Railway Station, which is on the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail. The first part is a concrete path that we share with cyclists and other pedestrians. And then we go on a gravel track to Esk Hampton Road. where we turn around and we come back halfway and then we go around the arena that is used by the showground and the camp draft committee. So eight times a year I think we have our course B, which again starts at the railway station, goes out to Hampton Road, comes back and then goes out around towards the cemetery and the hospital helipad and then comes back. So we plan for every eventuality.

00:29:43[crosstalk]

00:29:49Tracey Wood: Oh, brilliant.

00:29:51Catherine Wilkes: There's no real hills on this track, but you do have the different surfaces that you're running on.

00:29:56[crosstalk]

00:29:58Tracey Wood: I did see a couple of prams out this morning. I wonder how they did.

00:30:02Catherine Wilkes: Yeah, we have a lot of off-road prams. We're dog-friendly. We have a few people, regulars, that come in with their dogs. So that's been great as well.

00:30:10Tracey Wood: Brilliant. All right. Thank you for having me this morning. Another wonderful event, and it looks like the sun's finally come out, which is awesome.

00:30:17Catherine Wilkes: We were a little concerned because we've had about 100 mil all week, so we were a little bit nervous, but our wonderful Somerset Regional Council do a great job preparing the grounds and everything as well, so we're very pleased. I think we had 30-something people today, so we were really pleased with that. Yeah, awesome.

00:30:35Tracey Wood: Thank you so much for chatting with me. You have a very good day and weekend.

00:30:38Catherine Wilkes: Thank you. Thank you for volunteering and taking our photos. No worries. See you again.

00:30:43Tracey Wood: Alright, I'm at the finish line here and I've found a blind bat, aka Janice Whittle. Hello Janice, good morning and how are you? Good morning Tracey, I am fine, thank you.

00:30:53Janice Whittle: Excellent, and what was the decision to come out to Esk this morning? Well, I want to maintain my Queensland statesmanship, so I've got to do the Esk railway station parkrun and after this I'm heading off to Toowoomba to celebrate a 90th birthday for a lovely friend.

00:31:11Tracey Wood: Oh, sounds lovely. How many more events do you have to do in Queensland?

00:31:15Janice Whittle: Just another three because I fell behind when I went on my two-month trip around Australia supporting the rural parkruns.

00:31:23Tracey Wood: Oh, good on you. How did you enjoy that? I bet that was fantastic. It was lovely. Nice small parkruns. No big ones like we get in Brisbane. Yeah, just good areas. Did any stand out for you? I bet the volunteers or the community were very welcoming out there.

00:31:39Janice Whittle: I enjoyed all of them. The Mundy Regional parkrun was the hardest one I did on that adventure, which I'm sure a lot of other adventurers would understand what I'm talking about. It was really hard and it's the slowest parkrun I've ever done. But I completed it, so I don't care.

00:31:56Tracey Wood: excellent okay so can I ask how many parkruns you're up total you're up to now 250 something oh well that's pretty awesome so that's about almost half of Queensland ones that's a that's great that's really good yeah so what challenges are you chasing what um apart from Queensland are you looking for anything else

00:32:11[crosstalk]

00:32:20Janice Whittle: I attempted to do the Northern Territory Statesmanship, but the Darwin parkrun was cancelled when I was there, so it was annoying. But I have booked a flight to Adelaide, do a parkrun in Adelaide, jump on the Ghan, go up to Darwin and do the Darwin parkrun and then fly home. So I will be getting my Northern Territory Statesmanship.

00:32:41Tracey Wood: Good on you. And how did you get into parkrun, Janice? Was it a friend or a running club or you just happened to hear about it?

00:32:47Janice Whittle: I moved to Queensland and, yeah, spoke to people and said, I'm bored, you know, I want to meet people. And someone said park when I'm like, what's that? And I can't do it anyway because running is against my religion. So I can't do it. And he says, no, you can run, you can jog, you can walk, you can take your dog, you can push a pram. And I thought, I'll give it a go. And I tried it at North Lakes and I got hooked very quick. Speaking of dogs, who is this beautiful boy with you this morning? This is Keegan, my guide dog.

00:33:18Tracey Wood: And how long has he been supporting you?

00:33:21Janice Whittle: For three and a half years.

00:33:22Tracey Wood: Right.

00:33:23Janice Whittle: He's a gorgeous boy.

00:33:24Tracey Wood: I have heard that carrots may be on offer after parkrun this morning.

00:33:28Janice Whittle: Yes, he's already had his carrot. Yes, so if you ever see a long thing in my pocket, it's a carrot. Don't panic.

00:33:34[crosstalk]

00:33:35Tracey Wood: Right.

00:33:36Janice Whittle: I get my treat after, which is my result, and Keegan gets a carrot as his treat.

00:33:41Tracey Wood: Good on you. All right, well, I'll let you go, and I'm going to go grab a couple of people and head off. So nice to see you out here, and thanks for chatting with me.

00:33:49Janice Whittle: Thank you for having me, yeah. All right. No problem. Have a good day. Thank you. Bye.

00:33:54Tracey Wood: All right, team. Tracey in a Tutu signing off from Esk. I'm going to stop at the Fernvale Bakery on the way home, grab a couple of nice pies and have a good weekend. See you another time.

Roving report Sarah Jefferson — South Beach Recreation Reserve

00:34:07Sarah Jefferson: Good morning, parkrun adventurers. It's Sarah here on the West Side and I am down at South Beach Recreation Reserve parkrun this morning and I'm here with Ali O'Rourke welcoming B4, the boomerang, home to South Beach. So, Ali, can you tell us a little bit about the boomerangs and the ideas behind it because it is your idea, right?

00:34:29Ali O'Rourke: That's right. So I had this idea because I knew I was going overseas to Europe And I wanted a way of sort of connecting parkrun, the smaller parkrun communities with the worldwide parkrun community. And I thought a boomerang would be a good idea. So I ordered a boomerang and 10 arrived. So, against everybody's advice, I painted 10. They're all numbered, and on the 15th of June, I brought them to South Beach, and they were handed to five volunteers and four runners, and myself. And then myself and another Run Director, an Event Director, Joanna... from Lake Claremont, we flew to Singapore. We handed the first one over at Singapore parkrun who were very enthusiastic about it all and actually B1 was handed to a British Airways pilot who then took it to the UK. Joanna then flew to Ireland and took B3 and I handed out the rest of them around the UK. The idea is, and then the last two, Joanna and I rendezvoused in Netherlands, we handed one there and then I handed out the last two in Singapore on my way home. So then the fun started, was tracking them. Each boomeranger has the boomerang for one week and they get it from their parkrun and during the week the idea is, They take photos of their boomerang. If they're in London, maybe Buckingham Palace, you know, the ones in South Africa, they've got photos with a zebra and rhinoceros to highlight their local community on a Facebook page that connects the worldwide community. It became a real full-time job every Saturday, trying to chase down where 10 were. Then what I do is I chase where they are. Then you've got to follow where they're going to. And then everybody who does a post, I acknowledge all their posts, like all their photos. Wow. Then I contact all the RDs for the following week. And then the process starts again. And I was spending two full days doing it. And A lot of times, you know, someone would say, we've handed it to Bob who's taking it to London. So then I would have to find out who Bob was and, you know. So a couple of ex-Boomerangers in the UK, three actually, they offered to help. So we now have what's called Boomerang HQ. And they help out looking for things when I'm asleep and vice versa. And it's worked really well. So we've had some brilliant connections. Some of the running groups have connected because of this. We had in South Africa cousins, didn't know they were cousins. They had photos taken and when they asked what their names were, they worked out that they were actually related. One of the boomerangs, B8, is now called Bertie because it went to a lot of pubs and with pub groups. And then the one that was never allocated actually has been allocated to Del, who was a volunteer at Margaret River parkrun. She did 206 volunteers as the Barcode Scanner. If any of you went to the Hairy Marron, it was Del probably who scanned your barcode. She unfortunately passed away just after I came home. I saw her the day before she died. She had been following the boomerangs, that I would name B6 in her honour, and so it is called Del B6. Beautiful. It's the only one that won't rest at South Beach. When it comes home, I will take it to Margaret River where her... son actually started the Margaret River parkrun and the family will take her on the last uh and it will rest at Margaret River in her honour but all the boomerangers who've had delby seeks know the story and they have just done the most amazing post and her grandchildren are following it and her family so so it's been really special so yeah it's been an adventure we've learned an awful lot about You know, the parkrun community is 98% full of nice people. So yeah, it's been interesting.

00:37:00[background music]

00:38:10[background music]

00:38:54[crosstalk]

00:39:03Sarah Jefferson: Yeah. Wow. It sounds like they've been on quite the journey and you have as well. And this one here, B4. So it started in South Beach and then on the 15th of June. And then would you like to take us through a few things or places that it's actually visited?

00:39:18Ali O'Rourke: Well, it had its first outing at Victoria Dock parkrun in London, which is a great parkrun, and you get to go for free on the cable cars. Cable car, that's right. The day I did it, I don't know what I was thinking. It was so windy. I was terrified. It's been to Scotland. It went to Scotland and around England. And it actually came back to Australia quite early in August and it went to Queensland. It then went to... An adventurer, it was Roberta Winters yeah Roberta Winters who's a great boomeranger she uh does great posts and then it went from New South Wales to Victoria and then it was it's been through quite a few in Victoria and then last week it went uh got taken to Dunsborough uh in Western Australia it was handed to Lynn who is our rd and ed here and she brought it back today and that's the end so the one highlight too was Nadine at Ovens River Trail parkrun she ran with b4 on her 300th run so um fantastic yes yeah so stay tuned for the next one yes so so far they've been to 16 different countries wow and yeah currently uh one's in Japan there's one in South Africa There's a few in Australia, one in Scotland and the rest are in the UK.

00:39:35[crosstalk]

00:39:45[crosstalk]

00:40:00[background music]

00:40:25[background music]

00:40:40Sarah Jefferson: Yeah, wow. Well, it sounds like quite the adventure that they will still be on on their way back to South Beach.

00:40:44[crosstalk]

00:40:46Ali O'Rourke: Well, once they get back to Australia, they're not allowed to leave because otherwise I will be tracking them forever.

00:40:51Sarah Jefferson: Sounds like a bit of a full-time job anyway. I know. So, yeah, thanks, Ali, for sharing a little bit of that today. Okay, great, awesome. And enjoy your champagne now. I will, I will. Thank you. Thank you.

00:40:55[background music]

00:40:56[crosstalk]

00:41:09Tony O'Connell: And Mel, once again, we had a trio of lovely ladies reporting in from various parkruns. We had Alison coming to us from Southern Path parkrun, chatting to Joyce CRD at New Zealand's newest event as of last week. But as of this week, it's not the newest event. So New Zealand is growing quite rapidly. And interestingly, there's a southern pathway parkrun and a northern pathway parkrun. This one happens to be out towards the airport, so it might become a bit of a favourite with people jumping on a plane at Auckland or jumping off a plane.

00:41:43Melissa Ellis: Is it the same path?

00:41:45Tony O'Connell: I think it is. Yeah, but either side of Auckland. So they're a fair distance geographically apart. I don't know. I'd have to ask the local knowledge that's sitting out in my lounge room. That question... We also heard from Tracy at Old Esk, and she was with Catherine the RD and with adventurer Janice Whittle. And then we heard Sarah from the West Side at the south side, which was South Beach Recreation Reserve, and she was boomeranging with Ali, the Boomerang Challenge creator. And there was a photo of Sarah in Dazza's with B4 and the selfie frame, B4 being Bertie the Boomerang.

00:42:25Melissa Ellis: Yes, and I think it was probably Ellie in that photo with her, but it wasn't stated, so there's a bit of a question mark over that.

Dazza's

00:42:34Tony O'Connell: And speaking of Dazza's, Mel, this week Dazza said, Today is National Espresso Day. A post-parkrun coffee and a visit to Dazza's are two of my favourite things about Saturdays, so come on in and let us know how your morning went. And our listener challenge this week was to use the poo emoji.

00:42:54Melissa Ellis: and an espresso will help move things along in that respect wouldn't it it certainly would and coffee is one of my favourite food groups so yeah I thought this week was a pretty good topic to work with now first in the door at Dazza's was nick grady coming to us from New South Wales and he said brought up parkrun 150 in North Wollongong first time here and it's a nice out and back track Quite hot, so had to take it easy, and Luna had to stop mid-run for a pit stop. And he had a dog emoji and a poop emoji. So well done, Nick. And Nick and Luna were highlighted this week in our Consolidated Club Report photo.

00:43:36Tony O'Connell: Moving across to South Australia and we had our friend, the lovely Janet, and everyone knows Janet. We had the poop emoji with poop. It was a muggy today. This koala on course today sums up my morning aboard the mothership Lochiel. Very relaxed and cruisy. And the photo was of a koala that looked like it was wedged in a gum tree, half asleep and half off its chops. I think it'd be a good description, Mel, at the mothership. Yes.

00:44:05Melissa Ellis: I overdosed on a bit of eucalyptus there. Now, we also heard from your house guest, Alison King, in the Great Estate. And Alison said, nothing could be poop about my parkrun today. I got to experience the sun at Inverloch with Toc and Jacqui. It was a bit warm for this visitor, so I enjoyed a walk with Heather, the ED. And there was a picture of Alison with the selfie frame at the stump in the sunshine. She scored a good day.

00:44:34Tony O'Connell: It's always a great day at Inverloch, Mel. It's always sunny. And Alison actually got a day where the sun wasn't obscured by clouds or above the clouds. So well done, Alison. Moving up to the ACT, we heard again from Yvette Turner. And Yvette said,

00:44:50[19 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:45:10Tony O'Connell: Meanwhile, my husband Bill Turner was Run Director at Gungahlin parkrun, getting all the warm and fuzzies from volunteering. He scored more brownie points by bringing me home the most delicious coffee from the coffee van that was on site at Gungahlin today. And Yvette posted a pic of herself in the Ginninderra selfie frame.

00:45:28Melissa Ellis: She's been a busy girl, selling all the things. Good work, Yvette. Now next we heard from Calum Burrell coming to us from the UK. I finally got to meet Stephen Walsh by doing one of only two events left standing in the Manchester area due to icy conditions and Storm Bert. The muddy conditions had the consistency of... poop but great to form a mini frond great to meet Julie Colville too who was marshalling and there was a pic of Callum and Stephen on the course plus an extra one with Nick Nick yes he got the photo with Nick Nick Nick Nick must have attended one of the few ones that was actually running this week wow a consolidation of parkrun crazies wouldn't you say I mean less events so you're more likely to see the enthusiastic people that will get wherever they can get that's right Mel and I think when we talk about the UK even events that had many local events around them cancelled even those the ones that ran were down in numbers just purely due to the amount of ice and

00:46:33Tony O'Connell: the local conditions. But conditions were much warmer in Victoria and that's where we found Mark Hibbard. Mark said, Ovens River Trail parkrun for me and breakfast at the Brewer's House accommodation. A tough run this morning. I felt a little poop, but it's still a great feeling afterwards, especially looking at Mount Buller. Now to enjoy Bilsons for the rest of the weekend away. And the picture was of Mark in a selfie frame with the Ovens River Permanent Marshal. And for those... Not for me. The reference to Bilson's is it's a pre-packaged local beverage that tastes awesome, depending on what flavour you pick. So well done, Mark.

00:47:17Melissa Ellis: I was going to point that out too about Bilson's, Tony, but I actually thought they recently announced that they were going out of production. Did they get rescued?

00:47:26Tony O'Connell: I think they've been rescued. And for those that enjoy things like fruit tingles, Bilson's bring out a vodka version of the fruit tingle called a fruit tangle.

00:47:36Melissa Ellis: Yeah, and when we were up in Namurka recently, Dave actually bought some flavoured Bilsons something or other from the bottle shop to take home for Dermot because it was a flavour that Dermot hadn't tried. So there you go. Obscure flavours everywhere all around the place. Anyway, we also heard from Monty Slade who came to us from the UK and he said it was always about the coffee despite so many sugar people defeated by Storm Bert in the UK. Hereford parkrun. And then we had emojis. There was the thumbs up and the poop and a coffee and a football and beers and there's something else. I think it's an umbrella.

00:48:15Tony O'Connell: It's an umbrella.

00:48:16Melissa Ellis: So thank you, Monty. Thumbs up to you.

00:48:18Tony O'Connell: Rightio, we're bouncing around all over the oceans today. Well, we're back in New South Wales where Catherine O'Connor said, with 60 parkwalkers, there was definitely a party at the back at the Beaches parkrun 10th birthday celebrations today. Ice latte was the drink of choice. And then we had a laughy face and a poop emoji. There's a picture of a couple of the many parkwalkers.

00:48:45Unidentified speaker: The...

00:48:45Tony O'Connell: Beaches parkrun wanted to encourage attendance for their birthday and some people were a little afraid of The Beaches and the sand so they thought about having as many parkrun walkers as possible and they thought they might get 10 or 20 at the most but they leant into the park walking by making the theme blue, the colour. All up there are 196 participants and 74 volunteers.

00:49:10Melissa Ellis: And that's why they ended up with 60 parkwalkers. So that's amazing, isn't it? 60.

00:49:16Tony O'Connell: Amazing number of parkwalkers. It would have been a sea of blue beside a sea of blue.

00:49:21Melissa Ellis: Absolutely. So good on them out there at the Beaches. Now, the message is that park walking does not take away from people doing finish line or non-running rolls, and the people who park walk were probably never going to do those roles anyway and if they have a positive experience then they may come back in other roles and if they don't it doesn't matter because there are lots of people who make up parkrun and that's okay mind you Tony looking at some of the names that were amongst those 60 odd parkwalkers I know for a fact we've got some very good adventurer volunteers that do often do those non-running volunteer roles

00:50:02Tony O'Connell: Yes, I did spot the name of several of our adventurer Run Directors and various other position holders in amongst the 60 parkwalkers. So well done everyone that got out and supported the theme and the concept for the day.

00:50:17Melissa Ellis: Absolutely. The Beaches is definitely a course best enjoyed for its scenery and they are definitely happy to welcome walkers to their course. Bravo. Oh, that's me. Okay. And next, over on the West Side, we heard from Gareth Arnold, and he said, Hiya, Dazza. Hope you celebrated International Toilet Day in style this week. And he's got poop, poop, poop. The cake in the photo is not in recognition of that most... Oh, what is that word, Tony?

00:50:49Tony O'Connell: Scatological. Scat being animal poop.

00:50:53Melissa Ellis: Oh, okay. Well, it is not in recognition of that most scatological of days, but it is in fact because the youngest, Austin, did his 10th volunteer at Kadina Trail parkrun this morning. And he had a smiling face emoji and there's a photo of young Austin and a yummy looking cake in the selfie frame. So is that true, Gareth? Are you pulling my leg? Was it really International Toilet Day?

00:51:21Tony O'Connell: I didn't pick up that reference anywhere else, Mel, but well done, Austin, for his 10th volunteer. That's a great effort. And that cake did look yum. Coming back into Victoria and we had Carolyn McRae. A warm 27 degrees for the start at Eastern Gardens parkrun this morning. Five adventurers, Jan Manns, Tracy Ryan, Ian, Lydia Knox and myself. Three of the parkrun World Tourists walked for Christine Imbert. It was a nice coffee before driving home at around 11 in which the car says it's poop, poop, poop, 37 degrees. LAUGHTER

00:52:01Melissa Ellis: and we had a photo of the five adventurers in the Eastern Gardens selfie frame I gotta say I I get such a lift when I look at Dazza's and I see all the listeners putting in the little um the challenge yeah the little challenges what do you call them Easter eggs it's like an Easter egg isn't it you know when something's hidden but it's not anyway yeah that's good

00:52:24Tony O'Connell: And we did go through Dazza's with a bit of a fine-tooth comb this week, Mel, picking out people that had listened to the podcast and had connected the reference. So well done to everyone.

00:52:35Melissa Ellis: Picking out the poop.

00:52:39Tony O'Connell: Hey, look, there's just one special mention I wanted to make. Catherine and Ian Greenstreet. Ian did his 250th at Toowoomba on the weekend, but both Catherine and Ian completed the 14,000 kilometre run down under at parkrun. So well done, Catherine and Ian.

00:52:56Melissa Ellis: Very well done. Well, that's it for Dazza's and there's no emails.

00:53:00[background music]

Club Corner

00:53:02Melissa Ellis: So now's time to throw over to Club Corner and see what Reginald's got to tell us.

00:53:16Reginald 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. We continue with this fascinating, to me, review of the various volunteer roles and I hope that people enjoy seeing how the sausage is made, because I find it fascinating. Today I am going to talk about something that exists, something that formerly existed, and something that we would like to have more. In order, these are Timekeeper, Backup Timekeeper, and VI Guide, aka Guide Runner. The Timekeeper is the person who uses the parkrun Virtual Volunteer app to record the time at which people cross the finish line. The app is very easy to use, and much friendlier than the previous iterations of stopwatches used in years gone past. There is nothing more on this than the title of the role. You tap the icon or use the volume up slash down buttons when participants cross the finish line. You work as a team with the finished token person or people to ensure that you keep in step. There was previously a role titled Backup Timekeeper, which was considered the backup to the official Timekeeper. This allowed teams to recover from any oopsie doodles that may occur, parkrun have realised that you can just have multiple Timekeepers to cover this contingency, and removed the informal hierarchy of Timekeepers. Ooh, imagine being a member of the secret order of Timekeepers. The title Guide Runner is from times past when parkrun was about the running, and now this role is titled as a visual impairment guide. This title is more inclusive and is to encourage non-runners to participate in parkrun, which again, parkrun is not a race, and also more than a run. The VI Guide accompanies the visually impaired participant at parkrun, this could be to support him to run, walk, or volunteer, parkrun HQ has a number of recommendations that they include as guidance in regard this role. More information about this guidance can be discovered via your event team or on the parkrun volunteer website. And remember, in parkrun life, all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun, so stay tuned for our future club corners.

00:55:34Tony O'Connell: Well, Mel, once again, it was great to hear from Reginald and the description of the Timekeeper role. What we used to have is a backup Timekeeper role and the guide runner or VI Guide role. We have a club for discontinued parkruns called the We Were There. Perhaps we need a club for people with a discontinued role. I know I've done backup timer four times and it's a role that's no longer available. So, yeah, I'd be up for that. How about you?

00:56:01Melissa Ellis: Sure, any club that I can be in, I'll be in. I don't think I've done anything that's discontinued. I don't think I ever did back up Timekeeper.

00:56:10Tony O'Connell: I managed to do that and lead bike.

00:56:13Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I believe we've had this discussion.

00:56:17Tony O'Connell: Mel, we talked before about how we've hidden the little references and the little Easter eggs in our Dazza's and we'd love to see it.

the Obi Award — Yvette Turner

00:56:24Tony O'Connell: Well, we've hidden our own little Easter egg this week and we forgot to announce the Obi. So I think we need to backtrack and go back to an Obi.

00:56:34Melissa Ellis: I'll see if I can find a rewind sound effect. Maybe not because I won't have time. But, yes, do you have an Obilope?

00:56:41Tony O'Connell: We have an Obilope, Mel, and let me open it up here. Our winner this week is... Yvette Turner from the ACT.

00:56:59Melissa Ellis: Hooray! Well done, Yvette. Not beaten by the poop this week.

00:57:05Tony O'Connell: No, great post again, Yvette. And next week, well, we won't endeavour to get in the right place because I won't be here next week.

00:57:14Melissa Ellis: Yes. Let's see how we go. Not your problem, my problem. And, yeah, thank you, Yvette, for out there recruiting for the podcast and spreading the gospel. Hooray!

Consolidated Club Report

00:57:24Melissa Ellis: Now, the adventurers Consolidated Club report for Saturday, the 23rd of November 2024. Of a total of 713 members, 500 took part on this date in 11 countries across 245 locations. In the UK, there were adventurers at... 33 events now you may notice that this is down considerably because the UK most recently are up around 50 to 55 events each week so there is the first indication of numbers being impacted There were adventurers at eight events in South Africa, three in the USA, and one each in Austria, Canada, Ireland, and Lithuania. I must look up who our Lithuanian parkrunner is when I remember. Anyway, locally, we had adventures at... There was a tie for first place this week. Gold medal goes to New South Wales and Victoria with 49 events. There were 44 in Queensland, 18 in Western Australia, 14 in South Australia, 9 in Tassie, 7 in the ACT, 5 on the North Island and the South Island and Northern Territory had won.

00:58:35Tony O'Connell: Well, Mel, let me help you out with some of your homework here. Because in the show notes, it tells me that in Lithuania, we had a frond of nine at one event in Lithuania, by yourself we're at Vingis which is the only parkrun in Lithuania and at Vingis we had an Andy Airey Airways trip and there was Stuart Henderson Dennis Evans Andy and Debbie Airey Andy Simpson Ellie Soper Christopher Miles Martin Waller and Rhiannon Taylor so there you go that solves the answer of who was it Lithuania

00:59:14Melissa Ellis: There we go. It was an Andy Aries trip. Hooray. Now, the pilgrimage. Nope, there was no adventures again at Bushy. But what a nice round number of finishes they had. Now, their attendance was down because usually Bushy is well up over 1,000. But, Toc, they were smack on this week.

00:59:33Tony O'Connell: They had 1,000 finishes exactly. They nearly could have had that a couple of weeks ago for their 1,000th event.

00:59:40Melissa Ellis: But the largest frond locally, there was a frond of 10 at three separate events across Australia. One in Inverloch, one in Shellharbour, both events we know well, but also at the Beaches. No big surprise there. But the 10 adventurers were Greg Stark, Lynette Pritchard, Georgina Devine, Janine Wells, Fiona Mullen, Catherine O'Connor, Sam Schroder, Ingrid Botha, Cathy Mudge and Catherine Pirotta and no doubt quite a few also volunteering.

01:00:13Tony O'Connell: There was probably quite a few on the list there Mel.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

01:00:16Tony O'Connell: We made reference earlier to we were hearing about Southern Pathway and it being the newest New Zealand event but that was because we held that roving report over for a week. New Zealand has another new event. This week they launched Neale Park parkrun, which is located in Nelson on the southern island. Neil Park fills a gap in New Zealand on the map, and it fills a fairly important area because Nelson's one of the last cities in New Zealand that didn't actually have a parkrun. So there's a lot of smaller towns, but it was actually a city, one of the last cities that didn't have a parkrun, and so it now does. They had... 286 finishes which had included an amazing 133 first time ever legends and that's a great point that's nearly half the people out of a big crowd this was their first time ever at parkrun so bodes well for an event well supported they were supported by 22 volunteers on a t-shaped double out and back course along the trafalgar cycleway so welcome to the parkrun family Neil park we're

01:01:23Melissa Ellis: Where is that roughly on the South Island, Tony? I don't know where Nelson is.

01:01:27Tony O'Connell: Top end of the South Island on the western side, just where you come across from the North Island.

01:01:34Melissa Ellis: Okay, very good. Now, we also had a launch in Australia and it was Galup Reserve and it is in Perth near the Herdies. Is that a reference to a geographical...

01:01:48Tony O'Connell: The Herdies is the Herdsman's Lake and it's for the people that do all backyard challenges and things out there. It's one of the big ones. It's where they recently held the Australian edition of the world title. So yeah, Herdsman's Lake, this is just across the road from that.

01:02:04Melissa Ellis: Okay, very good. Well, this course is a one-lapper around Galup, which is Lake Monger. So Gallup, I'm assuming, is that Aboriginal?

01:02:12Tony O'Connell: In indigenous names, yeah.

01:02:14Melissa Ellis: Okay, and so it's a one-lapper around Gallup Reserve, and it attracted 180 finishers for week one.

01:02:23Tony O'Connell: And for those trying to work it out, roughly where it sits, it's somewhere in the area around Yokine, in that area.

01:02:29Melissa Ellis: Okay, I don't know where that is either, so that doesn't help me. But Sarah will, and she can explain it all when she's next on.

parkrun adventure challengelistener challenge

01:02:37Melissa Ellis: Okay, a challenge. A challenge for this week. Now, we had a little think about that. I like the ones where we get our adventurers to do an action or something in the photo and get creative. And Tony, we were talking about this before we recorded, and it is actually Movember, and Saturday will be the last weekend in Movember. So we thought it might be a good time to highlight Movember as being the leading charity changing the face of men's health on a global scale and focusing on mental health and suicide prevention, prostate cancer and testicular cancer. And I think most people would be aware that there's a fundraising challenge that goes on over the month where men can grow a moustache. And It can be changed up in different ways as well, but basically the idea is you don't shave your moustache for the month of November and grow your mow and then your friends will sponsor you a few bucks to grow the mow and then give the money towards those charities that I mentioned already. Anyway, just to help raise the awareness of Movember, what I want adventurers to do is do your own... version of movember so find a way to imitate a mo in a photo and we have a friend that uh that we both know and she follows the movember challenge every year and she's can all be seen with all sorts of weird things balancing on her top lip wind doesn't she talk

01:04:12Tony O'Connell: She does, yep. It might be a chook's feather creating a mole or it could be all sorts of things. Or a pen.

01:04:19Melissa Ellis: A banana. Or that'd be fun to... What can you balance on your top lip, guys? This is going to make some great photos. Anyway, maybe something parkrun related. Anyway, see how you go. Come up with something. Impress me. But that's it. What are we looking forward to, Toc?

Sign-off

01:04:37Tony O'Connell: Well, I'm really looking forward to this weekend. Um... Perth plans have been put on hold temporarily while we've got this weekend on the go. So for those that don't know, there's a group of us going over to Flinders Isle and we've chartered a plane, we've booked the pub out and we're going to do Whitemark Wharf parkrun, for some of us or for some of the people in the group it might be the last one needed to complete the tasmanian set of parkruns but for many of us it's just going to be an awesome adventure onto an island where there's a couple of us driving minibuses around and we're going to have a great weekend how about you Mel

01:05:16Melissa Ellis: Well, firstly, I just want to reference a white mark wharf. Another reason that we're so excited about going there is actually a really difficult parkrun to get to from anywhere. It doesn't matter if you're in Tasmania or if you're from the mainland. You have to fly in and you basically have to charter a small aircraft to fly in or you get a barge and the barge doesn't run every day. And I'm sure they've got the equivalent over in the UK with some of their parkruns. But just to put a bit of perspective to that. So definitely looking forward. I'm just looking forward to hanging out with 18 of my fellow adventurers. It's like school camp. How fun is it going to be?

01:05:55Tony O'Connell: Yeah, it's going to be awesome. A couple of nights out. It's like Palm 2. Yeah.

01:06:00Melissa Ellis: Yeah.

01:06:01Tony O'Connell: It's going to be a great time. Yeah, very like-minded people that love parkrun, love getting out and adventuring and touristing around. Yeah, the nights are going to be spent just talking about different events and different places we've been to and adventures and I don't know, it's really awesome.

01:06:17Melissa Ellis: Are we going to have nice weather? Has anybody looked?

01:06:19Tony O'Connell: Doesn't matter.

01:06:20Melissa Ellis: Doesn't matter? No. Might have to bring my togs. Might have to do one of those beach swim things. He's in.

01:06:29Tony O'Connell: Have we got the West Side people coming over? Are they going to swim? That's going to be the all-important.

01:06:34Melissa Ellis: Yeah, Matt will be there.

01:06:36Tony O'Connell: He's got the big goons. Oh, no. Let's not start this challenge. It's too early for this challenge, Mel.

01:06:43[crosstalk]

01:06:43Melissa Ellis: Okay, all right.

01:06:44Tony O'Connell: Okay, so looking forward. I'm looking forward to Sunday. I've got something else.

01:06:48Melissa Ellis: Yes. No. So I wanted to tell everybody that we've only got two more recordings after this pod that comes out before we're going to take our Christmas break. Now, this is going to be a bit earlier than we normally finish up. So the last episode for the year will be recorded on the 9th of December and we will be returning recording again on the 13th of January. So we will be taking a good break.

01:07:13Tony O'Connell: four to five week break and as I said finishing up a bit earlier in the year and that is to accommodate the fact that I've got another week away and uh and I need a really big break so there you go no looking forward to Mel I think a good break will do us all well but um yeah also looking forward to being back on the 13th and kicking the year off with some tales of some various adventures

01:07:38Melissa Ellis: No need to ask you where you're going to be next parkrun Day because we've already covered that. We are both going to be at Whitemark Wharf parkrun in Tasmania.

01:07:48Tony O'Connell: We are, Mel, and we're going to be running along the Xanthorrhoea Trail. But Xantheria, you say, what letter does Xantheria start with, Mel? That would start with the letter X.

01:08:04Melissa Ellis: Very contentious, isn't it? And there is one in WA as well, isn't there? I believe where Mundy Regional Park is, has also got a Xantheria. Because Xantheria is our grass tree, very well-known tree in Australia, in the outback.

01:08:20Tony O'Connell: It is. Mel, next Saturday... At White Mark Wharf, the long-term prediction is for 20 degrees. So it's not going to be too bad.

01:08:30Melissa Ellis: Not real warm for swimming.

01:08:32Tony O'Connell: The prediction also may be for 70% chance of up to 10 mil of rain for the day. But apart from that, it'll be a great weather.

01:08:41Melissa Ellis: Okay. All right.

01:08:43Tony O'Connell: Next week, Mel, we have... Mel and Simon. So we have yourself and Simon back in the chair in the hot seat.

01:08:51Melissa Ellis: Excellent. I'll look forward to that. Thank you very much for joining me again, sir.

01:08:55Tony O'Connell: Always a pleasure.

01:08:56Melissa Ellis: I'll see you on Friday.

01:08:58Tony O'Connell: Yes, yes. Don't be late for the plane. It's a small one.

01:09:02Melissa Ellis: All righty. As always, Adventurers, 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 week for more adventures.

01:09:10[outro theme playing]

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