Episode 407 - Highlights and Hopes

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

Welcome

00:00:24Melissa Ellis: Welcome to episode 407 of the parkrun adventurers podcast, a podcast about life if your life is all about parkrun. I'm Melissa Ellis and I'm coming to you from Wurundjeri Country.

00:00:35Simon Mackley: And I'm Simon Mackley coming to you from Quandamooka Country. Welcome back, Mel, after a little unexpected week off.

00:00:42Melissa Ellis: Thank you. And it's our Christmas special episode, tonight it's exciting Simon we're all on board we've got me and you to open the show we're gonna have you and Sarah a little bit later and then we're gonna finish off with me and TOC so it's all happening it is all happening and so yes I had a week off thank you for that it was nice listening to you boys have a chat and have a boys night did you have a beer no I We didn't think of that. We were just excited to have the keys. We should have written it into the script, Sarah, next time. Yeah, so anyway, a bit of feedback from the last week's episode. So we have mentioned Toc and I are trying to promote the Ballerina Sunset Run in February, and I posted a link in the comments of last week's episode, the link that you can use to register for and it will automatically pre-populate your entry with the adventurers team otherwise you can just search the adventurers and locate the team yourself now the event as I said is in February on the 8th it's a sunset run so there is plenty of time to get your parkrun in in the morning on the same day and throw your love behind the greater state and come and visit this beautiful part of Victoria and I hear you've you've so you've already um joined up I think TOC has as well I have. There's me, Toc, the Belinda fairy, and her girlfriend. Okay. Fantastic. So we've got a party of four so far. Okay. Hopefully a few more people will get interested. Yep. And, yep, we'll have a nice little frond going there. But anyway, Simon, enough about that.

Bonbon jokes

00:02:25Melissa Ellis: It is our Christmas special. So you know what that means. It's tradition.

00:02:29Simon Mackley: It's the bonbons.

00:02:31Melissa Ellis: Yes. So who's going first with the bonbons? Me? I think you are. Me, yes. Hang on a minute. Can you grab that? Can you reach? Yep, grabbing. All right. Hang on. I won.

00:02:44Simon Mackley: You did?

00:02:45Melissa Ellis: How convenient. All right. What did the winner of the race lose?

00:02:50Simon Mackley: What did the winner of the race lose? I don't know.

00:02:53Melissa Ellis: His breath. Oh.

00:03:00Simon Mackley: Fake groans.

00:03:01Melissa Ellis: All right, your turn.

00:03:01[crosstalk]

00:03:02Simon Mackley: Grab onto this.

00:03:03Melissa Ellis: Okay, I've got it.

00:03:06Simon Mackley: All righty. I got that one. Yay. All right, so the bonbon joke. I've got to put the hat on. The hat. You forgot the hat, Mel. I was too excited about the joke. I've got a little smile. Oh, you've got a moustache. Oh, no, it's a smile. A smile is the toy. And, oh, this joke. I hope it's a good one. The joke is, what do sprinters eat before a race? I don't know. What do sprinters eat before a race? Nothing. They fast.

00:03:46Melissa Ellis: Oh, very good. Funny. Yes. Running themed bonbon jokes. Excellent. How did that happen, huh? Yeah, I don't know. I didn't get a toy. Ripped off. Where's my little tiny puzzle?

00:04:02Simon Mackley: How was your last parkrun day, Mel?

00:04:05Melissa Ellis: Well, it was pretty good, actually. Thank you for asking, Simon. I was at Pucka parkrun on the traditional lands of the Tungurung and the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples to farewell ED's Michael and Annika McCall. Michael and Annika, being military, have been posted to Queensland and are handing the reins over to Chris. There was a little push to break their attendance record on the day, which they did with 46 participants. So their previous best was 36, and that was at their launch. I had a lovely run chat with my girlfriend, Megan. Dave ran a Pucka PB. Peppertree ED Adrian popped his Pucka cherry, and Nicola Wright tackled the hilly course just seven weeks post her second knee reconstruction.

00:04:50Simon Mackley: Afterwards...

00:04:51Melissa Ellis: Yes. Afterwards, we headed into Seymour to enjoy brunch at Little Stones Cafe with fellow adventurer Dan Baldwin, Sandy, Connor and Courtney. It was my eighth visit this year, bringing my total to 14, my total times at Puckapunyal, I should say. And it's my third most frequented event now. So I wonder if I can improve on that next year. Nice. Maybe that's one of my goals. Okay. So how was your parkrun day, Simon?

00:05:20Simon Mackley: I went to Sirromet parkrun on the lands of the Turrbal people on Quandamooka Country. It was event 368 with 29 participants and seven volunteers. There were no first time ever parkrunners, but there were nine newbies to Sirromet. It'd be fair to say that it was a very humid and therefore very sweaty run. Um, as it was the first parkrun day of December, I had to don the budgie ugly and represent. A noticeable thing when I turned up was that the wallabies weren't in their normal spot, which is just near the entrance on a hill where they normally eat the grass. But I was very happy to see that the reason they weren't there was because they were standing right near the start finish line and lazing and grazing So there was about 20 of them there when there's normally, say, 40 on the front one. So they're probably hiding in the trees and that sort of thing. But yes, it was another good Sirromet parkrun.

00:06:20Melissa Ellis: I also wore my ugly. Oh, did you? I did. I donned the ugly at Puckapunyal. I kind of stood out a bit. It's not really what the locals wear up there.

00:06:30Simon Mackley: No. Was it the budgie ugly?

00:06:32Melissa Ellis: No. I put my red platypus version on. It's the loosest version. Anyway, but speaking of Budgie's... Oh, Segway. It seems like Budgie had missed a connection last parkrun day. We didn't have any news. We didn't hear anything. I don't even know if he turned up. But we're pretty sure that we will soon hear about Budgie's adventures and Budgie will pop up over the break. So stay tuned. Definitely. Now...

00:06:46[crosstalk]

parkrun news bulletin

00:07:10Melissa Ellis: News and discussion. What else have we got, Simon? There's a new sponsor in parkrun Land Down Under.

00:07:16Simon Mackley: There is. There's a new sponsor. So last Monday, so Toc and I missed it last week, but anyway, we can talk about it this week. So Snap Fitness are joining. So parkrun Australia announced there's a new two-year partnership with Snap Fitness, which will commence on the 1st of January 2025. It's aimed at getting communities more connected and active. As part of the partnership, parkrunners will have access to a free 14-day membership to try out their local Snap Fitness with further details of that offer available in the new year. Additionally, Snap Fitness members will be supported to take part in their local parkrun events with their Snap Fitness team as an extension of their in-club training. So for those of you who don't know who Snap Fitness is, they are a privately owned global chain of 24-7 fitness centres They currently operate in over 1,000 locations in 20 countries or so across five continents with about half a million members.

00:08:20Melissa Ellis: Oh, there's a bit of crossover there, just as you read that. Like, you know, 1,000 locations in 20 countries. That sounds, you know, very similar to a format we know very well.

00:08:34Simon Mackley: Indeed it does. So I've done a little bit of research into where the closest Snap Fitnesses are for us hosts. So I see for you there is one in Maddingley, but I'm not sure how close that is to Meltown.

00:08:48Melissa Ellis: Oh, well, I looked that up and it is very close to Bacchus Marsh. So Peppertree parkrun. So that would probably put it at the 15 to 20 minutes away from me. Not super convenient, I would say. But interestingly, the 14 day membership and it starts 1st of January, they're aiming at those New Year's resolution people.

00:09:09Simon Mackley: They might be. I don't know when the announcement's coming out as to the details of that sort of thing. But yeah, they do start on the 1st of January, but I'm guessing New Year's resolutions is what they're aiming at. So let's say 15 minutes drive for you. I know for TOC, he is about 120 kilometres away from the local Snap Fitness. So I don't think TOC will be partaking in a 14-day membership. He could run there, Simon. I was thinking that too. I mean, that's the kind of thing TOC would do. And I was speaking to Sarah about it as well to see how close it was to her. And there seems to be quite a few in the area where she lives in Perth. And I am lucky because I have one three kilometres away and another one about seven kilometres away. So, yeah, quite convenient for me.

00:09:59Melissa Ellis: OK, so tell me, Simon, are you a gym goer?

00:10:03Simon Mackley: No.

00:10:03Melissa Ellis: No, I've never been either. I think I did an aerobics class in the 80s.

00:10:09Simon Mackley: I can just imagine the attire then.

00:10:12Melissa Ellis: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It was very let's get physical.

00:10:15Simon Mackley: Yeah, I can imagine. I mean, I have a gym 300 metres down the road. I've never been anywhere. Well, I've actually been past the door to the medical centre.

00:10:25Melissa Ellis: You know what I do when normal people go to gym, Simon?

00:10:28Simon Mackley: Drink coffee?

00:10:29Melissa Ellis: I edit podcasts.

00:10:30Simon Mackley: Oh, okay. Fair call. Okay.

00:10:34Melissa Ellis: I don't think I can fit it into my schedule. Anyway, it's a nice idea, and I would like to if I was rich and I didn't have to work. That would be nice. Sure. Because I would like a little bit of cross-training. Yep, a bit of strength and conditioning. Not just running, because that's all I've ever done. I don't know about you, but since I became a runner, I just run. I don't do anything else, and they say, oh, you need to do, even when I was training for marathons, you should do this and you should do that. No.

00:11:00Simon Mackley: Yep.

00:11:01Melissa Ellis: I just ran.

00:11:02Simon Mackley: I sometimes get on the bike. I've broken my rower. But yeah, we'll see. We'll see what comes out of it.

00:11:09Melissa Ellis: Okay. Yep. All right. Enough about that then.

Emails

00:11:12Simon Mackley: So we had an email now.

00:11:13Melissa Ellis: Oh, we did. Yes. Okay. And it came in. Breaking news. It just came in in the nick of time. So I thought we'd throw it in, Simon. And it says, hi, parkrun adventurers. I'm a parkrun adventurer based in the south of England and began listening to your podcast a few weeks ago. I've started from episode two. For some reason, I couldn't find the first episode and am up to the low 50s at the moment. Anyway, the reason for my email is that it's totally inspired me to visit Down Under for a three-month road trip taking in different parkruns. I have a sister in Sydney, so my tour will need to either start or finish there. I also want to avoid school holidays, so I'm aiming for mid-September to mid-December. But I would like some advice, please. For that time of year, would I be better doing a road trip heading south, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, etc., or north, Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns, etc. ? I would probably try to return for a February, March, April visit at a later date to do the second road trip. All advice gratefully received and thanks for producing such a fantastic podcast.

00:12:21Simon Mackley: He hasn't got up to us yet, Simon.

00:12:23Melissa Ellis: I know, that's the funniest thing. Kind regards, Xavier Sanchez, A52-55043. So we thought we'd read this out, even though... Going on how long it's going to take him to get to episode 407, it might be quite a long time before Xavier hears this.

00:12:42Simon Mackley: Well, he's not coming until September. So, yeah, he should have caught up by then.

00:12:49Melissa Ellis: decide to listen to the Christmas episode out of order just because he wrote us a letter? Yes, he may. He may indeed. So we had a little discussion about this off air and to workshop our advice. So would you like to give that advice, Simon?

00:13:07Simon Mackley: Well, obviously it's hotter north in December, but we were thinking that, yeah, going from Sydney to Brisbane Cairns, September to December is probably the better way to do it um yeah I mean there's a lot of parkruns in between I'm sure we can recommend some of those I know a couple the cool shady ones cool yes into yeah definitely yeah so three months to get to cans is is yeah there's a lot of parkruns in there that can be done so maybe our listeners can uh can email us in and come up with what they think might be some shady or some iconic ones that xavier could hit up oh maybe we could send budgie home to England with him in September and I'll send it home in December next year oh but isn't he coming this year oh no it's already past September yes We're in December, Mel.

00:14:04Melissa Ellis: Oh, yeah.

00:14:05Simon Mackley: He's nine months away. That's why he might catch up on the pod.

00:14:09Melissa Ellis: Bad idea. Maybe he can bring it back with him. Maybe. Yeah, maybe. He doesn't even know what Budgie is yet. You better hurry up on your listening. Anyway, thanks, Xavier. And, yeah, we definitely think that that time of year you would best to do Sydney up to Cairns and then coming back for a February to April Southway. Yeah. Southways.

2024 highlights and 2025 hopes

00:14:36Melissa Ellis: Yes. But, Simon, I'm very interested to know what your highlights and achievements were for 2024. Yeah.

00:14:47Simon Mackley: So my highlights and achievements. So working with the EDs at Jeune Park for Australia's 500th 5K launch. I like what you did there. Thank you. Yeah, that was a big achievement to get across the line this year. They have been cancelling a lot of late because they have been flooded out. So they are very, very keen to get back out parkrunning. They were hoping to do it last week, but then it rained again. And the ground was very sodden. So not only was it Australia's 500th 5K launch, it was also Queensland's first J, which was in my predictions last year is I thought that Queensland would have a J and a Q and then would have everything in the alphabet apart from an X. The Q never eventuated. So we are still waiting for the Q. Exactly. As well as that, so I, this year, achieved my 100th different event on my Cowell. And I was trying to remember where I actually did it, but I can't remember where I did it. But yes, I achieved my 100th different event. I also achieved my alphabet. So in May, I had Zillmere to finish off the alphabet. And I increased my V index, a volunteer index, to eight. So, yes, when I record with Sarah, I will be going through what I'm looking forward to in the year ahead.

00:16:20Melissa Ellis: That's very good. I'm trying to think of where you went for your cow. I thought you went to something that tied in with a cow name. You didn't go to Camden, did you?

00:16:32Simon Mackley: No, I did Camden for my 50th because that was my cow. Actually, I wonder if it was Samford Park.

00:16:39Melissa Ellis: Did you go somewhere while Dorota was overseas?

00:16:42Simon Mackley: did I shouldn't remember you're getting in trouble that's all I know I did get in trouble I I have a feeling it might have been Samford Parklands because it has cows oh yes that might have been what I'm thinking of yeah I might have to yeah I can't remember somebody can Google it right in and correct us

00:17:04Melissa Ellis: Oh, very good. So great achievements there as an ED. Very good volunteer you are. Bringing Queensland their J. So on behalf of Queensland, I would like to thank you.

00:17:16Simon Mackley: I did that as an ambassador, not as an ED, but yes. Oh, sorry.

00:17:18[crosstalk]

00:17:20Melissa Ellis: You were working with the EDs.

00:17:23Simon Mackley: Yes.

00:17:23Melissa Ellis: So you've thrown me because all I'm seeing is EDs in the little spiel. Anyway, yes. I always get ambassadors and EDs mixed up. I said it a couple of weeks ago when you were recording with Sarah. No, when I was recording with TOC, I referred to you offhand as an Event Director instead of an event ambassador. Yes. I must be dyslexic. I have been an ED, but yeah.

00:17:47Simon Mackley: I know. Yes. Since I left my husband, I haven't. So, yeah.

00:17:51Melissa Ellis: Okay. All right. Now, well, that's it for our introduction. And we've got a little special treat for you now.

Club Corner

00:17:59Melissa Ellis: So we're going to head on over to Reginald.

00:18:02Simon Mackley: And before I go, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

00:18:15Reginald 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 with a special Bon Bon Jokes edition. Do I find jokes unbecoming? Yes. Am I humorous? Not in the slightest. Will I persevere? Indubitably. Ahem ahem. Question, what kind of motorbike does Santa ride? Answer, a Holly Davidson. Question, what do you call a bunch of chess players bragging in a hotel lobby? Answer, chestnuts boasting in an open foyer. Question, what kind of candle burns longer, a red candle or a green candle? Answer, neither. A candle burns shorter. and a final effort... Question, how does King Wenceslas like his pizzas? Answer, deep and crisp and even. Ahem. Did you suffer? I believe, most certainly. I encourage you to cleanse yourself of this experience by revisiting some of the back catalogue of the parkrun adventurers. There are more episodes than one can shake one's stick at, so surely something must have taken your fancy.

00:19:50Simon Mackley: And we're back from Reginald with a pretty deep archive of bonbon jokes there. So I hope they don't go on the stand-up tour now and we lose them. So after the switcheroo in the break, we have a new host in the chair. So welcome back to the pod, Sarah.

00:20:07Sarah Jefferson: Thank you, Simon. So my name is Sarah Jefferson and I'm joining you from Noongar Country as always. And it's great to be here for the last pod of the year, Simon.

Dazza's

00:20:19Sarah Jefferson: So I think we might jump straight into Dazza's. This week, Dazza said, this week we celebrated World Volunteer Day. As we know, volunteers are a fundamental part of parkrun. Maybe you donned the vest this week or maybe you just saw some volleys being awesome whilst you were doing your thing. However your Saturday morning went, come on into Dazza's and tell us all about it. So just a reminder, the listener challenge this week is was to add ugly into your Dazza's post. So at the time of recording, we had 104 comments in Dazza's, and it was great to see so many ugly messages amongst all of the comments. And I must admit, it was pretty hard to choose this week, wasn't it, Simon?

00:21:02Simon Mackley: It was. So we will kick off with Billo, who was at Campaspe parkrun in Victoria. He said, hey Dazza, as you know, us adventurers are known to do the odd crazy thing and get up at the odd crazy hour. Well, that was me today. I drove down the Hume wearing one of my uglies to participate at Campaspe parkrun. The rain held off as I headed out to their Y, or would you call it a YT course, then off to enjoy breakfast complete with a flat white at a local cafe in the town of Woodend. before venturing north back up the highway for 300 kilometres. On a side note, and at the start of the festive season, I wish all our parkrun adventurers' families and friends a safe and very happy time with their friends and loved ones. Even if you are by yourself, try to embrace this period as a time to reset and participate in self-care for the most important person you have, you. Have a great weekend, Billo. And there was a photo with Billo in his ugly budgie singlet, in the parkrun sign. Merry Christmas right back at you, Billo.

00:22:10Sarah Jefferson: Merry Christmas, Billo. And I love the self-care reminder there as well because we often forget that. We all get so busy and we forget to stop, take a breath and look after ourselves.

00:22:20Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III: Exactly.

00:22:21Sarah Jefferson: Thanks for that reminder. Coming to us from New South Wales, we heard from Joe McLean. Joe said, doing the first time a welcome this morning was my 100th volly credit, which just happened to coincide with my 250th parkrun. Bracket planned, not planned. Got to celebrate with lovely friends, lovely cake and a green theme. And there's a green love heart. Nothing ugly about any of that. And there is a collage of Jo celebrating with seven of her friends, a very impressive looking cake, and Jo wearing a 250 green cape with the 250 and 100 milestone circle cards. So we agree with you, Jo. There is certainly nothing ugly about any of those achievements at all. Congratulations.

00:23:07Simon Mackley: Exactly. Well done, Jo. Next, we heard from Mark Walsh, who was at Wynnum parkrun. He said, hi Dazza, volunteered by doing the course check this morning at Wynnum parkrun after last night's work Christmas party. A questionable decision, but the course was clear. Because December is here, it was time to pull out the ugly emu Christmas tea. Battles the heat and humidity out there to complete 10k for the morning, which felt like running in a sauna with a festive twist. In two weeks, hopefully I'll swap sweat for shivers at Bushy Park. Can't wait to see what the OG parkrun throws at me. And I would agree. It was definitely a sweaty morning up here in Queensland, Mark. We look forward to hearing all about how the pilgrimage goes. That's very exciting indeed.

00:23:55Sarah Jefferson: Over to the West Side. So we heard from David Bravos coming to us from Aveley parkrun. This is parkrun, he said. To celebrate my 300th parkrun, we helped Chloe RD at Aveley and I roped Lucy into recreating what comes to mind when I hear the number 300. This scene from the movie 300. Asterix, no four-year-olds were harmed slash kicked into pits in the making of this picture. And there's a picture of David and Lucy recreating a movie scene. And I am certainly glad that David shared that as I would have had absolutely no idea of the context, to be honest. However, what I did notice in the picture was a big smile on Lucy's face. And that's always really great to see. So happy 300th parkrun, David. And thank you to Chloe as well for your efforts on volunteering on the morning.

00:24:46Simon Mackley: Congratulations, David, on 300. Next, we heard from Yvette Turner, who was at Point Hut Pond parkrun in the ACT. It's the first parkrun day of December. So time to bring out the ugly running singlets. I drove the 30 minutes from the north of the ACT to the most southern parkrun in the ACT, Point Hut Pond parkrun. My friend Kath was volunteering as Timekeeper today while my other friends, Christy, Mia and I had a run and a chatty catch up as we made our way around the pond. It's always a great start to the morning at parkrun. And there was a picture collage of Yvette with the parkrun sign with two of her friends and there were two ugly singlets there. So good job, ladies.

00:25:31Sarah Jefferson: Heading down to Tassie now. We heard from Stephen Noble. So Stephen says, memorable stopwatch bingo after 10 years at Montrose Foreshore. Can't believe that, 10 years. Well done, Stephen. Slowest completion in years after being sick for a week. 100% rain surrounded by cancellations. Refused to post my course pic. Even my mum would say it was ugly. So congrats on that stopwatch bingo, Stephen. Maybe the silver lining after a rough week for you and we hope that you feel better soon. I'm not sure that Mel has actually ticked off her stopwatch bingo yet, Simon. So fingers crossed, maybe Mel can even get it in before the end of the year as well.

00:26:16Simon Mackley: That would be superb if she can. Next, we heard from Eric Banner, who was at Reynella East parkrun in South Australia. A bunch of very beautiful volunteers saw me at Reynella East this morning. Rumour is that volunteer makes you less ugly, Ingrid Paris. And there was a winky emoji. Ingrid actually replied underneath it and said that supposedly volunteering makes you look 10% better looking every time. And there was a photo of Andrew and Martine holding Eric with the parkrun flag in the background.

00:26:50Sarah Jefferson: I'm assuming we'll have lots and lots of people signing up for volunteering then in the next few weeks.

00:26:55Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III: I hope so.

00:26:56Sarah Jefferson: After that. Coming to us from Poland this week, we heard from Andy Airey, So UK parkrun tourist Jingle Cow met up Wrocław in Poland. Hopefully I pronounced that okay. Tail Walker, as a gingerbread man, 45 of us made the trip this weekend. There was a photo of a lot of parkrunners looking very festive with a Wroclaw pop-up and the gingerbread Tail Walker. I guess one thing about wearing one of these inflatable suits at this time of year in Europe is that it would actually be nice and warm, unlike when Abdul selected to run in a poo inflatable costume lately on the hardest parkrun course in Australia in the summer heat. So good choice of costume, I guess, to the gingerbread man.

00:27:47Simon Mackley: Definitely. And then we heard from Ruth Perkins, who was at Wetherby parkrun in the UK. And she said, hi Dazza, Wetherby parkrun turned out to be the perfect place to weather Storm Darragh. A huge thank you to the wonderful volunteers who were joined by a team of skillful pacers. I donned my Christmas pickle costume, which sadly hid my ugly emu tea, and chased after my husband, Chris. And there was a photo of Ruth donning a pickle outfit and Chris with the Wetherby pop-up.

the Obi Award — Ruth Perkins

00:28:22Simon Mackley: Do you have the envelope for the Obi, Sarah?

00:28:26Sarah Jefferson: I do have it on my desk, Simon. So the Obi this week goes to... ..Ruth Perkins. Congratulations, Ruth, our last Obi winner for 2024.

00:28:30[background music]

00:28:48Simon Mackley: Yes. Well done, Ruth. Okay, Sarah. So all of the hosts are going through and sharing some of their parkrun highlights, achievements and things they're looking forward to in the world of parkrun for 2025. Shall we start off with some of your achievements this year and your highlights?

00:29:07Sarah Jefferson: Okay. Okay. So I did have to have a look back on my app, Simon, on the parkrun year that was. So I managed to tick off 23 new locations across three countries and across five different states in Australia. And I finally got to two different junior events in two different states. So I'd have to say achieving WA Statesman again is probably one of my greatest achievements this year. Given the new events that I needed to tick off, we're not really close by to the metro area at all. In fact, the closest one was an hour and a half drive from home. So the furthest north that we had to travel was up to Broome, so over 2,000 kilometres away, and then down south of Perth, over 800 kilometres away. And I'm going to say that in terms of my greatest highlight, and this is really tricky to pick, but it would have to be Coober Pedy parkrun and the time that we spent there. So, again, this involved another crazy drive, nine hours north into central South Australia, remembering that I needed to fly from Perth to Adelaide. to get there to start. So the weekend was filled with red dirt, opals, sleeping in hotels underground, glorious sunrises and sunsets, learning all about the history of the area in many underground museums, checking out movie props and sets that were used in the local area as lots of films have actually been made here, as well as learning about lots of different types of opals. And yes, there are many different types of opals and different cuts. I also feel like I wasn't really an opal lover before this trip, for no reason really. I guess that I just didn't really know much about opals at all. But I certainly fell in love with these precious stones over the few days that we were there. Of course, it was also really lovely spending time with fellow adventurers while exploring this area. Great company always makes for a great time, I guess. So... When I look back, we've actually achieved quite a lot and, yeah, had some amazing adventures this year.

00:31:25Simon Mackley: Yeah, it's been a huge year for you.

00:31:27Sarah Jefferson: Yeah, lots of travel.

00:31:28Simon Mackley: Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, lots of time on planes and things like that. So what are you looking forward to in 2025?

00:31:38Sarah Jefferson: So I still can't actually believe that we're at the end of 2024. and that we're looking into 2025. But I'm certainly looking forward to some more adventures. And I guess for me next year, there'll be some different kind of adventures with a baby in tow. But I'm certainly determined not to let the baby stop our crazy adventures. And I'm holding on to the faith that if Eman and Christine can do it with a young baby and now two children, that we can also do the same. So in saying this, my goal for 2025 is to continue to work on filling in the gaps and I would like to work towards filling in parkruns from west to east in Australia. So using the Voronoi filter on the 5K app, I've currently completed over a third of the landscape of Australia and I'll be aiming to tick off the other two parkruns in the Northern Territory next year. And having done Coober Pedy, it's already filled in a big chunk of the middle of Australia as well. So once, yeah, ticking off the Northern Territory, I'd be keen to look at the western side of the Spencer Gulf in South Australia. Matt's super keen to do the Great White Shark Cage Dive off Port Lincoln. I am not keen at all to do that. I'm very keen to stay on land and make sure that the land is okay and it doesn't fall to pieces, but he's keen to do that. So hopefully we'll get to Port Lincoln, tick that one off. He can get in his shark dive. Big kahunas, I guess. Once more for Matt.

00:33:16Simon Mackley: Very big.

00:33:17Sarah Jefferson: And then I guess after that, that will have been around, yeah, filled in two thirds of the map of Australia purple.

00:33:23Simon Mackley: Wow. That's amazing. Yeah.

00:33:25Sarah Jefferson: What about you, Simon? I guess looking forward to 2025. Yes.

00:33:29Simon Mackley: So I'm hoping to visit some more new parkruns to me. Definitely need to volunteer some more this year coming up. I'll probably try and revisit some of the parkruns that I vowed to return to. And yeah, I want to try and get my P index up to eight. And yeah, mostly meet some more adventurers out there what's your p index at currently it's currently at seven but because I've got Sydney ones in there I need to get more I need to sort of fill it in with one up here to be able to go yeah to eight got you need to go back quite a few times to that event of choice yeah well yeah I need to do it at two events so yeah

00:34:13Sarah Jefferson: Well, should we make this little segment a little bit more festive? Are you ready for a joke, Simon?

00:34:20Simon Mackley: I'm ready for a joke. You go for it.

00:34:22Sarah Jefferson: I was going to say, even if you're not ready, I'm going for it anyway. Sure. How do crazy runners get through a forest?

00:34:30Simon Mackley: I don't know. How do crazy runners get through a forest?

00:34:33Sarah Jefferson: They take the psycho path.

00:34:36Simon Mackley: Good cracker joke. There we go. Where did the Helsinki Marathon end? Oh, I have no idea. At the finish line. Ooh, nice one. Finland finish line, yep.

00:34:52Sarah Jefferson: Double meaning there.

00:34:53[crosstalk]

00:34:53Simon Mackley: Tenuous link, but yeah, exactly.

00:34:55Sarah Jefferson: Love that. Love that. All right. Well, we might throw to Reginald. All right. See you, Sarah. Bye. Happy New Year.

00:35:06Simon Mackley: Happy New Year.

00:35:13Reginald 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 are returning to the start of parkrun event day and start with something that is no longer a thing, lead bike, it is not a thing. Am I remembering correctly that TOC has completed this X role? Irregardless, this role was someone who went ahead of the main pack and leaders, so that the public could be alerted to the impending hordes of parkrunners, lol counter to this are the other roles neither of which existed when parkrun began or even in the early years Australia played a large part in getting Tail Walker to be a compulsory role at some events tail runner was a thing but not all events did it and it really was acting as a classic sweeper I know TOC has done sweeper smiley face Tail Walker is a great initiative and one which assists participants and volunteers The role is simply to come last. A more recent initiative to service and encourage participation at parkrun is the parkwalker role. This role is one which walks the entirety of the course and where possible engages with the community on course and shows that not only is walking possible but encouraged. There are a variety of ways to do this but all involve walking. Yeah, that does sound obvious and somewhat supercilious to say, but not all who perform the role actually walk... Australia thankfully does not have a huge anti-walking culture at parkrun, but the evidence is strong that the UK in particular does. The walking rate in the UK was something like half of 1% of participants on average, whereas in Australia it was approximately 5-10%, and South Africa even greater. The walking rate was determined by a study authorised by the parkrun Research Panel, and it was decided that anything of 50 minutes or higher was definitely a walking time at 5K parkrun. When next we chat about volunteering, we will move to some on-course roles, yay! Farewell for another year past, pace yourself over the break, and one looks forward to welcoming you back soon.

00:37:38Tony O'Connell: And we're back on the track of things. It's TOC, and I'm jumping into the hot seat now. And it was really good to hear from Reginald. Reginald mentioned me a couple of times that, yes, sweeping is very similar to the tail walking position in that it's our job to come last in both cases. So, Mel, how are things with you?

00:38:00Melissa Ellis: Well, things are very good and it's nice to be back recording with you. Thank you for stepping in for me last week, Tony.

00:38:08Tony O'Connell: That was my pleasure, Mel. It was really great to actually have a good catch up with Simon and it's the first time that we've recorded together and the more I think about it, I'm going to have to jump in and record with Sarah now because I haven't done a recording with Sarah either. Well, it's only fair. Yeah. It is. Equal opportunity. Let's have a go at it.

00:38:28Melissa Ellis: Now, I'm just looking through our notes and I don't think we've scheduled anywhere there to do the bonbon. It's Christmas, TOC. We've got to do bonbon jokes. Have you got your... I don't think you've got a bonbon.

00:38:40Tony O'Connell: Yeah, we've got our bonbon jokes right down near the bottom now.

00:38:43Melissa Ellis: Do we? We have. Oh, we do. I'm getting overexcited. Oh.

00:38:49Tony O'Connell: Oh, it's easy to do. It's that time of the year, isn't it?

00:38:51[crosstalk]

00:38:51Melissa Ellis: We'll leave that till later.

00:38:53Tony O'Connell: Too much eggnog and... Oh, what are you trying to say?

00:38:59Melissa Ellis: What about you tell me about your last parkrun day? Because we haven't heard from you yet.

00:39:03Tony O'Connell: Mel, my last parkrun day was a surprise. We were planning to do Inverloch right up until Friday night, and last minute we decided to jump into the car nice and early and head to Emerald Lake parkrun, one of Victoria's newest events, or in fact, Victoria's second newest event after the weekend. They were running event five today, So we ventured up. It was only about an hour and 40 minutes from home, so it was basically a local parkrun for us. And it's at Emerald Lake, which is one of the stopping points for the Puffing Billy train, for those that know the tourist attraction Puffing Billy, great little picnic spot around a lake, plenty to do, plenty to see, and we were met there by 82 participants, and I was really surprised because I actually know quite a few of the people that were up there, and a lot of them were local, so it was actually really good to see the locals getting out. Quite a contingent of the Dandenong trail runners jumping in behind Emerald Lake and really supporting the event, which was fantastic. The course itself is an out and back with a big zigzag in the middle. The first two and a half kilometres, it'd be fair to say, are pretty well up. My watch recorded 90 metres of elevation in that two and a half kilometres. And then the return two and a half kilometres are pretty much free fall. So that was a whole heap of fun. Plenty of chats, caught up with a whole heap of people. Kathleen Wallington, Wally's Dirty Dozen, she was there, so we had a bit of a chat. And there were just quite a few other people. It was great to catch up with a couple of the regional ambassadors that were there on the day, Nadine and Greg. Yeah, just a whole heap of fun. And the usual post-parkrun breakfast and long chats before we jumped in the car and went for another drive.

00:41:00Melissa Ellis: Well, that sounds pretty good. I can't wait to get there. I'm planning that before Christmas, let's just say.

00:41:07Tony O'Connell: Well worth the visit. And if it's a beautiful day, it's a sensational park to hang out in. It's one of the prettier parks around, so it's really lovely.

00:41:15Melissa Ellis: I'm going to take a picnic. That's what I'm going to do.

00:41:18Tony O'Connell: Well worth it. Yep.

00:41:20Melissa Ellis: And being there at parkrun time, I reckon I'll be a good chance to nab a picnic table.

00:41:26Tony O'Connell: Just remember to log in. There's paid parking at that one. Really? So you need to get there a little bit earlier because we were there early. Walk straight up to the machine. It's a tap machine. But by the time all the parkrunners started arriving, there was a queue started to form. So, yeah, just be there a little bit early.

00:41:47Melissa Ellis: Radio. Good advice. Tip for the travellers. That's what we need to know. These are the things. Thank you very much.

00:41:53Tony O'Connell: And parking, if you're only going to be there for two hours, is a sum total of $2. Okay. So it's not that much at all.

00:42:01Melissa Ellis: Okay. Alrighty.

Consolidated Club Report

00:42:03Melissa Ellis: Well, now it's time for the adventurers Consolidated Club Report for Saturday, the 7th of December, 2024. Of a total of 714 members, 500 took part on this date in eight countries across 244 locations. In the UK, there was rain again, Tony. There were adventurers at 38 events. There were eight in South Africa, two in the USA and one in Malaysia, Poland and Singapore, and locally we had adventures at gold medal 52 events in kingsland there was 48 in New South Wales 44 in the greater state 14 on the West Side 13 in South Australia 7 on the North Island Tassie and the ATC, oh, dyslexic tonight tessie and the act had six two in the Northern Territory and one on the South Island

the Frond — Stockton parkrun (frond of seven, Australia/NZ); Woodley parkrun (frond of four, international)

00:42:57Tony O'Connell: Big numbers at a lot of places, Mel, and our biggest or largest international frond was at Woodley in the UK, where there were four people, and they were Brian Grieves, Christopher Miles, Alexander Thompson, and Ian Thompson. Well, I think there were more than four people, but there were four adventurers. There were four adventurers. And we had an update on the bushy, for our bushy pilgrimage, Mel. And the update is it was cancelled for the third time in 20 years. Bushy has been cancelled. That was due to the Royal Parks closing all their parks down because of the severe winds.

00:43:34Melissa Ellis: Okay.

00:43:35Tony O'Connell: And I did log in at about the start of parkrun time and have a look at London's temperature and wind. And it was a temperature of about eight degrees with the fields like minus five and the wind was gusting at 80 kilometres an hour.

00:43:48Melissa Ellis: Wow. Well, we hope all our adventurers kept safe, but the greater community over there as well. I saw the map that was circulating around with all the red exclamation marks.

00:44:02Tony O'Connell: Fair to say it was a sea of red.

00:44:04Melissa Ellis: It was. Yeah, no good. But in Australia and New Zealand, the largest frond was... a frond of seven at Stockton in New South Wales where there was David Bennett bill Troy georgina Devine Lynette pritchard Greg stark Mike Lakeview Scott and Kathy Mudge so actually there was frond of seven I think a few different events but we chose to highlight Stockton we don't hear about Stockton very often and remember everybody you can add the Adventurers Club as one of your five affiliations on your parkrun profile it's really easy to do and if you need a hand just yell out

00:44:39Tony O'Connell: And it'd be great to see a few more people added on to their parkrun profile, Mel, and get our numbers. I can remember when we were all excited about getting close to 500 and now we're up over 700 and growing. I guess the next milestone is the 1,000 shirt for us.

00:44:54Melissa Ellis: Yeah, and it kind of hasn't really moved the last couple of weeks. Anyway, all those people from Snap Fitness might get on the bandwagon, mightn't they, TOC?

00:45:05Tony O'Connell: Another group to try to encourage along. Yeah.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

00:45:10Tony O'Connell: And speaking of growth, parkrun has had another couple of launches this weekend. Traditionally, as we move into the summer season or our summer season, the Christmas season, the number of launches really reduces. And in fact, same with New Year's Eve or New Year's Day, there is in fact only one parkrun that's launched on New Year's Day. But this week we had Aintree Reserve parkrun in the greater state of Victoria. Located in Rockbank, out near Meltown, the course is undulating out and back along the Kororoit Creek. This week they had 79 participants, of which 12 were participating for the first time ever, and they were backed up by a team of nine volunteers.

00:45:56Melissa Ellis: And they had some familiar faces from Eynesbury juniors helping out in the volunteer stakes over there. So I was able to have a little chat and get the feel for how it went. They were very happy with their launch and I believe their course is out and back on pavement.

00:46:14Tony O'Connell: And Mel, I did see one of the other names of note that attended on the day with none other than former pod host Scotty Trickett. It was with Kasia. Great to see your name there, Scotty. He doesn't listen.

00:46:30Melissa Ellis: Maybe someone will tell him.

00:46:31Tony O'Connell: Yeah.

00:46:33Melissa Ellis: But there was another launch, only two in the whole wide world, and this one was in Poland. Lucky me, I got the Polish one. And it was parkrun Park Blekitny. Blekitny. Blekitny. I can't yeah that and it's located in southern Poland and it is a four lapper around blue park it had 100 participants and a whopping 28 volunteers and even more impressive 47 first time ever participants

00:47:02Tony O'Connell: And, Mel, when I typed that name into the notes, I did miss all the dots under the over and the lines through the letters, so I'm sure it's even more difficult to pronounce than what I've actually typed there.

00:47:16Sarah Jefferson: Oh, well.

00:47:16Melissa Ellis: Never mind. People understand. We're not Polish. We do our best.

00:47:20Tony O'Connell: Who's our Polish translator? We have a German translator. Yeah, Dorota. Dorota. Where are you, Dorota? We should have got onto that earlier.

00:47:28Melissa Ellis: I know. I had one job.

00:47:30Tony O'Connell: Mel, you mentioned before when you were talking about the Consolidated Club report, the impact across the UK. I'll just put a couple of little notes in about Storm Darragh. It certainly raised hell through the UK. We had a little bit of feedback from our Kiwi correspondent and at last check, the UK had 475 cancellations and only 336 events went ahead, making Australia with 487 events the biggest country for the week. Woo!

00:48:01Alice - lead vocalist on the "parkrun Party" song: Australia had 58,187 finishes compared to the UK's storm-affected 52,346.

00:48:03Tony O'Connell: When you look at that on a per-event scale, number obviously a lot of the UK events still had quite a few people turn up but the numbers were significantly down across the UK I think the biggest UK event had 594 people attend which meant as far as I can determine Albert Melbourne had the largest attendance across the world with 664 finishes wow look at us go and of course it's not a race we're only joking even bigger than South Africa I couldn't find any in South Africa that were bigger, but I didn't do a really big, deep dive into it. I was having a look, clicking on a few pages and that, because, of course, you can't see the results anymore. And there's a lot of events to click on pages.

00:49:02Melissa Ellis: I know he's not our stats person, but can somebody ask Elliot? Or listen to With Me Now, we might find out.

00:49:10Tony O'Connell: Yeah.

00:49:10Melissa Ellis: Okay. Now...

parkrun adventure challengelistener challenge

00:49:13Melissa Ellis: A challenge. So we were debating if we were going to have a challenge, weren't we?

00:49:18Tony O'Connell: We did debate the merits of it and what we would do and if our temp was going to be able to go through and monitor the challenges.

00:49:27Melissa Ellis: But anyway, I don't like giving up anything. I'm a stickler.

00:49:32Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:49:33Melissa Ellis: I'm a stickler for routine. I think you should have a challenge, Adventurers. You know, got to keep you motivated and everything. But guess what? We're not going to ask you to come and report back to us as such in Dazza's. What we would like you to do and what you're challenged to do is thank a volunteer.

00:49:51Tony O'Connell: That sounds like a great challenge, Mel, and a great way to finish up the year, you know, in the lead up to Christmas. I'm up for that one.

00:50:01Melissa Ellis: And as we are alluding to, we will be back recording on the 13th of January. We're taking a little break. We've mentioned it for the last couple of weeks. So that means five weeks without a podcast. You can listen to the back catalogue. You're welcome. Like Xavier.

00:50:20Tony O'Connell: And we've heard from our email, yes, that we have heard someone going through the back catalogue. So always great to hear.

00:50:27Melissa Ellis: That's right. Now, also, Adventurers, while the pod is on a break, our socials are not. Please keep sharing your parkrun fun on our regular posts. We've got an agency temp coming in to manage the Friday and the Dazza's posts. They are also going to share an exciting update about our Adventurous shirts early in the new year. So listen in for that and communicating with our community. Yes, we're still on all that chit-chat. Keep in touch. Yeah, keep in touch. Yes, it's the holiday season. Check in on a parkrunner. All right, what have we got next? Highlights and achievements for 2024. That's what it says, Toc. All righty. That's it, and you can go first, Mel. Yes, because my name's there. All right, so my highlights. This is my highlight. Starting the year off camping in the Clare Valley with Belinda, Martine and Andrew was a highlight, including e-biking along the Riesling Trail. But then Easter in Coober Pedy, again with parkrun friends and meeting world-famous Aboriginal artist Tommy Crow and attending my first night at the drag races. That was a highlight. These are all the things parkrun brings to my world.

00:51:36Tony O'Connell: That's pretty cool.

00:51:38Melissa Ellis: Yeah. Mm-hmm. And most recently, of course, Whitemark Wharf because it was just like being on school camp again. I did my first cold water plunge and I want to go back because I really, really, really, really want a fossick for Mount Killiecrankie diamonds.

00:51:52Tony O'Connell: Yes, we drove past Mount Killiecrankie, but we didn't actually call in there on the day.

00:51:57Melissa Ellis: No, because the weather was poo. But anyway, so that's my highlights. Achievements, this wasn't a year about achievements as such, so I really don't have anything to report in. I wasn't striving for anything. If anything, I backed off my tourism. But what about you, TOC?

00:52:17Tony O'Connell: Well, my... All-time highlights are always around the people of parkrun. And my highlight for the last year was helping to launch two new events in two new communities and working with a further four prospects to try and get some more events up and running. I love... Seeing the excitement and the joy of people when they set up a community, when they get that initial approval to go ahead. I love watching an Event Director when they've yelled go and everyone's taken off and you can just see them relax and... think this is how it's meant to be so I really enjoy that side of things palm24 at Toowoomba is of course a really great experience I love catching up with old friends but I love meeting new friends and I love the interaction that we're having with some of the listeners where you know I was at Frog Hollow one day and someone just walked up and said do you talk and wanted to chat I absolutely love having a chat of I love talking to anybody and Whitemark Wharf was just a ripping trip. Really enjoyed that. I guess I managed to get to 16 new events across four states, mainly on the eastern seaboard. No trips to west in the last 12 months and unusually no trips to South Australia. Normally we get to South Australia once or twice a year. We didn't get over there this year. So that's something we'll have to look at next year, and of course a little bit of indexing to go through my malidex went up by five this year to 57 and we went to events together in Tassie New South Wales Queensland and Victoria so we got to four states together oh good stats thank you um, my Simondex Jumped up to six. We got to two events together. That was Ipswich, and Simon surprised us by turning up. And South Toowoomba. And my Saradex is also at six. We got to three events this year. So we got to Whitemark, South Toowoomba, and Kirkdale earlier in the year. So... That was my highlights for the year, Mel. Another good year parkrunning. Not so much on the getting to new countries or getting to V Indexes or P Indexes or Wilsons or anything like that. My highlights were more around the people that I've met and the people that I've talked to that I haven't yet met but I've talked to. I really enjoy catching up with them.

00:54:43Melissa Ellis: I should claim bringing two new parkrunners into the world too, shouldn't I?

00:54:47Tony O'Connell: Yeah, you've got to. That's been a highlight for you, definitely, Mel.

International Ugly Christmas Singlet Day

00:54:52Melissa Ellis: All righty, and there is, in red, big bold letters in show notes now, an announcement, and that is Ugly Shirt Day coming up, Toc.

00:55:05Tony O'Connell: It is, Mel. I forgot all about it when we were typing up some notes earlier, but 21st of December is the day to wear your ugly shirts. And I've noticed as of last week, people have jumped into the festive season and there was a lot more ugly out on parkrun courses and photos from last week. And I think I'm going to jump into mine this week and wear it for the next couple of weeks anyway, because I don't know, I love my budgies. I reckon the budgies is one of the best ones that's come out. Yeah. Sorry, Fluffy, you've been bumped a little, but the budgie is just a ripping T-shirt. So Ugly Shirt Day, 21st of December. Make sure you get the photos in. Post them in our socials. Post them in the Ugly Shirt Day group on Facebook, into their socials as well. But, yeah, that's something to look forward. And speaking of looking forward, Mel, what are you looking forward to for next year?

Sign-off

00:55:57Melissa Ellis: Oh, well, I have a bit going on for next year. And firstly, I want to announce to the community I've made the difficult decision to step down as ED at Eynesbury Heritage Trail junior parkrun. This will lessen my mental load into 2025, where I am looking forward to more parkrun adventures with Dave, my girlfriends, my extended parkrun tourism community and as well as New Zealand for Palm. And I've already got trips locked in next year to WA, Queensland, and hopefully more radios.

00:56:32Tony O'Connell: Cool. What about you? I'm probably looking at... my highlights hopefully next year will be another launcher tour as ambassadors. I've got a couple of events that I'm working with that are, are so close. Um, palm25 in New Zealand, going over to the land of the long white cloud will be, uh, a great adventure. Um, But in the short term, I've got a Christmas trip coming up to the West Side and just hopefully more adventures all through the year. As I said earlier, highlight as always is going to be catching up with people both during and after parkrun. And I just keep saying to people, if you think you recognise me, come and have a yarn. I'll probably talk your ear off. And if you try to talk to me during the run, I'll definitely talk your ear off because I love talking and running at the same time. But yeah, that's what I'm looking forward to, Mel.

00:57:23Melissa Ellis: Actually, I should say too, that has been a little bit of a highlight. We don't get recognised or approached very often, but on the odd occasion when it happens, it's lovely. I'm really happy to talk to listeners and, yeah, encourage everybody to come up and say hello and don't be afraid. We want to engage with you. Mel, where are you headed next parkrun Day? Well, Oh, next bullet's not me next on the list. What are you doing going out of order? Well, anyway, I've got the next week off. I'm having a holiday. It's kind of a weird time to be going on a holiday. But I'm going down the surf coast for a week, Toc. I'm leaving on Friday. So we think we might hit up Torquay parkrun.

00:58:06Tony O'Connell: That sounds wonderful. I just had that quick mental thing. Don't talk any clothes over Christmas, but that's Ocean Grove. It's Ocean Grove. I think that's... Torquay did for their first couple of years, and then the council exempted them from it, but Ocean Grove.

00:58:12[crosstalk]

00:58:20Melissa Ellis: Well, you're trying to trick me. I've already checked the roster. I've done my due diligence, like the good little adventurer that I am.

00:58:29Tony O'Connell: I'll just put my face back up, because when you said Torquay, I thought, oh, no.

00:58:33Unidentified speaker: LAUGHTER

00:58:35Melissa Ellis: No, it's okay. It's going ahead. It says so on their future roster.

00:58:39Tony O'Connell: Excellent.

00:58:40Melissa Ellis: What about you, TOC?

00:58:41Tony O'Connell: Look, Mel, last week I was going to stick local and I ended up going for quite a long drive. This week I think it'll be back to Inverloch as the Christmas rush approaches. Yeah, Inverloch for the next couple of weeks, I think. I'll be Santa on the stump on the... Christmas Day in my traditional stand up in something, got to try to find a new costume. I like dressing up and encouraging people to dress up, but yeah, Inverloch for the next week or so for me fantastic I can just see you as frosty the snowman on the stump there's your challenge there's an idea that's not one that I've done before I've been Christmas trees, I've been presents, I've been Santas, I've been elf so I needed something new and you might have just given me some inspiration

00:59:30Melissa Ellis: You know what you've got to get onto down at Inverloch? Oh, every year I see, and Dorota's getting another mention, but every year I see, and that's her third mention actually. I gave her a mention when I was recording with Simon. She does these brilliant Christmas photos every year on the beach where there's a Santa on the beach and she gets herself and Alex and the kids posing with Santa on the sand. Okay. At the beach, probably Bondi. It's probably a Bondi beach photo. You should be... You get onto it.

00:59:59Tony O'Connell: Challenge. I can't dress up as Santa and Frosty and... Oh, no, you can't.

01:00:04Melissa Ellis: No, but delegate, you know.

01:00:06Tony O'Connell: That's it.

01:00:08Melissa Ellis: Jackie can be Santa. All righty. So now, can we do our bonbon jokes now?

01:00:14Tony O'Connell: Now we can do our bonbon jokes.

01:00:16Melissa Ellis: Thank you. All righty. Well, I brought the bonbons. Oh, good. So here you go. Oh, hang on. I'm reaching through. There you go. Have you got it?

01:00:25Tony O'Connell: I've got it.

01:00:25Melissa Ellis: Okay. Oops. You won and it scared Lucy. That's your fault.

01:00:34Tony O'Connell: Poor Lucy. Okay. Have you got a joke? I've got my little bit of paper to unfold here. Oh, no. How funny is this? It's a running related one.

01:00:43Alice - lead vocalist on the "parkrun Party" song: Oh, really?

01:00:44Tony O'Connell: In the bonbon. Why did the runner join a band?

01:00:49Melissa Ellis: I don't know. Why did a runner join a band?

01:00:51Tony O'Connell: They wanted to improve their tempo. Oh.

01:00:54Melissa Ellis: That's a good one. All right. Okay. It's my turn. Oh, poor Lucy. Close your ears, Lucy. Are you ready?

01:01:02Tony O'Connell: Let's go. Oh, I heard the footsteps.

01:01:05[crosstalk]

01:01:07Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I know. Poor bugger. Sorry, Luce. All right. Now, my joke is... Which athlete stays warm during winter?

01:01:18Tony O'Connell: I'm not sure, Mel. Which athlete stays warm during winter?

01:01:22Melissa Ellis: A long jumper. A long jumper.

01:01:28Tony O'Connell: Righty. Right now, Mally, you ready to sing our traditional song?

01:01:32Melissa Ellis: No.

01:01:33Tony O'Connell: Well, neither am I. Thank God you're not.

01:01:40Melissa Ellis: It's been a while since we sang on the pod.

01:01:43Tony O'Connell: It has been, and for good reason.

01:01:47Melissa Ellis: We'll leave that to the outro music that I really enjoy using these days. I don't get much feedback from that, but, gee, I like that song.

01:01:55Tony O'Connell: I enjoyed that song. I'm just thinking probably the singing angle's not so much you and I, but Simon and Sarah, I reckon there should be a challenge that they should have to sing a song. I don't think they've had to sing one yet.

01:02:06Melissa Ellis: Oh, yes. Because we've been around a bit longer. We've done all the singing thing, haven't we?

01:02:12Tony O'Connell: We have. We've done a couple of different songs.

01:02:14Melissa Ellis: All right. Okay, next time they record, they can sing.

01:02:19Tony O'Connell: That's it.

01:02:20Melissa Ellis: Yeah. All righty. Okay, well, thank you very much for joining me, sir. My pleasure, as always. Have a good Christmas. Have a merry Christmas. Have a safe Christmas and enjoy your adventuring.

01:02:32Tony O'Connell: Yeah, and to all our listeners, once again, have a Merry Christmas and a safe and enjoyable Christmas and hopefully catch up with some friends at a parkrun somewhere along the journey.

01:02:42Melissa Ellis: And everybody, as always, you can contact us via the parkrun adventurers on Facebook or our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. That's it for another week. We'll see you all next year for more adventures.