Episode 409 - Give us a hug

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

Welcome

00:00:24Simon Mackley: Welcome to episode 409 of the parkrun adventurers podcast, a podcast about life, if your life is all about parkrun. I'm Simon Mackley, and I'm joining you again from Quandamooka Country.

00:00:36Melissa Ellis: And I'm Melissa Ellis, and I'm coming to you from Wurundjeri Country, and I'm not Sarah Jefferson.

00:00:41Simon Mackley: You are not Sarah Jefferson from the West Side.

00:00:44Melissa Ellis: No, I have stepped in this week, but we still have no baby news, Simon.

00:00:49Simon Mackley: No baby news as of very, very recently tonight, yes. Yes.

00:00:55Melissa Ellis: But we hope to have some. I would say we will have some by next week.

00:00:59Simon Mackley: We'll definitely have it by the time the pod comes out, I'm guessing.

00:01:04Melissa Ellis: Well, that's a big call.

00:01:06Simon Mackley: It is a big call.

00:01:07Melissa Ellis: Maybe we shouldn't have gone there.

00:01:09Simon Mackley: I think Sarah hopes that by the time the pod comes out, she's had a baby. Yes.

00:01:14Melissa Ellis: All the pressure on me. Oh, dear. Well, we haven't heard from you yet since Christmas, Simon. How was your Christmas?

00:01:21Simon Mackley: Christmas was good. I didn't get to a Christmas parkrun as is normal in our household. Oh, boo. Boo. Maybe one day. But, yeah, I got around to a few parkruns. Most of them I'd been to before. So, yeah, I hit Scribbly Gums and saw Errol, who was volunteering, Belinda Ferry was there and friend Kelly. Then the next week I was down at Paradise Point and I caught up with some of the ambassadors, plus Mandy Libby and Sean from HQ. Then I went to the north side to take off my Nendy, which was on the lakes. And it was a very hot run around the lake, but yeah, nice to knock off another one in Brisbane. Then New Year's Day, I hit up Pallara, which is one of the events I look after as an ambassador and had a very good chat with the ED, Brian, and started my year off by visiting an event I haven't done in a very, very long time. Then I hit Cleveland and another friend from the north side was actually running there and I totally missed him, didn't realise he was going to be there, so we didn't see each other. Wow, what's the big numbers? How do you miss? Well, it's an out and back. I thought I saw him at one stage, not knowing it was him, and then he said he saw me on the way back, but by the time he finished or I finished, one of us had gone. So, yeah, I don't know what happened there. Anyway. And then I went to Meadowbrook with my brother and sister-in-law. They hadn't been there before and they fell in love with it, actually. They really liked the undulation. And then last weekend, I went to Nathan Road Sports Ground and it was after a massive downpour on Friday night. So it was extremely wet. There's a part of the course that was muddy and the RD of the day said, you're definitely going to get your feet wet. So I would definitely agree with that. I had to take my shoes off to drive home. Oh, did you wear your trail shoes? I did not wear trail shoes. No, I didn't know that I needed to wear trail shoes. Oh, that's always a problem. Exactly. So, which has made me actually think that I need to put another pair of shoes in the car different to what I would normally wear. So I'm going to do that. And that was my Nendy. So I've knocked off two Nendys since we last spoke. But I'm, kind of not looking forward to my next Nendy because it's like what TOC has where his Nendy is actually in Tasmania, which is not as easy to get to. So my one is on an island, sort of, yeah, has a bridge going over to it. Like, it's easy to get to, but it's just there's another three parkruns I haven't done on the way to. Is it S.S. Koopa Trail? It is S.S. Koopa Trail. I win! You do win. Show me! Look at my knowledge. Exactly. So, yeah, that's my Nendy just by location. But as I say, there's three that I haven't done on the way to S.S. Koopa, so. I don't see me knocking that over anytime soon. What are you up to with different events, Simon? I am going to say 109. I always get it wrong because I've got an event I've volunteered at that I haven't run at and I've got Japan. Okay, so I'm at 110 because 111 is the one that I've volunteered at but haven't run at.

00:04:50Melissa Ellis: Nice work. So let's put you on the spot because I had a discussion with TOC about New Year's resolutions.

00:04:58Simon Mackley: Yes.

00:04:58Melissa Ellis: What's your goals for this year, Simon?

00:05:01Simon Mackley: Oh, my gosh. How many new events? Well, I always say 10. I don't know why I always say 10, but, yeah, I try and do that every year. So I've knocked one over this year. I'm hoping to knock one over next year, but you'll hear that. Sorry, next week, but you'll hear that. when we get to where we're going next week or this weekend. Well, that's mysterious. I know. I'm so mysterious. Yeah, so I'm going a bit further away from home this time or this weekend, hopefully. What else have I got? I want to try and better my time, my average time, so I can't think what my average time is currently.

00:05:43Melissa Ellis: Oh, there's a segue, Simon.

00:05:45Simon Mackley: Is there?

00:05:46Melissa Ellis: To a memory you had about a certain first parkrun where you wanted to beat your all-time 5k PB.

00:05:54Simon Mackley: That is a very good segue. I totally forgot what you were talking about. You're welcome. Thank you. Yes, tomorrow I am celebrating my parkrun career being 13. So, St Peters celebrated their 13th birthday on the weekend, which was the first one in New South Wales. And that was where I started my parkrun journey. So yes, thank you. Good segue there, Mel. Well done. So I can't think what else I had. Like, I've got a list of things. I just haven't got it in front of me right now to be able to bring it up. I'm sorry.

00:06:27Melissa Ellis: I sprung that on you, but never mind. That's okay.

00:06:30Simon Mackley: So where were you last weekend?

00:06:33Melissa Ellis: Oh, well, I was where I said I would be. I did get out to event 91 of Dixon Field on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people with Dave and Belinda and also adventurer Andrea Booth. I popped in the Friday post that I was going there and Andrea went, oh, oh, that's where I'm planning to go to. So that was lovely. I met Andrea some time ago out at You Yangs and she is a Jells parkrunner who has recently completed her 150th. I think she ran her 151st. Look at my memory.

00:07:11Simon Mackley: There you go.

00:07:12Melissa Ellis: Yes, she was with her friend Paula. So that was good and we had a very lovely time Well, I'd say it was mild weather. It was quite nice running weather, actually. We did have a warm day on Saturday, but it wasn't too hot by the time we ran parkrun. Dixon Field was profiled back in episode 352, Black and White Army, by TOC. And... Sorry. What happened to my cell, Simon? I don't know. I just saw, I was like, and? Sorry, everybody. I was reading away and I didn't have the end of what I had written. So, and it was my second visit after I was there back in event two. That's what I wanted to say. We were amongst a crowd in 99. So it's a relatively small event. It isn't really a suburban event. It's more of an outlier event. And I took another 20 seconds off my previous week. So my times are coming down, which I'm quite pleased about. Yes. But I missed my final stopwatch number again by one second. So boo.

00:08:15Simon Mackley: That was a question Sarah and I had last time, actually. We were wondering whether you were getting close. Will I ever get it? We could run a sweep, couldn't we? It's a 0-0.

00:08:25Melissa Ellis: Yeah. Okay. I would actually, I really should go to the 5K app and look how many times I've got 01 because I know it is a lot, a lot of times. Anyway, but let me tell you, on Sunday, I was RD at Eynesbury Juniors and it was our fourth birthday. Now, I'd completely forgotten. But thank you, Facebook memories, because through the week, a memory had come up of me posting that I'd launched a Junior parkrun. So, hooray. We knew in time and we bought party hats. We didn't have cake. And we had 38 kids, which is really good numbers for us at Eynesbury. We're a little event. It was event 171 and it was our third highest attendance. So previously, week three and week four, we'd had higher attendances. So it's a long time between numbers. But yeah, it's really encouraging and really warms my heart to see that many kids running in our beautiful forest. So that was my weekend, Simon.

00:09:22Simon Mackley: Excellent. I was hurriedly trying to work out your stopwatch bingo. Did you find it? I'm so very close to it. You have got 01 seven times. Seven? Is that all? Gee, I would have thought it was more than that. But anyway. Let's look at 59, the other end of it. You have got that 12 times. Oh. So, yeah, it's the one before that you're getting a lot.

00:09:45Melissa Ellis: I just can't get double O. And I'm on 471 events, I think. So let's see if I can get to 500 before I get stopwatch bingo.

00:09:58Unidentified speaker: Wow.

00:10:00Simon Mackley: Very big. I'm special, I tell you. You're doing a very good job. You're holding up the average.

00:10:06Melissa Ellis: I am, yes. I like to be on the pointy end of the bell curve. Now, feedback from last week's pod discussed the fact that he had or Jackie had located Carolyn McRae in the parkrun calendar. And Calum Burrell commented on the episode post to say that Claire Winozik actually appears in September. Wow. But it's her. Yeah, exactly. She knows it's her. They know it's her. It's an adventurer, yeah. So she's there. So that's two adventurers in the calendar. Amazing. Amazing. That's great. That's good feedback, Calum. Maybe we can get a campaign to get more adventurers in the 2026 calendar. Well, maybe we'll just make our own calendar, which has been a long dream of mine. But anyway, that's another story and we shouldn't go down that wormhole, people still use those sorts of calendars? I do. Okay. Sorry. I am a very visual person. I have, I like a whole month of a calendar page and I have it sitting in front of me on my desk and I have one printed out out of Outlook on my wall at work so I can look at four weeks at a time. That's fair. All right.

00:11:24Simon Mackley: I'm just looking, we've got a whiteboard here that I have to every five weeks write the dates on there.

00:11:29Melissa Ellis: Is that not dissimilar to a calendar, Simon?

00:11:30[crosstalk]

00:11:33Simon Mackley: It's very similar. I just don't have the beautiful images. I just have a whiteboard that tells me... I'm doing the pod and all that sort of thing.

00:11:42Melissa Ellis: Yeah. I've given up with actually hanging them on the back of the door anywhere because I'm, I suppose when I moved into my new house, I didn't want to put holes on my doors. Yeah. Fair enough. Yeah. But so there was a lot going on. We had lots of attendances, Simon. Well, attendance records.

00:11:59Simon Mackley: We did. We had 22 new attendance records across Australia, including a new Australian record at Melbourne, Melbourne, where they had 1,316 finishes, and that was an increase of 202 on the previous week when they set the Australian record. There were eight events that had new records week on week, so they broke their record from the previous week, and three events had had records stand for only two weeks. On the other end of the scale, Altona Beach, one of your locals, broke a 258-week record. Woohoo! And yeah, so that's been a long-standing record since before COVID, in fact. And noticeably, there were no new attendance record this week in New South Wales, the ACT, or the Northern Territory. All of the other states actually had new attendance records, including Tassie.

00:13:00Melissa Ellis: Yes, Tassie did at Launceston. Now I think Launceston is one of Tassie's bigger events, if not the biggest. And I did wonder if that was a state record, but I didn't do my research. So we'll just have to be left to wonder or Charles Gregory can do it for us and tell us in the socials.

00:13:21Simon Mackley: It's interesting because as we'll hear very soon from PK, there was actually an event in Hobart over the weekend. So- It was interesting that Launceston actually broke a record and not Hobart. Or one of the Hobart ones, should I say. Yes.

00:13:36Melissa Ellis: But Altona Beach, I'm wondering to myself what would have made so many people last weekend go to Altona Beach and just why in January this weekend is the one with all the records? Yeah. What's special about this weekend? Melbourne and I can go, okay, we've got Australian Open on and we always know that we surge because Melbourne is very much a tourist event. Yeah. So it always surges in January around Aus Open time. That's not a surprise.

00:14:01[crosstalk]

00:14:10Simon Mackley: Yeah.

00:14:11Melissa Ellis: But the other ones, yeah. And New South Wales, they have bad weather.

00:14:17Simon Mackley: They did indeed, so yeah.

00:14:19Melissa Ellis: So they had lots of cancellations and just weather would have kept people at home.

00:14:25Simon Mackley: But that might concentrate people going to certain events as well. So I agree with you, weather would have turned people away, but if people were being funnelled to an event that was actually open...

00:14:36Melissa Ellis: Yeah. True. But the passionate adventurers that would go to a different event to not miss out probably only compensate from the not so passionate parkrunners who thought, rolled over and saw the weather and went, I'll just stay in bed.

00:14:53Charmaine - Run Director, North Harbour parkrun: Yeah, that's fair. Anyway, so there we go.

00:14:56Melissa Ellis: There's some stats. Very busy in Australia. Not sure how the rest of the world went, but anyway.

00:15:00Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:15:01Melissa Ellis: We know we're very heavy in Australian news, but we're happy to share international news if only anybody wants to tip us off.

00:15:10Unidentified speaker: Yep.

00:15:11Simon Mackley: We will take emails. We'll take messages on Facebook. Oh, yes.

00:15:14Melissa Ellis: That's a point. You UK people and South African people.

00:15:19Simon Mackley: And New Zealand.

00:15:20Melissa Ellis: And New Zealand people. If you know some stats, just flick us an email and we'll include it. We like emails. Or our friend Geoff Glaab in the US. Oh, yes. We haven't heard from Jeff for a while.

00:15:33Simon Mackley: No, we haven't. I wonder if he still listens. I'm sure he does.

00:15:40[background music]

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:15:42Melissa Ellis: But anyway, we have some more roving reports to bring you this week. So let's throw to those now.

Roving report Alison Fraser (King) — Ashburton Domain parkrun

00:15:56Alison Fraser (King): Kia ora koutou adventurers, it's Alison here reporting in from across the ditch in New Zealand and today I'm at Ashburton Domain parkrun which is again one of the 13 that launched in 2024 and I'm with the Event Director Brendan Adams so welcome to the podcast Brendan. [Te Reo Maori: "Hello / greetings to you all, adventurers"]

00:16:13Brendan Adams - Event Director, Ashburton Domain parkrun: Hey, thanks. Nice to be here.

00:16:15Alison Fraser (King): Tell us about your parkrun, Brendan. How does Ashburton get a parkrun?

00:16:19Brendan Adams - Event Director, Ashburton Domain parkrun: Well, look, it was pretty simple, really. There was an existing run-walk group that had a 5K event in the summer, but they had nothing in the winter. And it was, yeah, it was just something that was definitely a market for that type of event. So, yeah, I saw a parkrun around the country and around the world and thought, yeah, this is something that would really suit Ashburton.

00:16:42Alison Fraser (King): Had you ever done a parkrun before that?

00:16:44Brendan Adams - Event Director, Ashburton Domain parkrun: Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I've done Invercargill and I've done one in Cairns and one in, I think it was Adelaide.

00:16:51Alison Fraser (King): And what's parkrun brought to Ashburn? So there's quite a few of us tourists here today, but what's it actually done for the town itself, for the people who live here?

00:17:01Brendan Adams - Event Director, Ashburton Domain parkrun: I think it's just given those people who are interested in getting up and exercising a regular event. There's definitely a sense of community. I think you can see, I mean, for people listening, there's a good number of people here hanging around, chatting. That's something that's a real feature of Ashburton. There's people do the event, catch up, friends and family. Yeah, so it's just a nice community feel.

00:17:25Alison Fraser (King): Cool, and can you just tell us about this park that we're in? It's pretty stunning.

00:17:28Brendan Adams - Event Director, Ashburton Domain parkrun: Yeah, Ashburton Domain. It is quite stunning. We're very blessed with the council staff. They take a lot of pride in what they do. It's a picturesque course, I would say. It's quite a complicated course, but I think we get good feedback. It's a bit social. There's some crossover points, so you get to see a lot of the other parkrunners as you're going, uh yeah and there's some beautiful gardens and and shaded spots and uh is a good variety of terrain now the course was it did sound quite complicated at the first time is welcome but once you're doing it it isn't actually that hard oh thank you for that I appreciate you saying that because it is very difficult to explain it in the first time as brief uh in in the in the Run Director brief but yeah I I agree you know once you've done it once it's quite straightforward although I have to say we did have one guy today who did get a little bit lost. He was one of the front runners and had nobody else to follow, first timer. But, you know, apart from that, it's a good course.

00:18:30Alison Fraser (King): Do you get to run it much?

00:18:32Brendan Adams - Event Director, Ashburton Domain parkrun: Myself, look, I'm carrying an injury at the moment. So this was another thing I thought, well, look, I'm not actually going to be able to run a lot in the next wee while. So why not, you know, do some volunteering and get things going. And hopefully the injury will fix itself and I'll be able to do a few more.

00:18:48Alison Fraser (King): and parkrun will be here for when you're fit again.

00:18:50Brendan Adams - Event Director, Ashburton Domain parkrun: Yeah, I hope so.

00:18:52Alison Fraser (King): Well, thanks again, Brendan. It's been wonderful to come to Ashburton. I don't think I would have come here if it hadn't been for parkrun, and I know there are quite a few other people here today who'd be the same.

00:19:01Brendan Adams - Event Director, Ashburton Domain parkrun: Yeah, yeah, great. All right, hey, really nice to see you, Alison.

00:19:04Alison Fraser (King): Thank you.

Roving report Lyndell Murray — North Harbour parkrun

00:19:06Lyndell Murray: G'day parkrun adventurers, it's Lyndell and today I've ventured just north of Brisbane up to the lands of the Gubbi Gubbi people. I am at North Harbour parkrun. Now I've been here before, this is my third visit to North Harbour. I don't think I've done a roving report from here but I do remember that this is where I met for the first time the OG hosts of the podcast. Scotty Trickett and Mel Erbacher so it's a special place to me it's a special place to many people I found Charmaine who is the Run Director and Event Director perhaps I'll ask her that um how are you today Charmaine good thank you I am the Run Director yes yes and are you the Event Director no okay so you've got a nice little team here obviously there's a few little it's very small community here how many finishes did you have today approximately

00:20:00Charmaine - Run Director, North Harbour parkrun: Oh, 25-ish, somewhere around there, maybe some still finishing.

00:20:05[background music]

00:20:06Lyndell Murray: And do you get many visitors here?

00:20:08Charmaine - Run Director, North Harbour parkrun: Pretty much almost, I'd say, 80% visitors. Yeah, there's a handful of locals, but we get tourists almost every week.

00:20:15Lyndell Murray: And so what do you think brings people to North Harbour?

00:20:19Charmaine - Run Director, North Harbour parkrun: I'd probably say it's a little bit different. Look, our course is cross-country. It's in a cow paddock along the river. So it's very different compared to, you know, most other parkrun courses. So I think that's what brings everybody. And maybe I'm getting an N for North Harbour. I'm not sure.

00:20:38Lyndell Murray: Well, there is the Compass Club, which has a north, south, east and west. So maybe people will come here for the north. That's a good point. Possibly. I was going to comment. A lot of parkruns say they're cross-country, but I reckon this is the cross-country. It's just in a cow paddock is the best way to describe it.

00:20:40[crosstalk]

00:20:54Charmaine - Run Director, North Harbour parkrun: Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I think it is genuine cross-country. It's not trail like other parkruns. And, you know, you get all the things of cross-country. So it's, you know, grassy. We've got trees in sections. We've got potholes in sections. So, yeah, it's a bit of everything. Thank you.

00:20:57[crosstalk]

00:21:11[crosstalk]

00:21:11Lyndell Murray: And today a lot of water. I've got something on my legs. I'm pretty sure it's only water, dirt and cow s**t. So I'm fine, right?

00:21:20Unidentified speaker: Yes.

00:21:21Charmaine - Run Director, North Harbour parkrun: That is definitely part of our North Harbour bike run experience.

00:21:26Lyndell Murray: All right. Now, North Harbour's been going for a little while, a few years now. Do you know the history of this parkrun?

00:21:33Charmaine - Run Director, North Harbour parkrun: Look, I probably should. I've been here since day one as one of the Run Directors. Yeah, this is going to be quite a significant urban development through this area. And the developers actually said, look, we really want to start a parkrun early, you know, and give an option to all the people who live local. And for us in the parkrun community, it's you know, something a little bit different. We've been hit and miss over the years. Unfortunately, one of the floods took out our course for about a year. So we were cancelled for a little while, but we're back up and running and on our B course at the moment while they're still kind of rebuilding the riverbank and that kind of thing. But hopefully we get back to our A course, you know, before we know it.

00:22:10[crosstalk]

00:22:18Lyndell Murray: All right. So you've become involved with parkrun through North Harbour. Tell me about your journey with parkrun.

00:22:24Charmaine - Run Director, North Harbour parkrun: ah look after having my um second child I needed a little bit of exercise and we used to live closer to the city where there was a parkrun um early days probably 10 or 12 years ago or so um so I started running at Sandgate um just for a little bit of exercise and then it become a family thing kids in the pram and um you know they're in there for a few years and then when we moved out this way I thought it was a good way to get involved in parkrun and volunteer a little bit more and You know, that kind of thing. And yeah, this has now just become our Saturday mornings. It's almost religion, really.

00:23:00Lyndell Murray: Yeah. We often joke on the pod that it's not a cult. It probably is a cult.

00:23:05Charmaine - Run Director, North Harbour parkrun: Yeah. It is, it is. And I've inducted my children to it and everything and other friends.

00:23:11Lyndell Murray: It's your duty as a parent. So this podcast is for people who like adventuring and touristing as parkrunners. So I'll give you a choose your own adventure here. Do you have a history of parkrun adventuring and do you have a fun story to tell or a top three parkruns? Or alternatively, is there anything else that you haven't mentioned about North Harbour that the tourists need to know about?

00:23:40Charmaine - Run Director, North Harbour parkrun: oh yeah look I mean I personally don't mind a little bit of parkrun touristing whenever we're away you know if it's holidays we're always trying to make sure that it's close to a parkrun or we can get to a parkrun um we actually have a cruise coming up and I'm still trying to work out how I can get off the tender soon enough to get to the parkrun on time which parkrun's that it'll be one of the Sydney ones yes so um we'll be camped out on the little boat we've We'll try and get one of those first tickets to get on the first tender to get there in time. But, yeah, like, I mean, I just kind of like all parkruns and just like the differences on all of them, you know. And I think that's probably the benefit is you can kind of pick and choose your own adventure. You know, you can do... cross country like this one here or just you know my home parkrun that's close to home is just concrete around the lake and you know it fits the bill especially if you just got to get parkrun done and get your day started type thing so yeah yeah yeah so a bit of a tourist as well all right is there anything else Charmaine that we should cover um about North Harbour parkrun Um, probably just lastly, if anybody does come, um, follow the maps on Google maps is a good choice and follow the road all the way, the dirt road all the way to the end. You are in the right place. Some people get lost coming here. Um, but yeah, follow, follow your maps all the way to the end and come down to the heritage, um, parklands and you'll be in the right spot.

00:25:06[crosstalk]

00:25:07Lyndell Murray: So there's a bit of a dirt road off the main road that you have to follow that does look a bit abandoned, but that is the way to go.

00:25:13Charmaine - Run Director, North Harbour parkrun: Yes, it looks a little bit like a construction site. Drive through it, you are in the right place.

00:25:17Lyndell Murray: That is a great tip for all of the adventurers. Thank you, Charmaine. Thank you so much for talking to me. And thank you for everything that you've done for parkrun at Sandgate and North Lakes, I'm expecting is your other one, and North Harbour here, of course.

00:25:32Charmaine - Run Director, North Harbour parkrun: Yeah, thank you so much.

Roving report Paul Kitching — Queens Domain parkrun

00:25:34Paul Kitching: Good morning, parkrun adventurers. It's PK, one of your roving reporters, checking in from Lutruwita. That is Tasmania, the traditional name of Tasmania. And I'm coming to you live from Nipaluna, I think it is, which is... Hobart, here in beautiful Tasmania. Been here for a few days. Gosh, this is a beautiful part of the world. About to do the Queens Domain parkrun. Yes, getting my cue, finally. Fantastic. Thought it would be good to do a little report, check in. Quite a few people gathering here. It's in a parkland area. Well, it took us eight minutes to get here from where we're staying in the middle of Hobart. Hot tip if you are coming here from... uh somewhere and that requires driving then I would recommend doing that um because it may look like it's an easy walk but it's up and down so anyway that's my hot tip check out the incline don't just think you can walk here but and again you might want to run here and do it like some crazy people anyway that's enough for me I'm gonna go and get amongst the run I've just done the course, and wow, it is magnificent. And I'm here now with Event Director, Run Director, extraordinaire, poem writer, and more, Nick, or Nicholas. [palawa kani (Tasmanian Aboriginal): "Tasmania - the speaker translates it himself: "That is Tasmania, the traditional name of Tasmania.""] [palawa kani (Tasmanian Aboriginal): "Hobart - the speaker translates it himself: "I'm coming to you live from Nipaluna, I think it is, which is... Hobart.""]

00:26:53Nick - Event Director, Queens Domain parkrun: Yeah, g'day. Everyone listening.

00:26:56Paul Kitching: Congrats, mate. What a great course. You've been here for a while, I believe.

00:27:00Nick - Event Director, Queens Domain parkrun: Yeah, so we started this event about six years ago, actually. So I think next week might be our official birthday. Fantastic.

00:27:08Paul Kitching: Yeah. Excellent. Yeah, well, it's a beautiful course. Why do you do parkrun?

00:27:12Nick - Event Director, Queens Domain parkrun: um so originally we started this course because um we only had one in hobart which is um crazy to think now that we've got six or seven um around the such a small little um city but we started this one because it's just a bit more central and it's just a like you said a beautiful course so we start off and we've got our mountain on the left hand side and then we come around a loop and then we've got the derwent river and the tasman bridge uh on the left-hand side again, and it's just magnificent. And you picked a perfect day for it today. Yeah. This is your summer, you said. Yeah, this is our summer. It's about 26 degrees, clear skies, and just magnificent. Yeah.

00:27:50Paul Kitching: Yeah, and a good number of people. You thought there may not be a lot of people because the hearth marathon's on?

00:27:55Nick - Event Director, Queens Domain parkrun: Yeah, yes, the Cadbury Marathon is maybe our biggest running festival that we have in Tasmania, and it's on today. It's the first time they've put it on a Saturday, so I expected everyone to be out there today, but no, we have our loyal parkrunners that have come here instead, and it's magnificent.

00:28:03[crosstalk]

00:28:14Paul Kitching: Fantastic, mate. And why the 9am start? For those playing at home, don't get here at 6.52.

00:28:20[crosstalk]

00:28:21Nick - Event Director, Queens Domain parkrun: Yeah, no. So days like this, we wonder about the 9am start, but in June and July when it's still dark and we start our parkruns and we're so close to the mountain and there's snow on the mountain, we need that extra bit of warmth in the day. There's snow on that mountain. Yes, generally, yeah.

00:28:37Paul Kitching: No way. Yep. Oh, my gosh. This is my first time to Hobart, so I'm still... So this is what I think Hobart's going to be like all the time. Yeah. No, it's fantastic. And why do you personally... Why are you involved in parkrun, Nick?

00:28:49Nick - Event Director, Queens Domain parkrun: Oh, like, it's just that sense of community, isn't it? So I started off as a runner, and I still do run, but I get so much satisfaction out of volunteering. Generally, they're at Little Athletics today, but generally I have my two girls and my wife with me as well... I love it. And it's a bit of a family affair where my eight-year-old will do the Run Director's brief. She'll read the poem. Nice, nice.

00:29:11Paul Kitching: Yes, there is a poem. Make sure you come to Queens Domain for the poem. Yeah, it is a beautiful thing, isn't it? Well, thank you for everything you do. I'm going to go and find my family, speaking of which. But thanks so much for everything you do for parkrunning.

00:29:22Nick - Event Director, Queens Domain parkrun: Oh, my pleasure. Thanks for coming down.

00:29:24Paul Kitching: Good on you, mate. Thank you so much. And that, as they say in the classics, is all she wrote or all she ran or all she did or all he did or all they did. You know what I mean. PK signing off from a beautiful parkrun. Another awesome adventure. Another roving report for the parkrun adventurers from wonderful, wonderful Hobart Nipaluna, on Lutruwita country here in Tasmania come and do the Queens Domain parkrun if you can it's beautiful you get your cue it starts at nine and it's well worth doing just look out for the Jack jumping ants that's my final tip and we're back from the roving reports

00:29:55[background music]

00:30:14Simon Mackley: So we heard from Alison at Ashburton Domain, which was one of the newer events to launch in New Zealand last year. We heard from Lyndell at North Harbour. And this is one of the few Brisbane events that I'm still yet to do. It's actually on the way to S.S. Koopa. So I'm glad that Lyndell backed up the wear your oldest shoes advice that I've already been given. And also thanks to Charmaine for the tip about driving in there because it does sound a bit confusing. And then lastly, we heard from PK, who was on holidays in Hobart at Queens Domain. So he gave some tips about how to get there and it sounded like a beautiful day therein, the Apple Isle.

00:30:55Melissa Ellis: I need to get down to Queens Domain. I have not attended that event. Oh, okay. Yeah. So you didn't do a Freedom Run there at Palm? I did do a Freedo, I believe, but I haven't attended it officially. Okay, there you go. So I really need to pull my socks up a bit with my Hobart events. I quite like a little trip to Tassie. Okay. Anyway, thank you, Simon. That's okay.

Dazza's

00:31:20Melissa Ellis: What have we got next?

00:31:21Simon Mackley: Well, we have Dazza, who this week said, we're firmly in 2025 and back in the swing of things. Whilst Dazza is glad to only have to work Saturdays again, he misses the midweek penalty rates. Today is National Gourmet Coffee Day. Perhaps your parkrun was a little bit fancy or you gave yourself a little treat or maybe your regular parkrun hit was just as good as a regular coffee hit. Whatever your Saturday brought you, come into Dazza's and tell us all about it. Orders for gourmet and regular coffees, welcome.

00:31:52Melissa Ellis: I'll have a decaf flat white, thanks, Dazza. Okay, on first. Vicky Smith coming from the aforementioned Apple Isle, Tasmania, and she said, John and I volunteered at Launceston this morning. They set a new record of 507 participants. And there was a photo of Nana and Pa in the selfie frame. And it was also the third largest frond there with Amanda Bales, Caleb, Laura, Timothy and Tabitha Amos also in attendance. And Laura also popped into Dazza's to say the Amos family touristed to Launceston parkrun on Saturday where you can get your coffee before parkrun because it starts at 9am. The volunteer who took our photo did a great job, and yet I couldn't bring myself to ask if I could hug him. And there was also a pic of the Amos family with the selfie frame. And, of course, Laura is referring to our last week's challenge, which was to hug a volunteer. It was.

00:32:51Simon Mackley: And on that theme, we heard from Yvette Turner from the ACT. So she said, my husband, Bill Turner, and I volunteered at Gungahlin parkrun. Bill celebrated achieving his 50th volunteer today and did a great job as Run Director. I volunteered as parkwalker and met a lovely lady. We chatted the whole way and, of course, I mentioned the podcast and parker and adventurers. After the event finished, Bill and I got to hug a volunteer. As we had to get home and do other activities, I had to settle for a vanilla latte from my Nespresso machine. Maybe I'll buy a gourmet coffee later today. And there was two pics of Bill and Yvette embracing the challenge. And congrats, Bill, on the milestone of 50 volunteers.

00:33:34Melissa Ellis: And Yvette is a very good advocate for our podcast. She's always telling people about us, isn't she? Thank you, Yvette. Another good advocate for the podcast is Rex Gream. And he's down in Victoria at the moment. He said, hello, Dazza. I'm a bit late, but wanted to think about this post before writing. I've met some extraordinary people over the last four years since joining the parkrun community. One of those people I was lucky enough to catch up with at Birdsland Reserve parkrun yesterday. I met Amelia Griffo at Rock Creek Trail parkrun in Portland, Oregon last year. Since then, I've learnt of and followed on Strava some of her amazing achievements and contributions to the ultra running scene, which has me holding her in complete awe. It was great to spend time with her over coffee up a parkrun. I am so glad that I can call her a parkrun friend. And Rex shared a photo of himself and Amelia in the selfie frame there at Birdsland Reserve. That's a lovely story. That's a great story, yeah.

00:34:36Simon Mackley: From the other side of the world, that's phenomenal. Next we heard from Ali Sheppard, speaking of the other side of the world, from the UK. So she said, my friend Chill, a.k.a. Kathy and I, were volunteering as dream timekeeping volunteers Sorry, as the dream timekeeping team at Ingrebourne Hill parkrun. Number five. So we got to hug each other. Hashtag hug a volley. And there was a picture of Ali and Jill enjoying the challenge with the pop-up.

00:35:03Melissa Ellis: And we also heard from Adrian Luscombe coming to us from the UK, a trip to London's newest and 65th parkrun event, Ingrebourne Hill. Lots of familiar faces in attendance on a typically chilly January morning. And, of course, that's the same event that Ali Sheppard was at. And there was a photo of Adrian with the pop-up. And I checked the CCR, the Consolidated Club Report to see what event number it was and noticed three adventurers attended event five. And those three adventurers were Adrian, Matt Miller and Mr. Danny Norman. So welcome to the Consolidated Club Report, Danny. Of course, Ali was also there with her friend, but they were volunteering. So they, I wish we could get the Consolidated Club Report for volunteers, but sadly we can't. But thank you for volunteering. Be a work in progress.

00:35:50Simon Mackley: Yeah, I know that parkrun behind the scenes are trying to give us as much information about volunteers as they are the runners. So we'll see what happens there.

the Obi Award — Chris Roos

00:35:59Melissa Ellis: But what about a winner? Simon and Obi, do you have an envelope?

00:36:03Simon Mackley: I do have an envelope here somewhere. Obi goes to... Chris Roos. I'm going to have to keep listening to find out why.

00:36:05[background music]

00:36:21Melissa Ellis: Oh, suspense.

Emails

00:36:24Melissa Ellis: And we have no emails this week. Boo.

00:36:25[background music]

Club Corner

00:36:27Melissa Ellis: So, in that case, it's time for us to throw to Reginald for Club Corner.

00:36:39Reginald 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 hope that you enjoyed your break from us, and specifically me, and perhaps even missed us. Irregardless, we are back at it once more. Our return is also a return to the volunteer series begun by my predecessor back in September in the year 2024. Today I am going to talk about the volunteer roles of Pacer and Marshall. Pacer is a 5k specific role, and they are a hardy soul who strives to keep oneself in time with the target time, be it 20 minutes or 1 hour and 20 minutes. Please note that there are no paces at junior parkrun events. If you would like to be a pacer at a 5k parkrun, please contact that event team and discuss the options available. Some events hold regular pacing weeks and some even have a large to-do about pacing, Sandgate, we are looking at you. The question of how to be a good pacer is something different again, and there are two main schools of thought. Consistent, and never varying from the target splits, or slightly slower, with a push to finish. Of course, there is everything in between, and the key message is to communicate with your group's smiley face. To be a Marshal is to be a combination of wayfinder, guidepost, watcher of safety, and cheerleader. At junior events marshals are positioned no more than 100 metres apart and must maintain line of sight to the next marshal in both directions. Some events have static marshals, some have roving, and some are placed within the funnel, but for all of them, clear communication is key, which may include arm gestures as well as verbal chat. I will stop here, as it is a new year and a new me, and I am endeavouring to keep these from droning on and on open bracket and on and on and on close bracket. Just remember that in parkrun life, all non-Milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun, and stay tuned for our future club corners.

00:38:50Simon Mackley: We are back from Reginald, who was talking about paces and marshals this week. Have you done pacing, Simon? I don't think I have, actually. I've been to enough pace, sorry, I've been paced by people, but I don't think I actually have ever paced.

00:39:05Melissa Ellis: I have have you years ago yeah not recently but years years ago when I was a bit more consistent with my sub 30 running I have probably paced 30 minutes and 32 and a half minutes around there okay yeah when I was running longer distances and you can sort of guarantee your time a bit easier Yeah, and marshalling, of course, regularly do that at juniors.

00:39:31Simon Mackley: Yeah, I've just looked at my stats. I have not paced, and I've only marshalled four times.

00:39:36Melissa Ellis: Oh, you should put that on your to-do list.

00:39:39Simon Mackley: Sorry, circling back to that, I actually have on there that I want to increase my V index to eight, which means that I need to marshal post-event, close-down, or pre-event setup. I've done four times, so I need to increase those massively. Otherwise, I'll have everything else. Hmm. So yes, that was one of my New Year's things I did look at one stage when you were talking.

00:40:01Melissa Ellis: Excellent.

00:40:02Simon Mackley: All right.

Consolidated Club Report

00:40:03Melissa Ellis: Well, now let's move on to the adventurers Consolidated Club report for Saturday, the 18th of January 2025. Of a total of 735 members, 549 took part on this date in 10 countries across 284 locations. In the UK, there are adventurers at 59 events. There were six in South Africa, two events in Germany and Poland, one each in Canada, Japan, Singapore and Sweden. And locally, we had adventurers at 50 events in the greater state, 50 events in Queensland. We tied. But we were both second to the UK. New South Wales had 45. There was 19 in Western Australia, 19 in South Australia. So they also tied. Ooh, the competition between the West Side and the South Side. There was 12 in Tassie. The North Island and the ACT tied on seven. And the South Island and Northern Territory tied on one. So there you go. There's your Consolidated Club Report. So bowling strike? Oh, yes, it was.

00:41:08Simon Mackley: Everybody represent. Yay.

the Frond — Birtinya Island parkrun - largest frond (16); Simmons Park parkrun, UK - largest international frond

00:41:10Simon Mackley: All right. Our largest international frond was at Simmons Park in the UK, where we had Andy Airey, Colin Hare, Nadesh Rada, Kim Leonard and Sammy Gerrish. And Andy commented in Dazza's that 60 of Andy Airways' posse did the 400km round trip to Devon for Simmons Park. It was only £17 or 34 Aussie dollars each, and so much cheaper than driving. They left at 5.45am and back by 2pm after breakfast. Glad it's a 9am start and they attached a photo of the group.

00:41:49Melissa Ellis: Well done, Andy Airways. Is that what it is, Andy? Airey Airways. Yes. Yes. So the pilgrimage, Simon, was Chris Ruse from Kaki Paki. He was at Bushy parkrun and he ran 28.46. So good job doing a sub 30 because there's so many people at Bushy. So I imagine that's no mean feat to get yourself in under 30 minutes. He was position 840 and it confirmed his very first 205, and he came to Dazza's and he said, pilgrimage completed and had a great morning volunteering as pacer at Bushy parkrun. Oh, Simon, how topical. Oh, wow. Enjoyed a chai latte and a chat with some local first-timers afterwards, evidenced with a photo of Chris with the pop-up. And that, my friends, is why he won the Obi.

00:42:41Simon Mackley: Exactly. So I wonder what time he paced. He came in at 28.46, so maybe he was pacing 29 minutes. Maybe. Good point. I brought everyone in early. Let's hope that's what happened.

00:42:53Melissa Ellis: Let us know, Chris. Yes. Now, largest frond. Now, there was a frond of 16 at Birtinya Island. Is it called Birtinya Island? Is that right, Simon? Yes, and it was... And Sherry Martin popped into Dazza's and said...

00:43:10[16 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:43:26Melissa Ellis: at Birtinya Island parkrun, hashtag a frond. And there was a photo as evidence of the frond. There was only 10 in the photo, though, so six were missing. But thank you to all those adventurers who chose to go to event two. Yes, indeed.

00:43:42Simon Mackley: Are we going to talk about the other fronds or are we going to move on?

00:43:45Melissa Ellis: Oh, well, there was 10 at Sir James Mitchell and seven at Launceston. So we already mentioned the Launcestonites because that was Nana and Pa. And the other one, Sir James Mitchell, I think we're about to mention.

00:44:00Simon Mackley: We are about to talk about, yes.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

00:44:03Simon Mackley: So let's talk about launches. There were only 10 launches around the world this week. A lot of them were in Australia. And we'll start off with Waikerie Wetlands parkrun in South Australia between Nuriootpa and Robinvale.

00:44:25Melissa Ellis: I'm going to eye this one off. That will be a drivable distance for me in the future, Simon. And we also had the one we just referred to, Sir James Mitchell parkrun in WA, south of Perth on the Swan River. Now, interestingly, Andrew Yeatman was volunteering at this event as photographer and he took budgie and he handed him over to Alex Turner. Thank you for volunteering.

00:44:53Simon Mackley: Yes, thank you, Andrew. And thank you for taking photos of the event because an inaugural with photos is awesome. Next one is Mareeba Rail Trail parkrun in Queensland, west of Cairns. So this is the parkrun mentioned in episode 357, Stopwatch, when Mel interviewed Bagpipe playing GP Nathan at Greenway parkrun in October 2023. He's obviously a very good adventurer because he didn't volunteer and he didn't participate at the inaugural.

00:45:26Melissa Ellis: Next we had a launch down in Tassie, Pembroke. Now this one's been talked about for quite some time so it's lovely to see this one finally get off the ground. It's just north of Hobart Airport and yes, it's been long awaited. Excellent.

00:45:41Simon Mackley: So that was the fourth one in Australia. So moving on to South Africa with let's see lodge parkrun so this one's located north of cape town and it looks like it might be well it's as it says it's a lodge um looks like it's on a nice big piece of land so um but like it's I don't know if it's a safari lodge or what it is but um yeah like it was talking about dirt tracks and all that sort of thing when I was reading about it

00:46:11Melissa Ellis: Okay. Now, another one in South Africa, Biki Byte parkrun, and it's located southwest of Johannesburg.

00:46:19Simon Mackley: And then we're moving into Europe with Krupunder See parkrun. That's located on the west side of Hamburg. In Germany. Oh, sorry, Germany.

00:46:30Melissa Ellis: And over to the U.K., we've got Oaklands College parkrun, and that is east of St. Albans.

00:46:37Simon Mackley: And then moving on to Black Rocks parkrun, also in the U.K., which is located northwest of Derby.

00:46:44Melissa Ellis: And last but not least, Vicar Water Country parkrun in the UK, southeast of Sheffield and north of Nottingham. So there you go. There's all the launches all around the world. Welcome to all those new events.

Social Adventurers

00:46:59Melissa Ellis: Now, looking forward, looking forward, Simon, we are going to remind everybody that we are entering a team for the Bellarine Sunset Run in Portarlington on the 8th of Feb. That is down in the greater state on the Bellarine Peninsula. Come on down and take part or just spectate. As we have previously said there's three distances available to run a 21k, a 10k and a 4k distance. They welcome walkers and they even have an early bird start for the 21k if you are a shuffler. Now it runs between the towns of Portarlington and St Leonards. Our team is The adventurers if you would like to join our team. We will also be doing the Portarlington parkrun that morning. I did share the event in the adventurers page this morning as well for anybody's information. So let's see if we can get a few people to join us down there.

00:47:56Simon Mackley: And another reminder that the portal is still open to purchase your adventurers shirts. It will be open until the 7th of February. So by the time this comes out, you'll probably have only two weeks to jump on board and and snap up a new shirt.

00:48:13Melissa Ellis: Yes, and I pinned that post today on our page so that we didn't lose it because it was starting to fall down amongst all the other posts. So it's pinned to the top now. So if you need to find it, you can.

parkrun adventure challengelistener challenge

00:48:26Melissa Ellis: Now, listener challenge for next week. I've been thinking about this and I thought it might be time again to ask our listeners to jump onto their podcast apps and give us a review and help spread the word about the podcast.

00:48:40Simon Mackley: So, yeah, try and share it with anyone that you think doesn't listen and might be interested. And, yeah, definitely jump onto however you listen to your podcast and give us a five star.

Sign-off

00:48:56Melissa Ellis: it's uh it's not the reviews that you go like and subscribe is it no that's that's that's YouTube oh okay and we would really appreciate it it's surprising how often we get reactions from people who are surprised that there is a parkrun podcast people just generally there's no awareness and uh Social media is our only tool. Mel, where are you heading on your next parkrun day? Well, thank you for asking, Simon. Next parkrun day, Dave and I are heading off to Sale in Gippsland. So I'll be returning to Sale. I've done it three times previously, but not for quite a while. I did it once in 2016 and twice in 2018. So that's pre-pandemic time. So it's about time I went back there. And I really rate Sale for anybody who is a Victorian tourist. It is a lovely course, that one. Really do rate it. What about yourself, Simon?

00:49:50Simon Mackley: I am hopefully heading off to Harmony Boulevard, which is on the Sunshine Coast and is very close to the new event, Birtinya Island. But yeah, trying to knock off Harmony, before I go to Birtinya, let it calm down a little bit and give the volunteers a bit of a rest. You're such a good tourist.

00:50:11Melissa Ellis: Anyway, next week, next week, I'll be back. I'll be back on board with TOC. We'll have baby news, fingers crossed. And thank you for joining me, Simon. It was great to catch up with you again. Thanks for jumping on in place of Sarah. Yeah, I will see you again in two weeks time yes always a pleasure thank you as always everybody you can contact us via parkrun adventurers on Facebook or our email which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com that's it for another week and we'll see you all next week for more adventures

00:50:35[outro theme playing]

00:50:55Alice - lead vocalist on the "parkrun Party" song: It's free, it's free, it's free.