Episode 410 - Aussie Aussie Aussie

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Welcome

00:00:24Melissa Ellis: Welcome to episode 410 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. A podcast about life, if your life is all about parkrun. My name is Melissa Ellis and I'm coming to you from Wurundjeri Country.

00:00:36Tony O'Connell: And my name is Toc and I'm coming to you from Boon Wurrung Country. How are you today Mel? Are you melting?

00:00:44Melissa Ellis: Oh my God, it's so hot, TOC, so hot. And yes, I am in my little office with no fan and I am far away from the home air conditioning. So I'm a little bit steamy in here.

00:01:02Tony O'Connell: Now, I've spent the day on the beach. In my other life, I'm surf lifesaving, so I spent the day on patrol today. And while I was on patrol, I was happening to flick around the temperatures, and we were up around 38 or 39 degrees. And I looked at my worldwide temps, and I saw our friends over in London were 7 degrees. And I thought, well, that's 32 degrees difference. That's like a massive, massive jump.

00:01:28Melissa Ellis: But, Toc, did you see Meltown was at 40?

00:01:31Tony O'Connell: Oh, Mel, that's cooking. Anything with a four in front has got to be cooking. You have a barbecue on the roof of your car.

00:01:37Melissa Ellis: It was not a day where you wanted to be outside. I got my steps early this morning with a walk up to the local shops for my coffee. And then I just hid inside all day, basically, because it is disgusting and you do not want to be outside in that, temperature and I take my hat off to you firstly for being on surf life safer thank you for your service but also for being out there and like being in that heat

00:02:07Tony O'Connell: Well, as you know, it's a public holiday here in Australia today. And we thought the beach was going to be swamped when we heard the combination of hot day, reasonably good conditions and a public holiday. And as it was, it was just too hot. It was one of our quieter days on the beaches. And after lunch, it actually got really quiet because it was just uncomfortably hot on the sand.

00:02:31Melissa Ellis: Well, that's good because then people are not getting burnt and they're not getting dehydrated and there would be less heat related problems for you to have to deal with um and I hope you stayed hydrated I thought you were going to say that's good because it meant we could pack up on time because if there's a crowd on the beach we're obligated to actually stay there until the crowd disappears and is that what your comment meant TOC because I did not know what your comment when I asked you were we still good to record tonight and you went as long as the crowd goes home I was like Does he mean on the beach or has he got a lot of family down for the long weekend in his house? I don't really know.

00:03:09Tony O'Connell: No, Mellie. If we've still got a few hundred on the beach, we just keep patrolling until the numbers thin out. So, yeah, sometimes it does add a little bit of time onto your patrol duties, but that's all part and parcel of... having a bit of fun on the beach.

00:03:24Melissa Ellis: Yeah, well, I was down on the beach yesterday. So I got that out of my system for our long weekend. We should tell our wider community it's Australia Day. Long weekend here. Australia Day was actually on Sunday.

00:03:40Tony O'Connell: But being Australians, we love a public holiday.

00:03:42Melissa Ellis: Yeah, we do. So we all got a day off today because our national day was a Sunday. So we got a day off from work today, Monday, the 27th of January. Hooray. I'll take that.

00:03:56Tony O'Connell: Definitely, Mel. Yep.

00:03:58Melissa Ellis: Toc, you've been a bit busy this weekend. You've done some kilometres. Why don't you tell us about that? Well, Mel...

00:04:06Tony O'Connell: Sometime in the middle of last week, we decided that we're going to go for a new event because we haven't done one for a couple of weeks. And we threw the dart and we're looking to get a H for our little alphabet challenge, funny enough. And Huskisson parkrun appeared to be the nearest parkrun. So we did a little bit of Googling and it was only 10 hours drive. Oh. Or a bit over 800 kilometres. So, Jacqui and I dropped in the car Saturday lunchtime and drove... Saturday, wait. Sorry, Friday lunchtime. Saturday lunchtime wouldn't have done me a lot of good.

00:04:43Melissa Ellis: No, that wouldn't have worked at all.

00:04:45Tony O'Connell: Drove up... Did our parkrun and then we jumped in the car and drove home on Saturday. Had to be back for Sunday. The course at Huskisson is absolutely stunning. It's a beautiful course. A big crowd on the weekend because of the public holiday, probably over double their normal size. But I won't go into the course in great detail because it's been covered on previous episodes. But I will say, Mel, have you ever had drive home regret? It's something, when we're driving up, you've got this anticipation. You're going to a great parkrun. Husky's one of those courses that I've always wanted to do. You know, it's on the edge of the sea. It's got a lot of things going for it, a lot of scenic, natural beauty. Drive up, you're looking forward to it. You do the parkrun, you have your coffee, and then you drive out of the town and you see the billboard that says, you know, like Melbourne, 800 kilometres. You think, oh God, this is going to be a long trip, huh? Yeah. That's what I mean by drive home regret.

00:05:46Melissa Ellis: I have had that regret, but it's not really to do with, oh, I've got a lot of kilometres to cover. It's like, I love this area and I wish I had more time to spend here. That would be my problem because often we do turn around, but that's just because we're on that... bell curve of people that push boundaries and travel long distances when we have a very small window so often we're up and back um it's it's not a weekend where we've got time to spend but we do it anyway so that would be when I have yeah regret so Mel that was my parkrun how about you I believe you didn't go too far from home how far was your trip this weekend oh I don't know how long it was in kilometres gosh I think it was it was in excess of three hours out to Sale parkrun I went and I said last week I've been out to Sale on more than one occasions and you would know TOC I really rate Sale it is one of um country victoria's stunning events it's set in a botanical gardens around lake guthrie and it's really nice there's just nothing not to like about it it's a smallish parkrun they average around I think around the 150 the dunbar number I recognised I haven't been there since 2018 TOC and I recognise the Run Director I am pretty sure that that Run Director he was either the Run Director the last time I was there or he was the the first time brief person welcomer I can't think of what's the right term anyway you know what I mean um I recognised him Toby and I also recognised some of the Sale running group um Bernie and I didn't go up and say oh hi I remember you do you remember me but I like I saw her she got her name on the back of her running shirt and I thought oh I know who that is Dave loved it it's a pretty flat course you don't have to deal with any elevation and it's just really scenic as you run along you're basically hugging the lake as an on an out and back course the There's some people out there sailing some small, I don't know what they are like, remote control sailing boats on the water. You run underneath some trees that are full of bats. So, you know, that's quite unique, fruit bats. Yeah, it was just a beautiful morning. But much like you, we drove out there the night before. We stayed the night and we didn't have a lot of time to hang around in Sale. We had other things to do and then we headed home. So, yeah. Beautiful, highly recommend.

00:08:37Tony O'Connell: Fun fact, Mel, I was the event ambassador when Sale launched. I helped them get up and going. Bernie was actually one of the founding Event Directors and we took our permit application into Shire and we had a permit to run parkrun within seven minutes of walking through the front door of the Shire. So that is my all-time record, Sale. It's the fastest ever event permit that I've ever had.

00:09:04Melissa Ellis: It's just a really nice place to be. They've got a port, the Port of Sale, which is quite unusual because they're nowhere near the ocean. And yet they do have that Port of Sale. I've been up there previously for a running event, Run the Robina, which would have been the last time I was up there, I think. Yeah, so... Had a very enjoyable weekend.

00:09:27Tony O'Connell: Yeah, lovely place.

00:09:29Melissa Ellis: Yeah, absolutely lovely. So, people, if you're coming out, and it's part of Gippsland, isn't it, Toc?

00:09:35Tony O'Connell: It is. It's one of the Gippslander Challenge.

00:09:38Melissa Ellis: Anyway, in other news, budgie, Toc.

00:09:42Tony O'Connell: Well, Mel, we know where you were and we know where I was, but do we know where Budgie is? We don't.

00:09:49Melissa Ellis: We're putting out an APB on Budgie. Alex Turner, we haven't heard anything. We don't know where Budgie went. There was no post in Dazza's. He's missing. I'm sure he's in good hands, but we can't give you an update. We don't know where he's going to be next year.

00:10:10Tony O'Connell: Next year?

00:10:11Melissa Ellis: Whoops, I mean next week.

00:10:13Tony O'Connell: Yeah, Mel. So, Alex, if you're out there and a listener, we'd love to know and we'd love to know that Budgie hasn't been held in a hostage situation. So get in contact with us and let us know. And let us know what Budgie's plans are next week. It'd be great to know that as well.

00:10:29Melissa Ellis: now in other news we have a little bit of interesting information now this information came from this parkrun stats geek group and Charlie pierce but it relates to us in Australia so we thought we'd read it out to you and Charlie said the new Sir James Mitchell parkrun in Perth has created a new closest triad of events a crow flying between it Burswood Peninsula and Claisebrook Cove could do the round trip in a mere 5,173 metres, beating the 5,649 metres between Jesmond Dene, Leazes and Town Moor, and the 6,195 metres between Brighton and Hove Hove Promenade and Preston Park. This part of Western Australia is clearly a parkrun hotspot as Burswood Peninsula, Claisebrook Cove and Maylands Peninsula comes fourth on the list in... 6,439 metres. So the calculations are based on coordinates of the events maps and the WGS-84 spatial reference system. I don't know what that is, Toc, but it sounds very fancy.

00:11:45Tony O'Connell: Sounds very impressive. And the interesting commentary on that, Mel, was if Heirisson Island was still going... That distance would be significantly closer because the straight line between Sir James Mitchell and Burswood Peninsula passes directly over Heirisson Island. So that triad would in fact be a lot smaller if Heirisson Island was still up and going.

00:12:08Melissa Ellis: Little old Perth getting on the map internationally. That's very impressive. So thank you very much, Charlie Pearce. And yes, we've stolen your information, but we give you full credit for it.

00:12:21Alison Fraser (King): Now, Toc, we've got other exciting news.

00:12:24Melissa Ellis: We probably should have led with this, but we've got baby news. BABY NEWS Hadley Elizabeth Stevens was born on the 24th of January 2025 at 3.16am, weighing in at 6lb 9oz and 49.5cm. I am led to believe there is 1,458 days until she can get her own barcode. Sarah says she has huge feet and is born to parkrun for sure. We want to wish...

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00:13:02Melissa Ellis: The biggest congratulations to Sarah and Matt on the safe delivery of baby Hadley. We are super proud of you and she is gorgeous.

00:13:12Tony O'Connell: Yeah, Mel, we were very lucky that Sarah shared a couple of photos with us. And Hadley is absolutely gorgeous, as you said. And welcome to the world, Hadley. And congrats, Matt and Sarah. What else have we got to report this week, Tony? Well, we've got a lot to report, so we'll keep cracking on. As we've aforementioned, it's the Australia Day weekend this weekend. We have a lot of awards. A lot of individual municipalities and shires have various community awards and Australia Day awards. And this year... There are so many parkrun events that have actually won the best community event of the year, the most engaged community event of the year. I've seen so many different categories that we've won this year. I actually started to make a list because I thought it'd make a good bit of pod content to read them out. And the list just got that long that I'd just like to say, well done to every event, whether you won an award or not. You're all winners out there. We love each and every event, but congrats to those that have been formally recognised.

00:14:11Melissa Ellis: Absolutely. Yes, that's fabulous. Very fabulous. Now, TOC, attendances. Despite approximately 300 cancellations in the UK, parkrun globally had their third highest ever attendance this weekend. This is reflected in Australia, where a new finishes record was set of 87,966. At event level, attendance records were set at 22 events across Australia. Of interest, Menai in New South Wales broke their record, which had stood for 305 weeks since the 23rd of the 3rd, 2019. And Bibra Lake in Western Australia had a record jump of 109 finishes to 576 finishes. And Parramatta achieved an increase by one finisher, narrowly pipping Birdsland Reserve, who had an increase of two. So a wide variation just in Australia alone, but big numbers across the world. We know this happens in January, don't we?

00:15:13Tony O'Connell: We do, Mel, but it's probably fairly unusual because the number of cancellations in the UK and I guess the number of parkrunners that finish this week in the UK, and for parkrun globally still to have 450 roughly thousand finishers, imagine if those 300 events in the UK had been running. The numbers would have been through the roof. And I know a lot of people, when an event's cancelled, they go to their nearest event. But there's also a lot of people when an event's cancelled, they say, nah, chance for a lay-in, not getting up this morning. So yeah, I think that number could have been quite a bit higher. So let's see how we go if globally, if the UK doesn't have what the... I think up to their fourth major storm for this storm season so far. So they've had a lot of cancellations. This particular one in the UK seemed to affect more in the northern parts of the UK across Scotland and Ireland. There seemed to be a lot of red on the map. So yeah, let's have a look at the numbers and see how they're going. But 22 events in Australia, that's a huge number of events to set an attendance record in one week. Yeah.

00:16:19Melissa Ellis: Now, Toc, I think we've got some emails this week. So thank you. Thank you for those who emailed in. But I think we've got some more news about more attendance records. Would that be correct?

00:16:34Tony O'Connell: It is, Mel. We had an email from our little Kiwi correspondent over the ditch. And it says, Hi, Mel, Toc, Sarah and Simon. Here's some New Zealand news for you. This week we recorded a new attendance record, the 2nd of 2025, with 12,004 finishers and 887 volunteers for a total of 12,891. There were 10 attendance records broken. I've listed them for you so you can see how long or short these records have stood. It's worth mentioning that two of these records have stood since the event launched. Kapiti Coast celebrated its 10th birthday this weekend and Russell Park, which launched in 2022. So I've picked out of those 10 records, I've picked the two that Alison's mentioned to highlight. Kapiti Coast had an attendance of 226. Their previous record was 205 set in January 4th, 2015. So just over 10 years. And Russell Park had an attendance of 98. Their previous record was 95 set in April 9th, 2022. Also of note, Anderson parkrun has set a new attendance record at five of its last six Saturday events since December 28th. New Year's Day was not a record day, but it was also not a Saturday. So they've set five out of six weeks have had an attendance record. And Hagley parkrun in Christchurch record second attendance of over 900 records. with 914 finishers. It's not that there weren't any other parkruns in the area. There are three others in the city and two more just north or south. And another really important thing coming out of New Zealand, or a fascinating thing, last week at parkrun, Colin Thorne finished his 278th parkrun. Nothing special in a 217, but it was his first as a 101-year-old, and parkrun had to recreate a new age category, or a new age group category for him. He scored 122% as a 101-year-old. Colin was back at parkrun this weekend, and remains an inspiration to many. And then Alison finishes off with, if I hear anything else, I'll let you know. Smiley face, Alison.

00:18:56Melissa Ellis: Absolutely wonderful. Thank you very much for bringing us an update. And if anybody else would like to bring us updates from their home countries, we would welcome it. But that wasn't all the news we had from abroad, TOC, because this week we had news from Sandringham parkrun. Now this was parkrun number 167 and it occurred last weekend on the 25th of January 2025. And the post which appeared on the Sandringham parkrun's Facebook page reads as such... Sandringham 5k your way move against cancer with his majesty the king today was a very very special and amazing parkrun It was the last Saturday of the month, which means we link in with the Sandringham 5K Your Way Move Against Cancer group. This is a national charity with, I think, 108 groups around the country, but we're currently the only one in Norfolk. It's a support group with a difference for people living with or beyond cancer and their families, and we have ambassadors there each month to welcome people and to walk and talk around the beautiful 5k parkrun route in the country park we launched in February 2024 so today was our 12th get together so the group was celebrating their almost one year anniversary with a coffee and cake in the restaurant at the Sandringham visitor centre this morning after having walked the 5k at Sandringham parkrun and you'll never guess what we were joined by his majesty the king who came to offer his congratulations what an incredible morning his majesty took the time to talk to us all and was so interested in everyone's story the estate staff at the visitor centre had made delicious cakes for us and all in all we had the most memorable and special morning some amazing photos below and that was signed by Sarah bryant Co-Event Director at Sandringham parkrun and one of the ambassadors for Sandringham 5K Your Way. And attached to that post was photos with His Majesty King Charles and to prove, I guess, that he was actually there. So evidence, I should say. And I want to thank Alison for also tipping us off on that. I hadn't seen that. I don't follow, you know, Sandringham is an event that I follow. I don't have any reason to. Follow Sandringham. But yeah, that was great to see, TOC.

00:21:29Tony O'Connell: I think that'd be a fairly incredible park faff. I think there's not too many people that could say that they've had the king just walk in on coffee and cake and join in for a chat.

00:21:40Melissa Ellis: I know. How amazing. I would have been lining up for a selfie. I wouldn't be doing the sneaky selfies without him knowing. I don't know. I might have got in trouble for that. But congratulations to Sandringham parkrun. What a thrill. That's pretty amazing.

00:21:53Tony O'Connell: And it's a pretty amazing initiative that they've got as well, the Move Against Cancer group. And I think that's a pretty great example of what parkrun does in the wider community as well. So well done, Sandringham.

00:22:05Melissa Ellis: Let's hope we can get King Charles interested in partaking in a little parkrun himself.

00:22:11Tony O'Connell: Looking, putting your hand up for Toolern Creek.

00:22:17Melissa Ellis: I don't think he's going to come to Toolern Creek.

00:22:19Unidentified speaker: Ah.

00:22:20Tony O'Connell: I don't think so, no.

00:22:22Melissa Ellis: What else have we got, Toc?

00:22:23Tony O'Connell: We also had a bit of feedback from Carolyn McRae, who we mentioned in relation to the parkrun calendar a couple of episodes ago. And Carolyn said, Hi adventurers and best wishes for 2025. Today, whilst travelling, played catch-up listening to episode 409. Had no idea about the UK calendar appearance and thought, I hope it's not from Løvstien Bergen parkrun, then backtracked to episode 408, Suspicion Confirmed. Would just like to clarify, Toc, that I wasn't standing in a snow-covered field. It is my most memorable parkrun for good and not-so-good reasons. The good reasons. The most friendly, patient, helpful RD, Andrew Lewis and his wife, Ariella. The views of the snow-capped city of Bergen and Harbour were breathtaking, and we had not already lost our breath completing the parkrun. Alan planting a volunteer on the bus to make sure that we got there. We would never have found the small track up the mountain to the start. We were parkwalkers, so no running involved. The not so good. Arriving in Bergen the day before, feeling poorly after leaving. Hurtigruten cruise. Bit of motion and balance issue. The unprecedented dumping of snow. What? were sure event would be cancelled. Alan messaged night before saying they'd sent course checker out, which was a dog, and all was good unless they got rain through the night. The 500 metre steep uphill walk to the start line, which was on a flat plateau, all covered in deep snow... The course is out and back, one way up a hill, out and back the other way up a bigger hill, and then you repeat both sections again. I think we got the record for being the slowest. Not sure if we still hold that title. Anyway, adventurers, if you ever go to Norway, make the effort to get to Bergen. It's not a big parkrun. It's challenging, but the scenery makes it worthwhile. Ellen and Oriola would love to meet you. Currently planning another trip and returning to Bergen, but unfortunately... Timing doesn't allow for it to be on a parkrun day. Maybe a freedom walk and a definite catch up with the Lewises. Now, Carol, we might need you to come back to us here because you started saying I was wrong and the picture wasn't you in a snow covered field. And then you talked about the massive dumping of snow and having to... go through a plateau covered in deep snow. So we're not too sure. The picture certainly looks like it has a fair bit of snow in it, but come back to us and let us know what it actually is.

00:25:00Melissa Ellis: Yeah, we have reviewed the footage. We've gone to the third umpire and it certainly looks like that photo from the calendar is in snow. So that is a little bit confusing. And also the 500 metre steep uphill walk to the start line, which was on a flat plateau, I don't understand. Yeah.

00:25:21Tony O'Connell: So generally, Mel, with a couple of them, we did one in Oslo that was similar. You had the option, you could walk up the hill to get to it. So the actual parkruns held on the flat bit up on top of the hill, but you've got to walk from the town up the hill to get to the start line.

00:25:35Melissa Ellis: Right. Okay. Got it. Anyway, we're still super proud that Carolyn was in the calendar.

00:25:43Tony O'Connell: Oh, yeah, I know famous people. I'm holding on to that one.

00:25:48Melissa Ellis: I've met her too. It's not just all about you, Toc.

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00:25:51Tony O'Connell: All right, Mel, I think we've heard enough of our voices.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:25:55Tony O'Connell: Let's crack on with a couple of roving reports.

Roving report Calum Burrell — Beverley Westwood parkrun

00:26:06Calum Burrell: Okay, so we've managed to finish, and myself and Phil have done Beverley Westwood parkrun today, and what an awesome morning it was. It was fantastic weather. We reckon it was about 599 people that crossed the line today, which apparently is, well, over the record. Anyway, what we'll do, I'll leave some of the descriptions to our core team who are with me now. We've got Louise, the Run Director today. Run Director today. And we've got Kay, the founding Event Director for Beverley Westwood parkrun. So first of all, tell us about Beverley Westwood parkrun and how it came about, where we are in the country and the course.

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00:26:46Kay - founding Event Director, Beverley Westwood parkrun: I got addicted to parkrun after the very first one. I was living abroad at the time and when I came back I decided it was time to get a parkrun in Beverley. But I had been going to Peter Pan in Hull, which is about a 25 minute drive away. And I've done over 100 parkruns there before we got Beverley going. But it was finding a course that was the most difficult thing in Beverley because where we have it is the only place. We tried everywhere. We've looked at public rights of the way, various country routes around Beverley because there's nothing in the town centre and the Westwood is definitely the best place, the only place and it's a great place to have a parkrun. It's on grass and on a day like today when it's all frosty and all the local ones are cancelled because they're iced over, we got everybody else to come to ours because it was safe. And that was five years ago when we set ours up. Sixth birthday in July.

00:27:41Calum Burrell: So I have to thank you first of all for myself and Phil. Phil was driving and we got the notification just as we were leaving Manchester area that you were on. So that was, you know, it gave us plenty of time to relax and travel across. The M62 was great. So it was the best to see the M62 today. So Louise, how did it go today with the run today?

00:27:50[laughter]

00:28:02Louise - Run Director on the day, Beverley Westwood parkrun: Magnificent. It's the only thing I can say. There's a few standout things for me, really. One, the amount of people that ended up coming. And two, the volunteers. Because it's all very well, you know, runners can come and they can keep warm and so on. But the volunteers, bearing in mind, as Kay just said, it's on a pasture land, so it is a bit exposed. So the volunteers were magnificent. And the amount of people actually who finished their run, who then also came and helped us with the volunteering. So because it's the most numbers we've ever had, we had to extend the finish funnel. We picked up a couple of people that we knew that would come and did Funnel Manager for us, which we don't normally have that position. But that worked really well. Picked up a few extra scanners to help us out, which was really good. But the atmosphere was just incredible. So many people were getting PBs, which came as a bit of a surprise to all of us, really. But one guy, actually, who is one of our regular runners, Matt Frampton, he got a really good PB. And on a normal week, he probably would have come about 10th. And this week, he came 51st. And it's actually his lowest position on our course ever. So that tells you really about the amount of people that came. But for me, it's been the best day at parkrun in my whole life, whole parkrun career and like Kay I used to go to Hull but we wanted to set up somewhere in Beverley and because I don't want to drive 10 or 15 miles for a 5k run I want to be able to roll out of bed and be there in 10 minutes and we don't go anywhere else unless we are cancelled yeah And when we're cancelled, I don't go anywhere because I stay home.

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00:29:33Kay - founding Event Director, Beverley Westwood parkrun: Because ours is the best part. But what stands out to me for today is it's like every week, it's teamwork. And nobody can take all the credit. Everybody has played their part. And the extra people who've stepped in to help us because of the large numbers just goes to show how generous people are with their time. And, you know, I just think that that's the best thing about parkrun, the people giving up their time, being in a team with other people who are as passionate about it as we are.

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00:30:01Louise - Run Director on the day, Beverley Westwood parkrun: And a quick mention really for Cindy and Anne who were handing out the tokens because it's very difficult to do that with your gloves on. So they did that for 600 people almost and absolutely amazing.

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00:30:11Kay - founding Event Director, Beverley Westwood parkrun: But they said because there were so many people, their hands never stopped moving and they didn't get cold. Wow. I was timing and my hands froze and I missed two. I think I know where I missed them. But when Louise and I do the results when we finish this, I'm wondering actually if you're a results expert.

00:30:25[laughter]

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00:30:29Calum Burrell: Oh, no. It's a shame that her wife Lindsay isn't here because she's more au fait with the results side of things. I'm sure we'll be.

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00:30:36Kay - founding Event Director, Beverley Westwood parkrun: I think we'll manage, but it's much easier if you get somebody who's used to dealing with things because we don't get that many issues in our parking lot. Because if you notice from our finish funnel, You can't have a funneled up at ours.

00:30:49Calum Burrell: It's very narrow and well organised. You can't get out of it. You go in one and you've got to come out the other. Absolutely. But yeah, going back to what you're saying about the Marshals, those two lads that were on that final hill as you come down. Where did you say they were from?

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00:31:04Louise - Run Director on the day, Beverley Westwood parkrun: They're missionaries. Both of them are from America at the moment. We do have a different set of missionaries. They change about six weeks, don't they? Yeah. But they've been coming since about September. And each time they change, they're fantastic. Yeah, super enthusiastic. They are super enthusiastic. And then we had a couple of other new ones as well. There was one new one at Black Mill, and then there was some a family did the bottom of hill 60 and a family again at position seven and it's nice when they volunteer together yeah which is what the jauners did didn't they at the bottom of Black Mill so at the bottom of hill 60 so yeah it's it really has just been such a feel-good event today I think and we've even you know we normally only have two token sorters but now as you can see behind you there's four of them that's going to take some time Yeah, I just think it's been such a really good feel. It was very much like our first event to me.

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00:31:56Kay - founding Event Director, Beverley Westwood parkrun: It was exciting, the number of people. I was quite giddy, actually. I'm always high from parkrun for the rest of the day.

00:32:05[crosstalk]

00:32:05Calum Burrell: Yeah, you always are.

00:32:08Kay - founding Event Director, Beverley Westwood parkrun: Especially when the results have been done. And we can relax a bit. The thing is, the finish funnel backed up, but... I've never had that before, but now I know what to do. Yes. That you don't tap anybody until they've crossed the line. And if they're just queuing and waiting, it's not a problem. They will have a slower time. But today, they got a parkrun. Yeah, exactly. Forget your time. They got a parkrun. Because with them, they cancelled Humber Bridge, Hull, Cleethorpes, Bayscar. Selby cancelled. Selby. They're all the ones around us. And we were able to put one on.

00:32:10[laughter]

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00:32:37Louise - Run Director on the day, Beverley Westwood parkrun: So I'm sure people would be just pleased.

00:32:38[crosstalk]

00:32:38Calum Burrell: Super grateful for that.

00:32:39Louise - Run Director on the day, Beverley Westwood parkrun: I've got so many people say thank you to me as well. It was really nice, actually, how appreciative people were.

00:32:46Calum Burrell: Tell us about your parkrun story.

00:32:49Louise - Run Director on the day, Beverley Westwood parkrun: Well, I've been parkrunning since 2013, something like that, but I used to go into Hull, and I used to use it as a training run because I used to do endurance running. But I just got to the point where I thought, I'm not going to drive 11 miles to do 5K, which at the end of the day was just a small training run because I can run around the block and do that. So... I'd put something out on Facebook, and you'd done the same, hadn't you, Kay? And Andy Moore is the other guy. He actually got us all together. He found five people that had all put something out on social media, but none of us had been able to do it on our own.

00:33:00[background music]

00:33:14[crosstalk]

00:33:20[crosstalk]

00:33:24Kay - founding Event Director, Beverley Westwood parkrun: But when we got together as a team, we were able to... Back to teamwork. Yeah, back to teamwork, yeah. And Andy was going to come today, apparently, because I was talking to Mark, and he said Andy works a lot on a Saturday. He was my original Co-Event Director. But work commitments meant he had to be at work on a Saturday morning. And he hasn't been to ours very much at all in the last couple of years. He was planning to come today, but it didn't work out. No, that's a shame, isn't it? It is a shame, because it would have been nice to have had him in on the conversation. It would have been nice, yeah. And Mark was there today as well. Mark was also one of those.

00:33:48[crosstalk]

00:33:55Louise - Run Director on the day, Beverley Westwood parkrun: He helped us a bit at the beginning as well. Mark Gady, he's a professional parkrunner, isn't he? Yeah. But yeah, we did that. We got together and we put the event on. It took us about 18 months, didn't it? And the first one was just magnificent, wasn't it? And it's been brilliant for the town. It really has brought the town together. And you'll find that, as Kay said earlier, lots of families come and the kids will go through Duke of Edinburgh and they'll do their... They're volunteering with us, won't they? And it's just such a lovely, feel-good event. And when visitors come, because we do get quite a lot of visitors, because we're on the points of the compass, we're a rest on the points of the compass. So we do get a lot of visitors, but they always mention the Marshals and the volunteers, because we just have such a lovely group of people that will regularly volunteer. And some people only volunteer, they don't run, they just volunteer.

00:34:45Kay - founding Event Director, Beverley Westwood parkrun: We don't have very many of them, but to me, a volunteer...

00:34:48Louise - Run Director on the day, Beverley Westwood parkrun: is usually a runner or walker who's giving up their time that day to volunteer. And so they understand what it's like on the course and they're very good at cheering people on. Yeah, it's just been a really lovely day and I hope that you feel that as well.

00:34:50[background music]

00:35:02[crosstalk]

00:35:03Calum Burrell: Absolutely, yeah, no, it was so grateful.

00:35:04Louise - Run Director on the day, Beverley Westwood parkrun: Is it your first time with us?

00:35:05Calum Burrell: First time today, yeah. I've done Peter Pan and Humber Bridge are the only two I've done over this. We've done Cleethorpes. Because, as I say, I know, obviously, Matt's story. He was very welcoming when we went to Cleethorpes, and he's your ambassador, I believe. He's our ambassador.

00:35:18[crosstalk]

00:35:19Louise - Run Director on the day, Beverley Westwood parkrun: He's an amazing partner. He really is.

00:35:21Calum Burrell: So hello to Matt. I hope you're listening.

00:35:23Louise - Run Director on the day, Beverley Westwood parkrun: And we've got a new one as well. We've got a new one at Withernsea, so you'll have to come back. That's on the seaside, but they cancelled today.

00:35:25[crosstalk]

00:35:29Kay - founding Event Director, Beverley Westwood parkrun: But that's where I'll go when we have to cancel because of the weather. Because in the winter, we lost winter, spring, and autumn weather. It was just dreadful. We had so much rain that the course was saturated. We cancelled 13 weeks altogether in a six-month period. So it was really good to go ahead today. But we have an added feature in the summer in that it's a pasture that we have our course on and we have cattle.

00:35:30[background music]

00:35:54[crosstalk]

00:35:55Calum Burrell: Oh yeah, you'll have to come back and see the cows.

00:35:58Kay - founding Event Director, Beverley Westwood parkrun: The cattle roam freely and there might be a couple of hundred of them. They're not always on the course, but we have a cattle code that is read out as part of the health and safety briefing.

00:36:08[crosstalk]

00:36:09Louise - Run Director on the day, Beverley Westwood parkrun: They are quite entertaining, yeah.

00:36:11Kay - founding Event Director, Beverley Westwood parkrun: We have had some...

00:36:13Louise - Run Director on the day, Beverley Westwood parkrun: incidents we could say but they run alongside as well they run alongside the runners they love it because when they come they're all teenage cattle is what they are they're young boy cattle and that's what they do they run alongside the runners don't they it's quite funny brilliant

00:36:15[crosstalk]

00:36:29Calum Burrell: So I'm going to wrap it up now. So if we start with you, what's your top three moments or events in parkrun? If you had to narrow it down to three events or moments in your parkrun history.

00:36:30[background music]

00:36:44Kay - founding Event Director, Beverley Westwood parkrun: Well, I've done so many now. I think I've done 63 different locations. I definitely enjoy going to ours very much and I'm just trying to think out of all the other ones. I've done a few runs in Japan and that's very different, very small numbers of people take part.

00:36:51[crosstalk]

00:36:56[crosstalk]

00:37:01Calum Burrell: Absolutely. What about yourself, Louise?

00:37:02Louise - Run Director on the day, Beverley Westwood parkrun: I had travelled so much to different parkruns. For me, today is actually my most favourite event I've ever done. And it was magnificent for me to be Run Director because it was one of my favourite roles. Another one I have, I did Milan, which I thought was absolutely fantastic. And I also did Krakow, which I really enjoyed as well. But I've only ever done nine other parkruns. Fair enough. So I'm not experienced with parkrun tourism because I love being at ours. You know, I volunteer at ours all the time.

00:37:15[background music]

00:37:25[crosstalk]

00:37:33Calum Burrell: So we touched on it briefly, but what was your previous record to today? 417. 417, yeah.

00:37:37[crosstalk]

00:37:39Kay - founding Event Director, Beverley Westwood parkrun: That was the first event and we only had 432 tokens. So we got through by the skin of our teeth. And today I had planned all of this. I expected at least 500 and we have 672 tokens and a book of raffle tickets up to 800. So we were covered.

00:37:40[background music]

00:37:54Calum Burrell: Yeah, brilliant. But yeah, I can't... For myself and Phil, we can't thank you enough for today.

00:37:59Louise - Run Director on the day, Beverley Westwood parkrun: Thank you for coming.

00:38:01Calum Burrell: Beautiful course, great marshals, great atmosphere, like you say, and so happy that we were able to do one today. Thank you for today, and I'll have to come back in the summer to see the carriage.

00:38:10[background music]

00:38:12[crosstalk]

00:38:12Kay - founding Event Director, Beverley Westwood parkrun: Well, I look forward to welcoming you back. It's a different experience. Thank you.

00:38:19Calum Burrell: Okay so that was today's 193rd event of Beverley Westwood parkrun. I have to say thoroughly enjoyed it. Gorgeous course out in the pastures, gorgeous winters morning and everyone thoroughly enjoyed it. Lots of good vibes around.

00:38:38Phil - adventurer, ran Beverley Westwood with the reporter: What do you reckon to it Phil? Oh it's amazing and I'm really pleased that we've ordered our Pyrmont t-shirts from the adventurers. Normally I'm the business at the front but today I've honoured the back and we've done party at the back. It was such a great course with like the winter sun and I decided we'd jog around with my mate Calum so it was really really good.

00:39:02Calum Burrell: So thoroughly enjoyed the day. We weren't sure how the day was going to go at the beginning but yeah thoroughly enjoyed a little trip across the Pennines and thank you Phil for driving and I think that wraps it up.

00:39:17Phil - adventurer, ran Beverley Westwood with the reporter: I would just say I would put it straight in my top 10 part runs along with about another 30.

00:39:24Calum Burrell: It was a superb great way to start 2025 and Calum and Phil over and out. Cheers.

Roving report Alison Fraser (King) — Hanmer Forest parkrun

00:39:32Alison Fraser (King): Kia ora koutou adventurers, it's Alison here reporting in from across the ditch and today I've actually crossed the Cook Strait and I'm at Hanmer Forest parkrun which is one of our new parkruns for 2024 and it's New Year's Day as I'm recording this and I'm joined by today's Run Director Mark Ingalls so welcome to the podcast Mark. [Te Reo Maori: "Hello / greetings to you all, adventurers"]

00:39:50Mark Ingalls - Run Director, Hanmer Forest parkrun: Oh thank you, yep, Kia ora everyone.

00:39:52Alison Fraser (King): Can you tell us about your involvement with parkrun please Mark?

00:39:56Mark Ingalls - Run Director, Hanmer Forest parkrun: Well it's um uh It was Christmas Day last year as in 2023. My wife did the parkrun at Pegasus and we thought what a great idea and so we started to investigate it. We also had some new people arrive in the village and I was out in the middle of the forest one day and he was out there measuring, trying to find a route and I asked him what he was doing and I knew a route straight away because I've lived here for a while and I've looked after many of the tracks in the forest. And so my involvement really has been setting out the course and then just as one of the core of the four Run Directors, yeah, thank you so much for designing that course so can you tell the listeners about it I've just finished it and it was wonderful well it's one of the few um single lap 5ks and it's actually it's perfect it's it's 5 000 metres to the metre you know it's been amazing so heads out runs up what we call the yellow brick road a beautiful limestone chip path across a wee bridge upper we we call it a pinch other people call it a hill And then it runs along what we call the sculpture walk. And so you go past a huge three metre high eagle. You'll go past Gollum hiding behind a tree. There are various rodents. And they're all animals that have been carved out of the big redwoods that we have here in the forest. It then runs on the forestry paths. This is the heritage forest. So it's 200 hectares of forest, a forest that's managed for its amenity, and it's one of the two nursery forests for the whole of New Zealand that was created back in the late 1800s.

00:41:46Alison Fraser (King): And the other forest that was created is Rotorua, which is where I've travelled from.

00:41:51Mark Ingalls - Run Director, Hanmer Forest parkrun: Oh, really? Oh, fantastic. Yes, this is the other one. And so the runners today have run past Ponderosa Pines that are over 120 years old, you know, and every... every known species of, but not native, of introduced species. So yeah, it's a great place.

00:42:09Alison Fraser (King): It was to test, wasn't it, to see which species would grow the best in these conditions?

00:42:13Mark Ingalls - Run Director, Hanmer Forest parkrun: Yep, yep. The second to last open area you went through on the way back down is called Nurseryman's Corner. And so there was a whole nursery there, but there was also a prison colony. And so most of it was actually planted out by prisoners. And so there's... a complete prisoner colony and out in the main forest there's still the remnants of it. It's a really interesting background, yeah.

00:42:37Alison Fraser (King): See, I never knew that about Hanmer Springs. I think myself, like a lot of other people, associate Hanmer Springs with going to the spa.

00:42:46Mark Ingalls - Run Director, Hanmer Forest parkrun: The hot pools, the hot pools have been, you know, that's the whole essence of Hanmer Springs. Well, it's been called the springs, you know, discovered by the Māori and then the early settlers. Beautiful, natural hot springs. But the village itself, a lot of it is around the pylons that go through. So it was an electricity town for a while, but also because of the the forest yeah and in fact this where we're sitting here this is called Brook Dawson Reserve and Brook was an amazing forester and so that the reserves named after him cool thank you so much for that insight on Hanmer Forest I hope you get a lot more people come into your park around especially the locals quite a few visitors today I saw Well, we get about two-thirds visitors every time, but that's just the nature of Hanmer Springs, you know. We're a village of about just over a thousand permanent residents, but we have up to 5,000 people in town a night. And so it's always going to be that way. Our real concern originally was, will we have enough volunteers? And the community's just stepped up amazingly well. We have to fight volunteers off to try and cycle them around different marshalling sites and things like that, so... It's been magic, parkrun is just phenomenal, you know. I'm not a runner, you know, I'm a cyclist, but the community engagement and the feel and the camaraderie is just incredible. Yeah, well done, parkrun.

00:44:18Alison Fraser (King): Thank you so much, Mark, for a wonderful morning, and I hope you have many more mornings like this.

00:44:22Mark Ingalls - Run Director, Hanmer Forest parkrun: Thank you, yeah.

Roving report Lyndell Murray — Birtinya Island parkrun

00:44:25Lyndell Murray: G'day parkrun adventurers, it's Lyndell and today I have made the trek up the M1, north of Brisbane, up to the lands of the Gubbi Gubbi people on the Sunshine Coast. I'm at Birtinya Island parkrun, which is a newer parkrun here in South East Queensland. And I've found the Event Director. How are you going today? Good, good, good thanks. Thanks for talking to me today, Corinda. Now, Birtinya Island... This is an amazing course. We run all the way around an island.

00:44:54Corinda - Event Director, Birtinya Island parkrun: Yeah, it was sort of, I guess we had to, it took us a little while to plan and work out what would be the most appealing. But it's a really good course because you've got a lot of shade in areas. You've got toilets. You've got drinking fountains. You've got, you know, all the things that are necessary. Playgrounds for the kids.

00:45:15Lyndell Murray: Yeah, it's quite appealing.

00:45:16Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:45:17Lyndell Murray: And I just love the idea that you run all the way down the island. There's a bit of an out and back to start. Do you know of any other parkruns that run all the way around an island?

00:45:26Corinda - Event Director, Birtinya Island parkrun: Well, I think there's Brightwater Does. That's, oh, I can't think of any others. Yeah, I think that's it really on the sunny coast. That I think of, yeah. So it's appealing though.

00:45:34[crosstalk]

00:45:37Lyndell Murray: Like I think the water makes it, I don't know, there's something to look at. Definitely, definitely. And so you've mentioned, we've mentioned the Sunshine Coast. This is on the southern end of the Sunshine Coast in southeast Queensland. Joining a number of parkruns here in this area. Tell me about your journey with parkrun, Corinda, because you've got a bit of a history in volunteering on the Sunshine Coast.

00:46:00Corinda - Event Director, Birtinya Island parkrun: Yeah, I think I started Golden Beach. I was one of the original Run Directors at Golden Beach. And that sort of kicked off probably 10, 11 years ago now. And that all started off in a bit of a gym conversation. And, yeah, we were at the Kawana parkrun when that first started and we thought, hmm. So then Golden Beach was created and that was one that I, yeah, I was there for some time and then I decided to step down from that. But in the interim I sort of helped out at Brightwater when that first started and then helped out at Kawana and Nambour. So I've Run Director for quite a a few different parkruns, and then volunteer regularly and like to run. So, yeah, now Birtinya, far out. Busy. Busy, busy. Now, what do you like most about volunteering at parkrun? I just love watching people run, you know just enjoying themselves running walking and a lot of growth you know when you see people that start off on their running journey and then next thing they're getting PBs and just that excitement and I think just seeing people and bringing the community together is really nice and seeing people um enjoying their Sunday morning you know like it's the camaraderie mateship the friendships that you see that form is just incredible and then where then it goes into other events so You know, there's a lot of people I've met on my journey where I've ended up doing running events and trail runs and things that I would have thought I'd never do, I do now. So, yeah.

00:47:41Lyndell Murray: Even turning up here today, I recognised you just from the community and my time at Nambour, which is pretty much my part-time parkrun home as well. Now, you talked about growth in running. I'm going to just take a little bit of a twist on that. Do you also see a growth in people from their volunteering journey? No.

00:48:00Corinda - Event Director, Birtinya Island parkrun: Would you like to talk about that a little bit? Yeah, I've seen over the years a lot of confidence. You know, I think it brings out the best in people. You see a lot of individuals grow within that connection and community, just volunteering, which is such an important role, and take things on board, you know, like... There's passion with it too. You know, I've seen like at Golden Beach, you know, you've had people that get there early in the morning to set up the course and they just take that on board. That's just part of them and their journey. And you think it's incredible how individuals just step up and just, you know, like it's just incredible. I think it's such a really good... thing, parkrun.

00:48:43Lyndell Murray: Yeah, absolutely. Now, we're saying that Birtinya Island's a very new community here. Have you built much community yet? How are you going in establishing your run team and a community of volunteers here?

00:48:56Corinda - Event Director, Birtinya Island parkrun: Well, a lot of the volunteers are existing Run Directors that have wanted to help out, which has been good. And to be honest, a lot of people have offered to help, which has been within the parkrun community, parkrun community so that's a really nice thing and my hope is that the actual Birtinya community will take it on board because in my belief is that you're the community is a community event the community owner and we're facilitators that's all so my idea is that the community sort of take it on board and it's theirs and we just facilitate it and so that it grows within the community so that's my goal. I love that.

00:49:35Lyndell Murray: I love that so much. All right, so we've covered your history in volunteering at parkrun. What about running? Do you run at many different parkruns and do you have a favourite from some of your adventures elsewhere other than parkruns that you are part of?

00:49:49Corinda - Event Director, Birtinya Island parkrun: I guess I don't run a lot of them. I just sort of – Nambour's been one that I go to quite regularly, and that's because I do a lot of trial events and trial running, and that's where I do a lot of my training. So I found, like, Nambour suited me because it challenges me. But to be honest – and I only did that because I stopped volunteering for a while –

00:50:12Lyndell Murray: And now, you know, like, I think, oh, my gosh, I'm back into that, you know, volunteering.

00:50:16Corinda - Event Director, Birtinya Island parkrun: So, yeah, yeah. So, like, that'll probably go out the window. So, but, you know, in that time, I've done a lot of different events and I'm, you know, yeah, I'm pretty pleased with what I've achieved over those years. So, it's really helped me. It's really helped me in a lot of ways to meet people, like-minded people. So, it's a great community.

00:50:36Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:50:37Lyndell Murray: All right. Before we wrap up, we covered the course very quickly. Is there anything else you would like the parkrun adventurers to know about Birtinya Island parkrun? There's some really good coffee shops around.

00:50:48Corinda - Event Director, Birtinya Island parkrun: So, yeah, check it out because coffee is, you know, that's the driving force. It sure is. So, yeah, and it's a nice spot.

00:50:59Lyndell Murray: All right. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me today. And thank you so much for everything that you have done for parkrun and the communities that host the parkruns here on the Sunshine Coast.

00:51:05[background music]

00:51:11Corinda - Event Director, Birtinya Island parkrun: Oh, my pleasure. No worries. Thank you.

00:51:21Melissa Ellis: And how fabulous are our roving reporters? Firstly, we heard from Calum, who was out at Beverley Westwood talking to E.D. Kay and Louise and also adventurer Phil Corker. We had Alison out at Hanmer Forest on New Year's Day with R.D. Mark and then Lyndell. At Birtinya Island, talking to ED Corinda Kamaliri. And interesting about Birtinya Island, they've had three events so far. They're getting pretty good numbers out there, Toc. Had a little look. The first week, the launch, they had 461. So you expect numbers potentially are going to be inflated on the first week. They backed it up with 359. And week three, 364. So they're staying quite high out there, I did notice.

00:52:11Tony O'Connell: Yeah, that's quite a sustained number there. Normally, as you said, the launch, particularly if it's in an area that's accessible to a large population group, does tend to jump up and you have a fairly big fall in the second week. But for the third week to grow on the second week, that's actually an interesting stat there. We'll have to keep our eye on that one, Mel.

00:52:32Melissa Ellis: We will.

00:52:33Tony O'Connell: But what do we have next?

Dazza's

00:52:34Tony O'Connell: What we're also keeping our eye on, Mel, is Dazza's. And this week, Dazza has said, Today is Observe the Weather Day. Anyone at parkrun knows about the weather. It can be the difference between ending up soaked in sweat or soaked in rain. Dazza knows all about the weather too. A lot more iced lattes go out in the summertime. Whatever the weather, however much sun on the run, or whether it was 5k on a cloudy day, come on in and tell us how it went. And there's a little side note, ice lattes may take longer on hot days.

00:53:07Melissa Ellis: And firstly, we heard from Rex Gream and he was down in the greatest state and he said, Hello Dazza, came to the end of my Melbourne visit with a trip over to Coburg parkrun on a bright, slightly warm, sunny day, met Peter from north carolina who was doing his first parkrun hopefully I didn't scare him off nice out and back on concrete paths with some boardwalk great group of volleys was a great finish to the eight parkrun visit where I wasn't disappointed with any of them one more adventure trip before returning home to armadale parkrun long black pleas and Rex shared a photo of himself a parkrun photo and he was mid-run doing a jump shot good shot Rex excellent it was now next we head across to South Australia and the lovely Janet Reid

00:54:04Tony O'Connell: Janet said, I did a thing and was overwhelmed by the surprises and love from some very special friends. I would really enjoy a nice latte when you're ready. Thank you, Dazza. I hope everyone had a wonderful day. And there's a picture of Janet in a green hat, a bowler and a cape with flowers and a big 250 sign full of messages. And now the background story behind that is Janet actually did her V250 the week before, but she was RD, I believe, and so she... went under the radar with it and didn't tell anybody. And so she was halfway through her run brief last week as RD and there was a bit of commotion and noise and they came out halfway through her run brief, stopped her and dressed her up in the aforementioned green hat, boa and cape and made a bit of a presentation about to Janet. So Janet, well done on your V250 and no sneaking under the radar, particularly in the greatest state.

00:55:05Melissa Ellis: And I saw her post, was there also maybe some police sirens or something that maybe freaked her out mid-event that she thought something was going on and she was actually going to have to pause the event because maybe there was an emergency?

00:55:22Tony O'Connell: Yeah, they started off with the sirens and that to get everyone's attention before doing the presentation to Janet. So that was all part of the big presentation. Yeah.

00:55:30Melissa Ellis: Congratulations, Janet. You're one of our faves. You know that. Now, another one of our faves, TOC, is Yvette Turner. And she was in the Northern Territory and she said the weather was very hot and steamy in Darwin this morning. Five intrepid adventurers from Canberra travelled up to Darwin to go to Darwin parkrun. Christy joined the Peel Club and Bill and Casson finished their first alphabet. We met up with Darwin friends for breakfast afterwards and my iced latte was extra delicious. Talked up the podcast and also gave it a five-star review. As always, our parkrun adventuring is so much fun. and extra fun when travelling with friends and meeting up with others we have met on past adventures. Looking at you, Karen Strong, Julie Gallagher-Ferlin, and Eddie. And there was a little splatter of emojis and a group pic with the Darwin selfie frame. Thanks, Yvette. Love your work.

00:56:29Tony O'Connell: Mel, moving from the Northern Territory across to New South Wales and we had Stephen Cox had commented in Dazza's. As Stephen said, Avondale University College parkrun this morning with fellow adventurer Paris Lawrence. Maybe I should become a dedicated photo bomber. Sorry, Paris. Maybe could be the next weekly podcast challenge. Photobomb a fellow adventurer's photo frame pic. Or even better, photobomb a random person photo frame pic. And lots of laughy face emojis. And the picture was of Stephen photobombing Paris in the selfie frame.

00:57:08Melissa Ellis: That's kind of cool. He's a bit cheeky, Stephen Cox, isn't he?

00:57:11Tony O'Connell: He is. That's not a bad idea. Let's think about that one.

00:57:15Melissa Ellis: Now next we heard from Billo and he was coming to us from the greatest state and he said, Howdy Dazza. The weather at Beaufort Lake parkrun this morning was fine with very little chance of being cloudy with even less chance of having meatballs. The lake was low so I'm guessing the historical long-term data would say they need rain in the area. Regardless, a frond of five from 39 starters attended this local event. That's an ROI of... which I figured out means return of investment of 12.8%. That's a pretty good investment if you ask me. Anyway, off track. I hope all the adventurers enjoyed this parkrun day. Cheers, Billo. And Billo shared a photo of himself and Lila out on course in their adventurer's tops.

00:58:02Tony O'Connell: Mel, next we're heading up to Queensland and Dean Warrick. Ice lattes are my favourite, Dazza. I stayed local and did the parkrun, soon to be formally known as Gainsborough Greens parkrun. Winky face emoji. Following on from Mel's discussion about Stopwatch Bingo last week, I finally knocked off number 59 after 181 attempts. Only one more, number 14, to go now. Also got a pram run PB in the process. Yay! And a smiley face and a medal and some other emojis. And the course photo showing Dean running with the pram. Dean ran a 25.29.

00:58:42Melissa Ellis: That's pretty nifty with a pram. Good work, Dean. Now we go down south to Tasmania. We heard from Leanne Evans. A road trip to Sorrel for Pembroke parkrun. A tad cool but perfect running conditions. Disco was first doggo finisher. A puppuccino for Disco and long black for me. Please Dazza. And Leanne shared a photo of herself and Disco in the selfie frame.

00:59:08Tony O'Connell: Mel, we go the long way home from Tassie across to WA and Gareth Arnold has written in once again. Watch it, Dazza. High humidity levels meant it was as moist as running through a gorilla's armpit during a cement table tennis tournament at Galup Reserve parkrun. Oh, Mel, that was a hard one to get through.

00:59:29Melissa Ellis: I'm glad that's you.

00:59:31Tony O'Connell: It was my second consecutive week of ticking off NENDYs and managed to demonstrate new levels of grace, poise and elegance with a photo frame jump shot to also celebrate completing this staying alive challenge. I'll have an Earl Grey tea when you're ready, please. And a little teapot emoji. And the pick was Gareth demonstrating said poise, elegance and grace with a jumping shot with the selfie frame.

00:59:57Melissa Ellis: Nice work, TOC. You're even ad-libbing. I like it. Much more professional than me. Now, I'm not going to tell you what direction we're going, but we're jumping a very long way now to the UK and we've got Ian Thompson and he said, a fresh effort at Broadwater. Thrown off by the fact that the course was quite different from the last time I ran it. It was nice to push on during the second lap. My choice of trail shoes being perfect for the squishy conditions. And Ian shared a selfie at the event wearing... His adventurers buff. I'm glad that he knew to wear his trail shoes because that's really important information.

01:00:35Tony O'Connell: It is. Good to know those sorts of things on some of the courses. Mel, you went to the UK. I'm bringing it back to Queensland and Sheridan Davis. Dad and I braved the humid weather for Cardwell parkrun. Drove the two hours down from Cairns in the morning. Both top 10 finishes today with Dad 6th and me tail walking coming 9th. A must-do course with stunning views. And there was a lovely photo of Sheridan and her dad in the selfie frame with Beach and Jetty behind. I checked the results and there were nine runners at event 320.

01:01:12Melissa Ellis: That's interesting. So I don't really know very much about Cardwell parkrun. So nine runners, it's quite a small event there, Toc, isn't it?

01:01:23Tony O'Connell: It is. The only thing I know about it is it's approximately two hours south of Cairns. Thank you, Sheridan, for that geography lesson.

01:01:32Melissa Ellis: There is 7 o'clock start, so they've had to leave before 5am to drive two hours to get there in time. So that's pretty good adventuring. Good on you, Sheridan. Thank you for letting us know as well.

01:01:46Tony O'Connell: And my quick look at the parkrun map showing Cardwell parkrun is in a fairly small town, obviously named Cardwell, located along the coast. And it looks like the parkrun actually runs along a foreshore reserve.

01:02:01Melissa Ellis: Hmm. I do get my spidey senses going when I hear an event that I'm not really familiar with and I like to investigate them a little bit.

01:02:10Tony O'Connell: Always good. And sometimes you find that little gem of a parkrun that you think, oh, that's going on the, I want to visit that list. Yeah. But Mel, we've heard from lots of people there in Dazza's. We had quite a few comments this week.

the Obi Award — Rex Gream

01:02:23Tony O'Connell: Mel, do we have an Obi this week?

01:02:26Melissa Ellis: Oh my goodness, I get to do it. I don't get to do it very often, TOC. I have an envelope, I do. It's here. Let me open it. This week, the Obi goes to... Rex Gream! after he's been in the greatest state for weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks thank you for engaging with us and telling us all about your holidays Rex we've enjoyed you being down here I'm very sorry I didn't actually get to catch up with you and missed you on like closer than you might imagine but anyway I

01:02:30[background music]

Emails

01:03:11Tony O'Connell: that you've enjoyed it and uh Obi witter congratulations now moving right along we've got mail we've already actually spoken about a couple of our emails so you've got mail Charles Gregory has written into us or emailed into us Charles as we know is our Tasmanian correspondent And Charles said, Hi parkrunners, I was certainly not expecting to be name dropped on the most recent podcast. You're wondering if Launceston's record was a state record as well. Well, I've checked the history of our nine big parkruns and it certainly is. Launceston has a record with 507 set on 18 January and was also the previous record holder with 504 set on 3 February last year. They are well in front with the only other event to have over 400 being Bellerive. 415 also set on 3 February last year. A little bit of extra info. It's worth giving a shout out also to Montrose Foreshore who hit a record of 279 on New Year's Day and Windsor Precinct who hit their record of 224 at the recent Christmas Day event also. We do have a lot of smaller ones too, and now you've set me off checking for recent records. The tiny O'Connors Beach, which I ran with Toc and Jacqui last year, usually averages about 30, but on the 28th of December also hit a record of 176. Port Sorell is much larger than I remembered hit a record of 209 on the 28th of December and then broke it again a week later with 233 on the 4th of January both are located in popular beach holiday locations which would cause their inflated numbers Zeehan Golf Club also hit a record on the 4th of January with 68 beating their inaugural event almost a year ago by three thanks team regards Charles

01:05:07Melissa Ellis: See, I knew Charles would come good with the goods.

01:05:10Tony O'Connell: There's lots of stats coming in this week from our various listeners, Mel. That's fantastic.

Club Corner

01:05:16Melissa Ellis: Thank you, Charles.

01:05:17Tony O'Connell: Right, now we are going to hear from another source of lots of really good information. We're going to jump across to Reginald.

01:05:30[background music]

01:05:31Reginald 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. Are you passionate about parkrun and parkrun clubs? One hopes so, as you are listening to a podcast about parkrun and this segment is about parkrun clubs. Unless of course, you skipped this section already and so have missed the secret word of the day. What is the word of the day? Today I am going to talk about the Passionista parkrun Club. This is a very old club, dating back to parkrun show days, sometime before 2016 even. This club is for people who are so loyal to their home run that they have never run anywhere else. They may tour for volunteering, but they have only recorded a result at a single event. To some, these passionate people are the antithesis of the podcast, but they are admirable and laudable parkrunners heart emoji. A quick check of the Australian results has found at least one person in the 500 club who has completed all of their attendances at a single course, and a number of parkrunners with 400 plus at their own events. My hat is off to them for their stick-to-it-ness. While I love the passion from these people, and similarly, I love the dedicated touring people who continuously adventure, I am passionate for the middle ground. I love my home event, and I enjoy touring, they are both a part of parkrun life, so stay tuned for our future club corners. For those that skipped ahead, what was the word of the day? Gee whiz, you need to skip back now to find out, winky face.

01:07:20Melissa Ellis: And coming back from Reginald with Club Corner, talking all about passionistas. I thought it was interesting that he raised the idea about a volunteer passionista. Those people out there that only ever volunteer at one event, Tony.

01:07:35Tony O'Connell: Yeah, it's a little bit unusual. I know a lot of people... typically in like Gippsland where I'm from we tend to support a lot of events around us so if we know one of the local events is short you'll jump across and help at various events so a lot of people from Inverloch typically I'd say have probably volunteered at the likes of you know Great Southern or Grand Ridge or you know any of any of our local parkruns.

01:08:00Melissa Ellis: Actually, let us know if you are a volunteer passionista. That's an interesting concept that I would like to know a little bit more about. So, yeah, let us know if you are one of those people.

Consolidated Club Report

01:08:12Melissa Ellis: Now, this week, the adventurers Consolidated Club Report for Saturday, the 25th of January, 2025, of a total of 741 members. We had a little jump again. 565 took part on this date in 11 countries across 276 locations. In the UK, there are adventurers at 56 events. There were eight in South Africa and one each in Poland, Sweden, Austria, Denmark, Germany, Ireland and the USA. But TOC, I didn't see those countries in Dazza's. I don't know. Where's our adventurers? They are not posting in Dazza's. Anyway, locally, we had adventurers at... 54 events in the greatest state. There were 48 events in New South Wales, 45 in Queensland, 17 in South Australia, 16 in West Australia. ACT and Tassie each had eight. There were six on the North Island, two in the Northern Territory and one on the South Island. And Mel.

the Frond — Wentworth Common parkrun - frond of 11

01:09:16Tony O'Connell: internationally our largest international frond came to us from peel this week where there was a frond of four people and they were the aforementioned Phil caulker Lee stott juliette colville and Gabby lipchin

01:09:32Melissa Ellis: Fantastic. Now we also had somebody at Bushy and that was Jenny Dimmick. So I actually did my homework like the good little student that I am. It was actually Jenny's fourth visit to Bushy. She was there in 2016, 2017, 2019 and now in 2025. Our largest frond. We had a frond of 11 at one event in Australia and that was Wentworth Common. That is in New South Wales. And there was Gavin Howarth, Mark Hibbard, Mark Weber, Leanne Rontondo, Andrew Blanda, Joanne Timbrey, Sue Bannister, Amy Kent, Eva Blanda, Renata Koch and Kathleen Hicks. Now. They were very good little adventurers and they popped into Dazza's. Lee posted, Wentworth Common welcomed wonderful weather today. I met fellow adventurers Mark Hibbard, Mark Weber and Andrew Blanda and their wives who weren't around at photo time. They were all at a geocaching meetup. I caught up with Naomi and Rob for the parkrun and joined Wendy and Liam for coffee shortly afterwards. I'll have a mocha please, Dazza. Have a sunshiny day. And that was, of course, Lee Cabarita. That's her born name. Now, Leigh shared a picture of herself with Mark, Mark and Andrew in the selfie frame, which we actually used in this week's Consolidated Club Report. Renata Koch also came to Dazza's and said, weather is always great at Wentworth Common parkrun, but this morning it was exceptional. I was Tail Walker and shared the responsibility with a fellow adventurer and a geocaching passionista, Kathleen. Time flew. And Renata shared a photo of the beautiful forest. So all the geocaching was happening out there at Wentworth Common. There was also a frond of 10 at Shellharbour this last Saturday gone and a frond of 9 at Surat Memorial Park, which we will hear for a little bit later. But remember, you can add the Adventurers Club as one of your five affiliations on your parkrun profile. Not in the 5K app, guys. You have to go to your official parkrun profile to add that. And that can be found through a link in your parkrun email. You're welcome.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

01:11:56Melissa Ellis: Mel, launches.

01:11:57Tony O'Connell: We're having quite a few launches this year so far. And the launches for this week, we're going to start in Austria, where there was Europapark parkrun. This is located on the southern edge of Austria, near Slovenia. And there were 52 finishes this week. But rather than listen to me butcher some descriptions about it, let's have a quick listen to Sarah.

01:12:19Sarah Jantscher - European correspondent: Streckenbeschreibung Der Lauf findet im Europapark direkt gegenüber dem Klagenfurter Strandbad statt. Auf drei Runden durch den Park erwartet dich eine abwechslungsreiche Strecke auf ebenem Törrer. Sie führt vorbei an einem idyllischen Ententeich durch einen bezaubernden Rosengarten und bietet stellenweise einen herrlichen Blick auf den Wörthersee.

01:12:42Melissa Ellis: Thank you very much to Sarah Jantscher for providing us with that little bit of, I don't know, what would you call it? Local...

01:12:51Tony O'Connell: Course description and local knowledge.

01:12:53Melissa Ellis: Course description in the native language. So thank you very much there. Now, I've got a bit of an easier one. It's Egham Orbit parkrun, in the UK, southwest of Heathrow Airport, and just inside the London Orbital Motorway, whatever that is. I don't know. This one does not have a web page live yet, so we can't give you any more information.

01:13:12Tony O'Connell: Mel, I think, and I'm not 100% sure on this, and I'm sure one of our UK correspondents will let us know in more detail, but I think the London Orbital Motorway significance is that's what defines the London area as far as the parkrun boundaries.

01:13:29Melissa Ellis: London, TOC.

01:13:30Tony O'Connell: I think this forms one of the London parkruns.

01:13:33Melissa Ellis: So if they just launched and Danny just got his London back and he doesn't go until event five, he's just lost it again. He has now. Oh, well, it doesn't matter because that happens all the time.

01:13:45Tony O'Connell: it's the nature of these totally arbitrary challenges, is that that happens all the time. And as you know, having been a statesman yourself on a few occasions, you have it for a little while, it goes, and eventually at some point you'll get it back.

01:14:00Melissa Ellis: You do, because we like to wait a few weeks, don't we, TOC? We wait a few weeks for the event team to settle in before we turn up. Anyway, what's the next one?

01:14:11Tony O'Connell: Well, we heard a little mention of Surat Memorial Park parkrun in Australia a little bit earlier. This parkrun is in Queensland, it is five hours west of Brisbane and it launched with 113 finishes and I can remember a road trip through Surat actually having a walk through this park so I think I've done part of the course maybe five or six years ago when it wasn't part of a course.

01:14:35Melissa Ellis: Wow, five hours west of Brisbane?

01:14:39Tony O'Connell: It's a long way west.

01:14:39Melissa Ellis: So that's wester than Toowoomba?

01:14:42Tony O'Connell: Yes. So if you're driving from Townsville or somewhere up that way to Melbourne through the most direct route, Surat forms part of that direct route.

01:14:53Melissa Ellis: Oh, so that's why you were out there.

01:14:55Tony O'Connell: Correct. Yeah.

01:14:56Melissa Ellis: Right. Okay. Well, I got a great one next, didn't I? Okay. Let's try and say this really fast so I sound confident. Hattori Ryokuchi parkrun in Japan. The course is two and a half kilometres long. Oh, surprise. And has three turnaround points. Wait, what? Surrounded by bamboo groves and cherry blossom trees in the northeast area of the park. The launch saw 72 participants supported by 14 volunteers. Hang on. Wait, it's got three... It's two and a half kilometres long. It's got three turnaround points. I'll let you figure that out.

01:15:29Tony O'Connell: Mel, that description is lifted straight from the website on the course description. Word for word. OK. Going back to the UK, Vermuyden Way parkrun. This one's north of Epworth, so up towards the Hull area in the UK. And we couldn't get a lot of detail up because the web page isn't live yet, so we couldn't see the finishes. But we... found out that there were 17 attendants, thanks to Helen Patricia. Right, Mel, a bit of a wrap-up on launches for January, because the number certainly seems or feels like it's escalating. We, in fact, had 20 launches, in January so 20 for the year to date and out of those 20 launches seven have been in Australia six in the UK three in South Africa one in Austria one in Poland one in Japan and one in Germany so lots of activity worldwide with new events coming online thank you very much for crunching the numbers for us TOC yay for Australia we're leading the world gold for Australia hooray

01:16:35Melissa Ellis: Excellent. Alrighty, so that's nice. Green and gold on the podium for Australia Day weekend.

01:16:40Tony O'Connell: Just like the Commonwealth Games or the swimming events.

01:16:43Melissa Ellis: Yeah, but they're not all Commonwealth countries, so it's kind of like Eurovision.

01:16:51Tony O'Connell: Hang on, we need Ollie to step in as co-host. We're going to talk Eurovision. It's not my style.

01:16:58Melissa Ellis: Okay, so anyway, we want to also remind people, we're not going to harp on about it, but we are entering a team for the Bellarine Sunset Run in Portarlington on the 8th of February. It's getting close, guys. It's not very far away. Come on down and take part or just spectate. You want to join our team, you're most welcome. Just add us. Our team name is The adventurers.

parkrun adventure challenge — Stephen Cox - idea credited to himlistener challenge

01:17:19Tony O'Connell: Mel, we heard a little bit earlier in one of our Dazza's comments about an idea for a listener challenge. And I think we should run with it. What do you reckon?

01:17:29Melissa Ellis: Well, being as I didn't have any other ideas, I agree.

01:17:34Tony O'Connell: Okay, so courtesy of Stephen Cox, our challenge this week is to photobomb an adventurer's photo and submit that. And bonus points if they have absolutely no idea that you were actually doing it at the time. It'd be great to see people getting even tagged in Dazza's in a picture that they don't realise they've been photobombed in. So let's see how creative we can get for it.

01:18:00Melissa Ellis: I like that. But don't get right up it close. Go right, go far back in the distance so it's really obscure and they don't actually like, they're quite happy with their parkrun photo. They've got no idea anybody's in the background doing a photo bomb. That would be fun. I'm going to get on to that.

Sign-off

01:18:16Tony O'Connell: Now, where are you next parkrun day?

01:18:19Melissa Ellis: Well, it's that time of the pod, isn't it? We're winding it up. And yes, it's time to start thinking about where we are next week. I am doing another repeat in the greater Melbourne area. And it's one of my faves, I've got to say. It's Coburg parkrun. And I think I've been there three times previously, previously so much like Sale parkrun I'm going to be turning up for my fourth visit now there's a reason I'm going and the reason is a man's in town with his beautiful wife Christine and it's christine's birthday so I am gonna head over there and help her celebrate her birthday she's chosen to come to the greatest state of all the places she could go for her birthday she's coming down here what does that tell you TOC

01:19:02Tony O'Connell: Well, naturally, and I believe that's why Rex was actually at Coburg last week, but he got the weekend wrong. He was there for the birthday party and he just got the date wrong.

01:19:10Melissa Ellis: Exactly. Rex, I missed you by one week, dude. You really got to submit your itinerary to me when you're coming next time so I can, like, look at my diary. But anyway, what about you, Toc? Where are you going to be next weekend?

01:19:24Tony O'Connell: It's rather funny that you're heading east and I'm heading west, and I'm almost heading to your place. I'm heading over near Meltown to Rockbank to a parkrun called Aintree. So that, I believe, is only probably, what, 10km from your place or so?

01:19:39Melissa Ellis: Well, it's a little bit more than 10km, but as the crow flies, it's within... Well, it's not my closest parkrun because Toolern Creek is my closest. And I think Peppertree might pip Aintree as the next closest. But yes, it's pretty close indeed.

01:19:56Tony O'Connell: Geographically, it's close. But we're going to Aintree parkrun to once again complete our statesman status.

01:20:03Melissa Ellis: Hooray!

01:20:04Tony O'Connell: For the short term before the next one comes along.

01:20:06Melissa Ellis: What week would it be at Aintree? I think it must be up to about seven or eight.

01:20:10Tony O'Connell: Yeah, somewhere around that. So it's had time to settle in and hopefully we'll get to see who the regular local crowd are.

01:20:16Melissa Ellis: You'll see lots of MCR runners out there, you will, Toc. I hope you have a great time.

01:20:21Tony O'Connell: I certainly think the MCR t-shirts will be much in visual recognition.

01:20:27Melissa Ellis: Now, next week, I am recording again with Simon. So thank you very much for joining me this week, Toc. It was a pleasure, as always.

01:20:38Tony O'Connell: Always good, Mel. Always great to catch up and always good to talk. All things wonderful and parkrun. And once again, congrats to those wonderful teams that have won an award in the last couple of days. And congrats to all those teams that haven't won an award, but just congrats for the marvellous things that you do out there for your communities.

01:20:57Melissa Ellis: oh fantastic words I couldn't have said it better myself but 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 and we'll see you all next week for more adventures

01:21:05[outro theme playing]

01:21:26Unidentified speaker: It's free, it's free, it's free.