Episode 421 - There's No Place Like Home

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

Welcome

00:00:24Tony O'Connell: And welcome to episode 421 of the parkrun adventurers podcast, a podcast about life, if your life is all about parkrun. My name's Toc and I'm coming to you from Boon Wurrung Country.

00:00:36Melissa Ellis: And my name's Melissa Ellis, coming to you from Wurundjeri Country. It's been a while Toc, haven't seen you for, ooh, what, eight days?

00:00:44Tony O'Connell: Yeah, it's been funny Mel, we've had a couple of weeks in a row of catching up on parkrun days and this week we went our separate ways.

00:00:52Melissa Ellis: But funnily enough, we were both at home. That's a coincidence, isn't it? Although you did tend to go there a little bit more than me.

00:01:00Tony O'Connell: I was going to say it is a little bit more of a rarity that you're visiting the creek than me visiting what's becoming referred to as Voldemort parkrun. We can't mention it.

00:01:12Melissa Ellis: But what we should mention, Toc, is... This is the first time that we've had opportunity on the pod to reflect about palm25.

00:01:20Tony O'Connell: Yeah, there's a couple of things I think we need to have a chat about. Mel, we had our recording that almost didn't record that was miraculously recovered. And... Yeah, it was a really good day, the recording. We had about 30-odd people in the Queenstown Bowling Club. The bowling club were very generous in giving us a venue for the day. They liked the fact that a community group wanted to use it at Melbourne. Our whole palm experience this year was probably a little bit more relaxed and a little bit more informal. We had more group activities. And certainly the group activities after I left on the chat group, they were still going out and doing things and that. And I was on the plane getting FOMO because they were going off and doing exciting things that I wanted to do.

00:02:13Melissa Ellis: I know. They went on the gondola and the luge and I didn't get to do that. That was the downfall. But anyway, it was. And thank you. I really enjoyed the more relaxed tempo, especially I think it was a brilliant idea pushing the recording to the afternoon. Big fan of that.

00:02:33Tony O'Connell: Yeah, it was. It gave us that little bit of time to actually stop and have breakfast and do park faff, which as hosts, you generally have to take off really quickly to get the sound gear set up. We had a brilliant fella, Tony Ross, turn up, and set the sound gear up for us and I think he told us on the day that was we were his fifth sound gear set up for the day and he still had a couple to go and that was like two o'clock in the afternoon so a big busy day setting up audio yes that was good and thank goodness we didn't lose the recording I should try to get my head around how it all works so that I'm not so clueless

00:03:19Melissa Ellis: Ironically, we thought we lost the majority of the recording, but it was the second bit, the end bit, that somehow was blank and I think that was just perhaps me unplugging the cable and plugging it back in and maybe the laptop didn't recognise the equipment again.

00:03:40Tony O'Connell: I don't know. I don't know, Mel. Very technical. My level of technicality is trying to read some prepared notes.

00:03:48Melissa Ellis: And I think so, numbers wise, we roughly had 30 odd people to each activity, didn't we?

00:03:56Tony O'Connell: Oh, we probably had, you know, probably 10 normal people and 20 odd people. They weren't all odd. But Mel, I think if you looked at our costume dinner when we walked into the pub at night, I think some of the costumes were a little bit odd. Some of them were very creative.

00:04:19Melissa Ellis: Tony O'Connell, you didn't walk in, you strutted. LAUGHTER

00:04:25Tony O'Connell: Mel, a bit of a back story for the listeners. When I rang the pub and organised a group booking, I said, look, we're going to turn up in costumes. And the public basically said to me, I don't care what you wear as long as you're wearing underwear. So that was the rule that went out on the costume notes. Just make sure you're wearing your underwear. Yeah. And Mel, some of the costumes, we had some great effort. Our last year's winners turned up as Queen's Cancels, you know, taking the Queen's theme on a completely different tangent. But our winner, Mel, you want to give us a little bit of a story about our winner?

00:05:07Melissa Ellis: Yes, well, we can divulge that it was Tracey in a Tutu, one of our esteemed roving reporters that came dressed as the Queen Mary. Now, Tracey was decked out in a lovely white shirt with a tie and captain's epaulets on her shoulders that she'd made with cardboard and buttons. And she had a cardboard ship that she was wearing, around her middle as the queen Mary of course and a captain's cap and it was very effective and all handmade and she'd brought it all the way over from Australia in her suitcase I believe so that was very impressive and as usual we outsourced the choice so the bar staff I believe picked the winner tock

00:06:00Tony O'Connell: Yet the bar staff actually had a couple of people that they really liked their costumes and they were full bar staff and they were actually divided to all. So what they did, they went out and got a couple of locals from the bar out the back and got a couple of the locals to walk through and help them with their decision making. So there were some great costumes there, but yet Tracey was a very deserved winner. I think she went to a great deal there. I love the ship and it was hard navigating around the crowd when you've got a ship that's about a metre long. forward and back of you. So great effort, Trace.

00:06:34Melissa Ellis: And a special shout out to Lyndell. She came as Queen's Vanilla Essence and she was a mustard-coloured vanilla essence bottle. Also all handmade and very impressive.

00:06:46Tony O'Connell: yeah lots of great costumes and just a great night great social night yeah everyone just sitting around talking dressed up and people walking into the room looking at us and sort of walking out shaking their heads I love that it is my favourite part of the weekend yep recordings all over everything's done it's time to let the hair down and just enjoy it

00:07:07Melissa Ellis: Yes, and we were very lucky. We had beautiful weather while we were over there in Queenstown.

00:07:11Tony O'Connell: Although early dusting of snow, that Tuesday dusting of snow we got there on the peaks around it certainly cooled it down a little bit. But yeah, very little rain. Even for the week we were there, there was very little rain. So well done, New Zealand.

00:07:24Melissa Ellis: Yeah, we just had one wet day. One wet day in Dunedin, but that's okay. We were able to make use of the local museums.

00:07:35Tony O'Connell: A great trip, Mel, and it's something that the Brains Trust in the next couple of months will start to put our heads together and think about next year.

00:07:45Melissa Ellis: I'm saying nothing, nothing, nothing.

00:07:47Tony O'Connell: But that decision is not going to be made for some time. We don't want to set any expectations that there's an announcement coming soon.

00:07:53Melissa Ellis: You had to bring it up.

00:07:54Tony O'Connell: Because there's not. Well, I had to bring it up because it's been brought up so many times already with me. But that's something that's down the track a little bit. There's not even a thought bubble at this stage, Mel.

00:08:07Melissa Ellis: let's move on so we've got um one bit of feedback well it's not really feedback from last week's episode with Simon and Sarah I noticed in Ruth Perkins' roving report, Toc, that she referenced a dingle and I think it was referenced more than once and I'm like what the heck is a dingle so I had to look it up because it's not a familiar term to us here in Australia. And it turns out that a dingle is a description meaning a deep wooded valley or dell. So there you go, adventurers. There's your lesson for today. Well, I suppose the UK listeners don't really need to know because they would know what a dingle is. But I don't think that's what it is in Australia.

00:08:49Tony O'Connell: That's not what it is. No, no. That's moving along quite rapidly here, Mel. Yeah, parkrun Day just gone. Well, the last couple of weeks because, well, we haven't had a chat for a couple of weeks now, but my week, I'm going to start with last weekend. Inverloch turned 500 and it's something that I'm really proud to have been involved with all the way through. We had 271 finishes, which for us for a late April weekend is quite a big parkrun for us. And we had so many people celebrating milestones that had saved it up knowing the 500 was coming. We actually, on the day, we would have had four 250s, but someone that had run their 240 nights at Inverloch said, accidentally went to bushy and ran bushy and then did the London marathon so just accidentally but so we had three 250s on the day we had 100 we had a 50 and we had a v50 as well and the lady with the v50 and one of the 250 was also her birthday on the day so we had great day celebration at the stump

00:10:00Melissa Ellis: And the theme was blue, correct?

00:10:01Tony O'Connell: The theme was very blue, yes.

00:10:04Melissa Ellis: So you've had a big fortnight or a big month of costumes, Tony. I saw the photo of you. Would you like to describe what you dressed up as?

00:10:12Tony O'Connell: Well, Mel, the theme was blue and it would be fair to say that I was very blue. I had a blue morph suit that came out of the cupboard at home. I actually rode to parkrun not in the morph suit, because I wouldn't have been able to see too well, but got to parkrun and put the morph suit on, and a few people were having trouble working out actually who it was, because it's a full head cover, covers a whole lot of you.

00:10:40Melissa Ellis: I reckon I would have picked it from your running style, because you know your friends' running style. You can see your friends from a distance when you know them.

00:10:49Tony O'Connell: Yeah, but Mel, I've got the old man injury happening last week where I've done a calf. And so I walk parkrun this week.

00:10:58Melissa Ellis: What have you done, Toc?

00:11:01Tony O'Connell: Oh, just a minor niggle.

00:11:03Melissa Ellis: Is this because you were overdoing the things that your physio said you shouldn't do?

00:11:07Tony O'Connell: Definitely not. No, definitely not. No, we're not going to take accountability for our own poor life choices like that. No, my physio did remind me that as someone who runs an awful lot, things like massage and foam rolling and stretching and things might have a useful place in my repertoire. I do remember I had a massage back in September, so it was only a few months ago. So let's just say that I'm out for two to four weeks and... It could have been a lot worse. It could have been a 16 weeker. So I'm taking two to four quite happily and enjoying a rest.

00:11:52Melissa Ellis: And so did the community all dress up in blue? Was there a sea of blue?

00:11:56Tony O'Connell: We had quite a lot of blue. The RD on the day had a fluoro blue wig on. A lot of people dressed up in blue and quite a few dressed up in the green because we had the three 250s. Oh, of course. So a couple of them had made their friends and turned up.

00:12:09[crosstalk]

00:12:12Melissa Ellis: The listeners can't say that I'm all confused why people would come in green for a 500th. And congratulations to you because Inverloch was your baby and Inverloch was your first event that you launched before you went on to bigger and better things. But you've stayed so loyal to Inverloch and you've been such a big part of that community. I know they appreciate it. I saw all the comments on social media.

00:12:35Tony O'Connell: Yeah, no, I love Envy. It's a great place and it's really good to go back to. And as we know, as the listeners know, I have been getting back there a little bit more lately. And that's probably because my Nendies at the moment are all over six and a half hours driving away.

00:12:51Melissa Ellis: I feel your pain.

00:12:56Tony O'Connell: I could nearly swim to Tassie quicker. But Mel, let's talk about what you were up to. What's your parkrun been like the last couple of weeks?

00:13:04Melissa Ellis: Well, on Saturday it was my 23rd visit to Toolern Creek and we wanted somewhere close to home and Dave didn't want to break his tourist streak. So what have I created, Tony? Yeah.

00:13:17Tony O'Connell: It's rather ironic that the not breaking the tourist streak involves crossing the road.

00:13:22Melissa Ellis: Yeah, well, that's indicative of how much time he spends with me, isn't it? Because anyway, we actually ran to the event and managed 5Ks before we started parkrun to claim a 10K run for the Garmin 10K weekend badge. So there's so many ways that you can make your running interesting, isn't it? And for those who follow me on Strava or Garmin, it's evident from the Strava trace just how close I actually live to the Toolern Creek course. Sadly, though, due to the trail being on the opposite side of Toolern Creek, I have found it impossible to find a quicker way across the gorge because Toolern Creek lies quite in a deep gorge. Anyway, sad face. But, Toc, the week before, we were both at event three of Pyramid Hill Golf Trail parkrun in country Victoria. Pyramid Hill launched while we were away in New Zealand with 73 finishes and has been seeing a slow drip feed of tourists attend each week since. This was our 59th event together. So my Tokidex is 59. Well, that's with us both running because I think I have volunteers turned off on my 5K app for challenges. But to give a little context on Pyramid Hill, it's located in the Shire of Loddon between Bendigo and Kerang and as of last census had a recorded population of 598. So it is not a big town. It was a two and a half hour drive northwest for us and we travelled up on Good Friday to stay overnight at the local pub. The town's name comes from a 187 metre high granite rise named by explorer Major Thomas Mitchell in 1836. And Pyramid Hill is largely a farming community. It's on the traditional lands of the Barapa Barapa. And on this note, I wanted to say that I was particularly impressed with the acknowledgement to the traditional country that was spoken by volunteer Timekeeper Colleen Hampson. It was truly special and I instantly wished I'd been able to capture it on audio to share. So anyone who might be heading out to that event, please capture the acknowledgement for me on your mobile voice recorder. Although I think, Toc, you mentioned there might be some sort of audio floating around from the launch.

00:15:36Tony O'Connell: There was, Mel, and I'm going to try and get a copy of that because it was a brilliant acknowledgement, wasn't it?

00:15:42Melissa Ellis: Yeah, it was. So as you can probably tell by the name, the event is also at a golf course. There is an 18-hole golf course running around the base of the hill and the parkrun follows the inside of the golf course trail for three laps, starting and finishing at the same place by the clubhouse. It's quite an undulating course, but the uphills are short and is always rewarded with a downhill to make up some time. I found the area really beautiful. It had an air of being a sacred place in which I felt like I should be searching for Miranda on Valentine's Day amongst the rock formations which tower above you. That's probably only a reference us Aussies will get, afterwards everybody headed back into town to the coffee bank for brunch where Dave and I enjoyed chatting to rd of the morning Tom Smith Tom was involved in helping bring parkrun to the township through his involvement in the pyramid hill progress association and is a fifth generation pig farmer who has been instrumental in contributing to pyramid hill's large filipino community and that's due to

00:16:45Tracy: employing the Filipinos at his piggery.

00:16:49Melissa Ellis: He's created employment opportunities within the district and pioneered a hemp processing plant in the Shire's former pet food factory. Toc, these are the mornings that change you just a little bit. The places, the people, all thanks to a desire to travel around exploring places one parkrun at a time.

00:17:07Tony O'Connell: Mel, I have to agree. Pyramid Hill was a little bit special as a parkrun. You turn up at an event that's only got about 30 people in it, and just the atmosphere, as you said, that acknowledgement was just really special to have been at. My drive was a little bit longer. We were five and a half hours to get there. But... You mentioned staying in the pub. I spoke to the publican and he was actually really amazed. Five of the rooms at the pub, and it wasn't a big pub, five of the rooms were booked out by parkrunners. For a small community, the effects... I like to think that the effects that parkrun can have. One of the people we were talking to Friday night, he'd been there three days already. So he went up and stayed at the pub three days. He's eating out. We went up. We ate out. We went for breakfast the next day. We dropped in the supermarket and grabbed some stuff, all that sort of thing. The effect on a small town, it's just that little positive impact. And then just, as you said, the Filipinos that work at the piggery, there was a few of those that actually walked out to Pyramid Hill, which is probably a couple of K walk out to get to the event. We saw a group walking out on the road and I thought, I wonder where they're heading. They're going to parkrun. Should have known. Yeah, but no it was a special and it is a beautiful little place helped by the fact that it was Easter when we're up there and there were Easter eggs dotted around all the course after the first lap the rd said to me did you grab an Easter egg on your way around I said no no she said grab one so I did stuck it in my pocket ran a

00:18:53Melissa Ellis: Dave mentioned that and I was supposed to make some funny comment about you having hot pants or something. And I don't think you were the only one that went back from Pyramid Hill with melted chocolate in their pockets, Vicky. Yeah. I'm looking at you, Vicky. I don't think she listens. But no, there was a broad group of Victorian tourists also there and we knew most of them. So that was really lovely. We missed a couple of our friends by a week. I really enjoyed it. I even scored Easter eggs on the night before in the pub at dinner. The publican was going around with Easter eggs.

00:19:34Tony O'Connell: Well, some of us scored Easter eggs on the night before at dinner. And look, it was really funny. I met a bloke there, Peter Tyer, at Pyramid Hill. I told him about the Inverloch 500. He travels around a little bit. So he turned up at Inverloch this week and he picked me out in my blue morph suit. And how you walk up and pick someone that you've met for about 20 minutes over breakfast a week before and pick them out in a blue morph suit, that's got me rattled.

00:20:04Melissa Ellis: I heard you talk, Toc. I heard your voice. It is distinct. All right, moving on. We've probably said enough about Pyramid Hill, but we do love you, Pyramid Hill. What's next? The London Marathon, Tony. It's been and happened and Manchester and Ballarat and they all happened on Sunday.

00:20:24Tony O'Connell: There's lots of running going on Sunday, Mel. And great to see so many of our listeners and people that we know competing in one of the three different events that we're on. Special congrats to two of our reporters, Calum and Ruth, who ran in the Manchester Marathon. And Mel, have you seen Eman's time at London? No.

00:20:44Melissa Ellis: Was that a PB? Oh my goodness. He just continues to impress. I thought he backed off. I thought he was running less, but two hours, 48.

00:20:53Tony O'Connell: Hello. Yeah, just under 2 hours 48. That is flying.

00:20:57Melissa Ellis: Yeah, good job, B-Man.

00:20:59Tony O'Connell: Plenty of other listeners we know ran at Ballarat. There was quite a few, and I'm not going to start mentioning a few because I don't want to misname a few and miss a few. But, yeah, look, great to see so many people out there at other running festivals, and, yeah, well done, everyone.

00:21:13Melissa Ellis: A busy week. What else happened, though, Toc?

parkrun news bulletin

00:21:17Tony O'Connell: Well, probably some stats. Wait a minute. Let's go to Cross the Ditch. In New Zealand this week, there was 10,497 finishes. That was just down on last week. They were supported by 967 volunteers, which was up on last week. Hamilton Park retained the title as the most intimate parkrun with 23, which was identical to last week. And up at Cornwall Park, the numbers jumped by 161 from last week. So that was the biggest jump. There were no attendance records in New Zealand this week.

00:21:51Melissa Ellis: So what was going on at Cornwall Park? Did they have a birthday?

00:21:54Tony O'Connell: I do not know, Mel. I should have done a bit more background work.

00:21:57Melissa Ellis: Was that where Alison was? She was somewhere where there was a birthday. Oh, you have a look while I read the next slot. Meanwhile, in Australia, we recorded 73,737 finishes with 6,069 volunteers. We saw 9,846 personal bests sent and Australia has now reached 1,667,270 registrations.

00:22:10[15 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:22:25Melissa Ellis: Two events saw new attendance records, both Wallaby Track, they increased by 17, and Prince of Wales, which increased by 83, and both are located in Ballarat, which hosted the marathon, as we previously mentioned.

00:22:40Tony O'Connell: Well, I've just done a quick deep dive into Cornwall Park, which was a very shallow dive, and it doesn't say anything about a birthday, so I think they might have just had a big jump in numbers.

00:22:49Melissa Ellis: Oh, okay, because there was things going on in New Zealand, which we will hear a bit more about later on. Okay, but in other global news, parkrun Global announced Elizabeth Duggan as interim chief executive officer following the decision of current CEO Russ Jeffries to step down. And there was a news post dated Thursday, the 24th of April 2025, which said, and I quote... Officially commencing the role on the 30th of April, Elizabeth, or Lil as she is known, joins parkrun following a decade at Active Surrey where she developed clear strategic direction and identity for the organisation alongside building a high-performing team and nurturing an engaged and capable board of trustees. Lil grew the organisation's reputation both locally and nationally as well as building its revenue and reserves. Describing herself as a relational leader, Lil looks forward to engaging with colleagues, partners, stakeholders and community groups over the coming months. Well connected across the physical activity sector, Lil said on her appointment. I have always been moved by parkrun's mission, its strong brand and clear values. The organisation's remarkable growth, both domestically and globally, is inspiring, including its success in fostering inclusion and engaging new audiences. Its commitment to removing barriers to participation and celebrating the power of physical activity, the outdoors and community resonates with my personal values as well as my professional experience. Helen Weird, Chair of the parkrun Global Board, on behalf of the trustees said, we're delighted to welcome Lil to the role of interim CEO at parkrun Global. She brings a wealth of experience and a passion for breaking down barriers to physical activity, aligning perfectly with parkrun's ongoing mission to enable as many people as possible to be active, social and outdoors in their local communities. The board and I, alongside the senior leadership team, are very much looking forward to working with Lil over the coming months supporting parkrun with its strategy. And Russ Jeffries, current Chief Executive Officer, said, It has been a pleasure to lead parkrun over the past three years. I'd like to welcome Lil as my interim successor and wish her all the very best during her time with the organisation.

00:25:09Tony O'Connell: Mel, one of the things that struck me about this, and being one of the parkrun ambassadors, is we got a Slack post to let us know that this was happening. And there's a bit of a video clip attached to it from Lil, as she likes to be known. And one of the things I like, and hopefully it rings true, is that she said she likes to listen before she starts to... to talk to people. And I think that's going to be a very important part of things going forward is listening and responding to what people are saying.

00:25:43Melissa Ellis: Yep, get a feel for the room, Lil.

00:25:46Tony O'Connell: Yep. We can't keep everyone happy all the time because we have so many different things. We're a very broad church in parkrun and some people will want to go one way, some will want to go the completely opposite direction. But I think the important thing is recognising the direction that the bulk of the people are heading in and making sure that we're aligning with that direction.

00:26:08Melissa Ellis: And communication.

00:26:10Tony O'Connell: LAUGHTER Very much so. Speaking of communication, Mel, there's been a lot of communications around the UK relaunching their parkwalker initiative. The aim was to have the most walkers ever at parkrun. And thanks to Calum and Pippa in the UK, we've discovered that a Hazlehead parkrun in the UK had 97 parkwalkers out of a total of 114 volunteers. So that's 97 parkwalkers fulfilling the role on the roster today. That is huge. Obviously helped along by the fact that it's London and Manchester Marathon weekend. But we had our own big effort at a large number of parkwalkers at the Beaches recently. And 97 is just a massive number of parkwalkers.

00:27:01Melissa Ellis: Yeah, and that's great that they are still championing their parkwalker role and encouraging people to come out and be involved and not have to run. So that's good to see that that was successful. And I'm sure that numbers across the UK were bolstered with the initiative over the weekend.

00:27:23Tony O'Connell: And a great weekend to launch it too with so many people running at those two marathons on the Sunday that would have been quite happy to get out on Saturday and just walk at a probably more relaxed pace and save their legs up for the Sunday.

00:27:36Melissa Ellis: Well, that's what you typically do when you're a runner, isn't it? If you've got a big event on the Sunday, you walk parkrun.

00:27:41Tony O'Connell: Oh, apparently.

00:27:45Melissa Ellis: Do you know what? One time I even wore my jeans to parkrun to stop myself from running. And guess what I did, Toc? I ran in my jeans.

00:27:53Tony O'Connell: The day before my first aeromarathon, which is up at Wangaratta, we drove up to Albury and a couple of us went up in a car together and we got a little bit competitive and ended up running really quick. Aren't we silly? Yeah. That's why I volunteer now.

00:28:11Melissa Ellis: But also this week we heard that limited edition Gooda X parkrun sunnies. These frames are in the parkrun apricot colour and feature a tiny parkrun tree logo on the apricot mirrored reflective lens, as well as the parkrun frame and logo on the arm. Now I need to fess up and say that I've been wearing Goodas for many, many, many years, many many many and have been known to purchase them to colour code my outfits I have currently got 10 pairs of gooders so this will make pair number 11 but I had to grab a pair as they are going to match our adventurers logo top nicely they claim it to have an anti-slip coating to prevent slippage when sweating during activity and I can attest to that they do not budge so they are already available to order in the parkrun shop and it says available for dispatch from the 29th of April I think I got a notification to say today that they were being processed now I also love my good as I have three pairs of good as that I run in you're not trying hard enough

00:29:18Tony O'Connell: Oh, I should. But my problem with this is it's going to be like the parkrun shoes where they were for people with a more narrow foot. I have a big boof head. I need the BFG version of the Gooders. And I'm sure these are only available in the OGs, which are the skinny heads.

00:29:40Melissa Ellis: They are the standard. Well, the standard, see, they're the original Gooders. They're OGs. Yeah. Yeah, before they realised people had fatter heads.

00:29:49Tony O'Connell: Yeah, so I need the BFGs, which I think stands for Big Fat Gooders.

00:29:56Melissa Ellis: Oh, well. All you pig heads out there like me, you can enjoy your gooders and Tony will have to just be envious. Maybe they'll be so popular they'll bring them out in different sizes. You never know.

00:30:09Tony O'Connell: I'll just get one of my old pairs and spray paint them. That'd be right.

00:30:14Melissa Ellis: All right, I think we've waffled on enough. We, wow, half an hour. Oh my God, this is going to be a long pod. You're welcome.

00:30:20[background music]

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:30:21Melissa Ellis: Now let's throw to our roving reporters for intermission.

Roving report Calum Burrell — Market Bosworth Country Park parkrun

00:30:36Calum Burrell: Good morning parkrun adventurers, it's Calum here with Lindsay at Market Bosworth Country parkrun and today I'm with Hugh who's today's Run Director at event 120 I think it was? Yeah. Yeah, so tell us about today's event first of all.

00:30:53Hugh: It's been an eventful event I would imagine out of our 120. We've had a Run Director go down with food poisoning last night so I've stepped in being marginally less ill this morning. We've had a faller which does happen on a trail course like ours. But that always causes a little bit of drama, especially if it's away from the finish area and we need to get over to them. Thankfully it was a very experienced parkrunner. I think it was due to be his 400th today. So he was very phlegmatic about it and understands the risks of running on a trail course. But we've sorted that out. We've had a dog on a waste harness to sort out, so lots of dramas but thankfully almost 200 I think it's going to be runners running around through the bluebells on our lovely trail course so it's been a great morning but an eventful one yeah so just describe the course for us it's a two lap trail course mostly through the woods we've got some stewing ponds a boating lake a little bridge to run over so it's quite interesting mix of surfaces and scenery it's one that I always say to people try and run once in each season of the year because we have sort of buttercups on the on the floor uh by the finish area uh at certain times of the year the bluebells are out at the minute beautiful so it does look it just looks a completely different place at different types of year when the trees are all uh in different uh in different bloom and everything so yeah it's a nice cool uh run today and perfect conditions for running and uh

00:32:13[crosstalk]

00:32:25Calum Burrell: Yeah, in fact, with that runner that fell, I ended up doing three and a half miles today because I looked back to one of the Marshals to get one of the Marshals to come down to help him. I'm glad he's okay now. Yeah, I was running with his wife, Alison, who's probably shy of 500. So I said, have you got any plans? And she said, no. I said, well, you probably did a good job, really. Let's talk about your parkrun journey. Have you always started here?

00:32:48Hugh: No, I mean, well, I'm the Event Director here, so I came up with a concept for this probably six or seven years ago, and it took four or five years just to get it off the ground. It was a bit of a period where nothing was happening. I started my parkrun journey at Braunstone, sort of 10 miles up the road.

00:33:06Calum Burrell: That's kind of Leicester way.

00:33:07Hugh: Yeah, just towards Leicester. This is where I grew up though and came to school. So this park I'd always thought would make a brilliant parkrun. You'll see the six oak trees just here.

00:33:21Calum Burrell: They were planted in memory of six friends of mine who died in car crashes when I was a teenager.

00:33:26Hugh: That's why the start and finish sort of straddle that. So it's sort of quite a sentimental place for me as well. So set this one up a couple of years ago, but still very much try and run every time I'm not run directing and do a lot of touring as well.

00:33:29[crosstalk]

00:33:41Calum Burrell: I know John and Helen, they're linked with this parkrun. See them on tour. I saw them at Black Rocks a few weeks ago.

00:33:46Hugh: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it's really helpful. John's my Co-Event Director. And I think kind of having him and myself both quite keen parkrun tourists um I think I mean I've done over 200 John and Helen have done I think they got their 250 different events the other week so um to have that sort of broad knowledge of different parkruns kind of we can bring things that we learn from everywhere we go uh to our own events so that really helps so speaking of touring uh have you got three favourite moments or different locations what would you be if you had a top three or you know Yeah, that's a good one. Bushy's always one. I think I've done it a couple of times. It's quite iconic, isn't it? I had a little mad rush. I did a couple in South Africa just before COVID, which got me sort of accidentally near finishing the alphabet. So then I had a little flurry of events and finished my first alphabet the week before they blocked off the COVID. Was that beginning with a Z, was it? No, I did the Z in Cape Town, so just having that done, that sort of made me start to think about the alphabet. I did a Z last weekend in Holland as well, so now I'm starting to think about second and third alphabets.

00:34:44[crosstalk]

Roving report Ingrid — Australian Standing Stones parkrun

00:35:03Calum Burrell: okay well thank you for speaking to me today and uh thank you for uh welcoming us and thank you for all you do for parkrun it's been a fab morning as you say eventful but uh I'm glad you know we're nearly at the end and uh I think everyone's uh in one piece and it's uh no thank you for all you do and uh and uh all the best for the future brilliant, thanks Calum thank you hi adventurers it's Ingrid and I'm here at Australian Standing Stones parkrun with the rd Andrew how are you Andrew

00:35:31Andrew: Very well, thanks. So lovely, drizzly morning up here.

00:35:35Ingrid: Yeah, I did see there was thunderstorms on the forecast and I was a bit worried we might be cancelled, but it went ahead and it was a great day. Now, Andrew, it's your first RD here, but not your first RD ever. Tell me your story.

00:35:48Andrew: Yeah, that's correct. Started doing parkrun in about 2014 when my now wife discovered the Couch to 5K app and So we started doing that and had a lovely time and found some local parkruns in Newcastle, did a fair bit of volunteering, including some RD roles down at the Beaches, which is still one of the best courses in Australia, and I will not have any arguments about that. And then we moved up to Glen Innes and got stuck into volunteering up here.

00:36:15Ingrid: Yeah, and I hear that you've RD'd, well, you've RD'd once today, but you volunteered more than you've run. Having done the course, I think that's fairly sensible. It's not what you'd call flat, unless you were bonkers, I think. So, yeah, it's undulating.

00:36:30Andrew: It has some slight elevation changes. That's correct, yep.

00:36:34Ingrid: Yeah, and it's quite lovely. You do a couple of rings of the standing stones there, which is quite lovely. On a beautiful clear morning, it would just be very picturesque, I think. But there are a couple of hills. Do you want to describe the course briefly? It is quite a complicated course.

00:36:48Andrew: Yeah, it is quite complicated. I've only run it twice and I've volunteered way more than that. So I'm not the best person to give you a blow, blow, blow detail of it. But it's a bit of a downhill, then a bit of an uphill, then some more uphill, then a bit of a flat, then some downhill and then a lot more uphill basically. And you repeat that twice. It's a lovely trail run, but it definitely has some elevations.

00:37:13Ingrid: Yeah, and I would say that as someone who doesn't like hills, I would say it was quite lovely. It's quite a lovely course. Now, I have heard about how you got into parkrun. What would your favourite parkruns be? You've done quite a few parkruns around the place. What would your top three be, not including your home parkrun? And I will allow the beaches because you're quite passionate.

00:37:36Andrew: I'll have the beaches as an honourable mention, I guess, for this one, because it's just such a fantastic course. I mean, being able to run on sand with dolphins sort of jumping through the waves, it's pretty special. But my top three that I've done... Probably in number three would be Studley in Melbourne. Just a really lovely course, a lovely suspension bridge along the Yarra. It just had a good feel about it. Second would be East Coast parkrun in Singapore. Just, once again, something completely different. The humidity is a challenge, but it's such a beautiful course and just the view out is amazing. But my favourite parkrun is more to do with the... events surrounding it, I guess, in some ways than anything else. It's Worsley Woods in the UK, near Manchester. We did it in Boxing Day 2015. There was heavy rain. It was freezing cold. I was running through water up to my knees and I'm about six foot three, so it was pretty deep water in some places. I fell over at the start line. I still got a PB there. So it's a very, very fun course, that one.

00:38:46Ingrid: That sounds more like a triathlon than a run. That sounds great. Now, I do have to ask the question that all the adventurers will be asking. How do you feel about this parkrun being abbreviated to ASS?

00:39:00Andrew: It's the only logical name you can give it. I mean, we always just invite people to come along and just have a crack at it. Very good. Sorry, I saw your joke there.

00:39:11Ingrid: There may have been some pre-discussion just letting you know behind the curtain there. Okay, Adventurers, look, I highly recommend do check the course page because it will cancel if it's very wet because it would be dangerous with the trail run. But it's a glorious course and yeah, I highly recommend. Okay, Adventurers, some late breaking news. I'm just here with Judy. Judy, can you tell me what you called the field up at the top of the parkrun?

00:39:35Tracy: The field at the top of parkrun at the Australian Standing Stones in Glen Innes is the Jousters Field.

00:39:41Ingrid: And why is it called the Jousters Field?

00:39:44Tracy: For our annual Celtic Festival, which acknowledges great Celtic nation and Celtic heritage, and we have Jousters attend.

00:39:50Ingrid: So come and visit and enjoy your own night's tale. So if you didn't have an excuse to come up here before, I think we've got you one. Now, the parkrun is cancelled on the weekend of the Celtic Festival, so make it a two-weeker. But, yeah, I've not been to a parkrun with a jousting feel, so I just thought that was worth mentioning.

Roving report Paul Kitching — Port Broughton parkrun

00:40:09Paul Kitching: G'day fellow parkrun adventurers. It's PK here checking in for another roving report. It's been a while, but I haven't been doing much touristing. But we did head, gosh, north, northwest this weekend. And it being the Anzac Day long weekend, we headed off on the Friday, the Northern Expressway from Adelaide. And about two hours, 10 minutes, two hours, 15, we arrived in Port Broughton. And that was yesterday. It's now Saturday morning. And here I am in the car just about to get out and go and do the Port Broughton parkrun. Beautiful, beautiful area here, Port Broughton on the York Peninsula of South Australia. It's nice. It's a fishing community. It's Of course, we did come here to do the parkrun, but also to check out the local community and enjoy everything that they have here. It is well known for being a course that is mainly on the beach here. You start, it's on the foreshore and you start near the jetty. There's a fantastic sign that lets everyone know. That's a permanent sign that lets everyone know, about parkrun it's got a photo and a description of the course as well so that's good to have and hopefully encourages other people to do it but yeah it's out and back and apparently um that's what my research tells me and it's on the beach and you may get a little bit wet if the high uh if there's a high tide uh but can't wait to go and check it out so let's do that and then I'll chat with some of the crew after So I'm now with Alex and Tracy, who are running this joint today and doing a great, great job. How long have you been involved with parkrun, Alex?

00:41:54Alex: Oh, probably about five years, I think. Excellent. Five years when I started at Port Broughton.

00:41:59Paul Kitching: Yeah, love it. Well, this is a beautiful... Yeah, sorry, we are at Port Broughton, of course, as you heard in my intro. And, Tracey, how long have you been involved with this program?

00:42:07Tracy: I started right at the beginning when we were here and when we had our trial, so we've been over six years old.

00:42:13Paul Kitching: Awesome. Yeah, you were just saying when I asked you before how long, you said, hang on a minute, someone's coming over the line. This will help us work it out because this kid here was... Born at parkrun.

00:42:22Tracy: Well, not at parkrun. He's our parkrun baby. He's six years old and he comes almost every week.

00:42:28Paul Kitching: I love that. Fantastic. Well, you've got a beautiful parkrun. Why do you do parkrun?

00:42:34Tracy: I just love the concept. Love the people. I love meeting new people that come and seeing where they're from. Love the concept of going elsewhere. I'm going to Tokyo and to East Fire. Oh, my gosh.

00:42:44[crosstalk]

00:42:45Paul Kitching: Oh, my gosh.

00:42:46Tracy: So I'm going to Tokyo to do parkrun.

00:42:48Paul Kitching: Awesome.

00:42:49Tracy: And just love, yeah, being active and meeting great people. Awesome.

00:42:53Paul Kitching: I better let you, my wife's coming over the line, so it's always important that she gets her time, Alex. Yeah, why do you do parkrun?

00:43:02Alex: Well, one day I thought I'll just give it a go, go out for a run and discovered that it's pretty good for my mental health and I got more involved in running and I love the community here. It's such a friendly parkrun and they're like my parkrun family now.

00:43:16Paul Kitching: That's a beautiful way to look at it. Well done. You're sporting your black volunteer t-shirt, the long sleeve one looks great. You rate the long sleeve one?

00:43:25Alex: I rate it, yep, 10 out of 10.

00:43:26Paul Kitching: Awesome. Good to hear.

00:43:27[crosstalk]

00:43:28Alex: Especially when it's cold.

00:43:29Paul Kitching: Yeah, I know, right? It's a beautiful course. I'd heard about it, so you can get wet on this course.

00:43:35Tracy: Sometimes we can have a high tide probably once a year, so we're probably up a little bit higher. So it's that soft sand, but yeah, it's very pretty.

00:43:44Paul Kitching: It's fantastic. I love it. I don't think I've ever done a parkrun on the beach and out on the foreshore. Was it pretty easy to get it approved by council or did you have to, I don't know, some parkrun courses can be tricky?

00:43:57Tracy: Yeah, it did take a little bit of work, and one of our local police officers, when she was here, she was very keen to start the parkrun, so she worked at it and worked at it, and finally we got the spot. I love it. Yeah.

00:44:11Paul Kitching: And the community benefits, right? Yeah.

00:44:14Tracy: community and you know for us it's tourism because we have a lot of people that come from other areas it's the only reason we're here yeah yeah not the only reason yeah and and while they're here they they stay and book into the caravan park and have coffees here so it's great for our tourism

00:44:17[crosstalk]

00:44:29Paul Kitching: I love it, yes. Well, we went out on the jetty last night, saw people catching crabs. We're going to go for a drive today to check out some things. We're having dinner at the Port Broughton Hotel. So, yeah, we're pumping whatever we can into the local community as well.

00:44:42Alex: Yeah, the pub's awesome. So is the caravan park.

00:44:44Paul Kitching: Awesome. Well, thank you so much. I'll let you guys get back into it. I might go for a swim. I don't know.

00:44:49Tracy: Yeah, the water's good.

00:44:50Paul Kitching: Yeah.

00:44:50Tracy: You might see a dolphin.

00:44:52Paul Kitching: Oh, good. Awesome. Thank you so much for everything you do for parkrun, Tracy.

00:44:56Tracy: Thank you very much.

00:44:56Paul Kitching: And thank you, Alex.

00:44:57Tracy: Thanks.

00:44:58Paul Kitching: it on you there you go so that's uh some of the crew from the parkrun uh community here at Port Broughton uh yes I think I will go and have a swim there's a bloke out there um with his feet in the water already now standing out on the foreshore looking at the jetty admiring the beautiful surrounds there's a gorgeous jetty we went out last night and saw kids out there crabbing um yeah and uh Just waiting for some more crew to come over the line. And it was great here today. I think about I came in 18th and I was around 40 or so minutes. So, yeah, I reckon maybe 25 people here today. Great parkrun. Encourage you all to come and do Port Broughton. This is PK signing off.

00:45:35[background music]

00:45:48Tony O'Connell: And we're back from our roving reports, and it was good to hear the three different people coming in to us. We heard from Calum, who interviewed Hugh at Market Bosworth. Ingrid finally made it to ASS parkrun, where she was speaking to Andrew and Judy. I say finally because Ingrid Freedom walked that with us... Nearly 18 months ago and she'd been trying to get there a few times at that point and she still hadn't got there. You could see her childhood house from the course and she'd never made it back to there because they kept cancelling. And we heard from PK coming to us with Alex and Tracy from Port Broughton.

00:46:26Melissa Ellis: I want to speak more about Ingrid. I love that. Firstly, she says the more polite ass thing. Whereas we just say arse. Maybe it's a... Culture. Well, yeah, a regional dialect thing. But I had to have a laugh when she asked Andrew if he was happy with the abbreviation to arse, and he said he was, and that they tell everyone to come along and have a crack at it. They're embracing the arse.

00:46:59Tony O'Connell: They're taking it on. Yep. Well, we should move along.

Dazza's

00:47:04Tony O'Connell: And this week at Dazza's, Dazza has said, it's alien day. Doing a new parkrun can feel a bit alien, but some of those dress ups are downright weird. Were you an alien today? Or did you come in peace to somewhere familiar? Wherever you went and whatever saucer you took, let us know how you went. Dazza welcomes all, regardless of colour and number of arms. And I feel like he wrote this before he even saw my costume.

00:47:32Melissa Ellis: And I should just mention as well as the theme running through Dazza's about it being Alien Day, we also had our challenge that was put out by Sarah and Simon last week in the pod, the Listener Challenge, saying in honour of all Defence personnel, this Anzac Day, we would like you to incorporate something to represent the Anzac spirit. So that was also a theme going through. And we started off hearing from Budgie coming to us from New Zealand and Budgie said, Hi Dazza, it's Budgie here. I've had a great time collecting my frequent flyer miles after travelling to the South Island of New Zealand and attending palm25 in Queenstown. Yvette took me with her back to Australia in Umbagong parkrun in Canberra, my first visit to the ACT. Then she packed me up again and took me on my first visit to the North Island of New Zealand, to Wellington, to run at the beautiful Waitangi parkrun. This morning after parkrun, Yvette handed me over to fellow adventurers Chris and Karen Gore. They had taken me with them to Western Australia to do Bibra Lake parkrun in Perth. Stay tuned for more of my adventures. And there was a photo showing Chris and Karen receiving budgie from Yvette.

00:48:45Tony O'Connell: Right, Mel, moving across to South Africa, we had Johan. Back on home soil and my adventures took me to Cape Town this weekend, where in a short while we'll be off to Fish Hoek parkrun, for the extra parkrun celebrating freedom day yesterday I popped over to the beautiful Caledon Golf Course parkrun to complete the overberg region an added surprise was finding ej lands son of a friend there and there's a lovely selfie of Johan with the sun rising behind him over the course that was a great photo I really loved that one it was pretty and I almost got confused with the Oberg challenge when I saw the overberg region anyway

00:49:28Melissa Ellis: We also heard from Natalie Sopa, who came to us from New Zealand, and she said, Hanmer Forest parkrun with my mother. Very beautiful one lap through a forest. Also got my barcode scanned by Mark Inglis, a very inspirational New Zealander. Now, this photo interested me, Tony, because... Natalie and her friend were in a selfie frame and I noticed it's a very large selfie frame by New Zealand standards. So that sent me down a wormhole to understand the core flute situation happening across the ditch. Now what I did learn, courtesy of Alison, was that parkrun Asia Pacific don't provide New Zealand events with a selfie frame or pop-up of any kind. The reason there are core flutes at events in New Zealand is thanks to Queenstown founder and co-ED Chris Seymour. Chris is a sponsored running ambassador for Lululemon, or Lululemon, or however the heck you say it, and is able to nominate a charity for donation, of which he nominates parkrun to fund the frames. Alison says he supplied all the Southern events at the time and they got to have images pertinent to them. For instance, Gore has the trout on their selfie frame. However, that said, the Hanmer Forest core flute was self-sourced rather than from Chris. And I do believe the Hanmer Forest parkrun has local springs, so their parkrun core flute has images of, like, geysers, like Puarenga.

00:51:03Tony O'Connell: Yes, very much, very similar to Puarenga. Rightio, Mel. Moving across, and we're going to come back over the ditch, and we're going to go to New South Wales, and Sherry Brandtman has written in. After a few failed attempts since its launch, our UDO, Unidentified Driving Object, successfully made it to the beautiful Dhunggaarr Reserve parkrun. Abby scored herself a last-minute volley as Barcode Scanner. Small attendance today, mostly visitors. Very friendly crowd. Ran into fellow adventurers, Sherry Cottle and Jason. And Sherry was on theme with the selfie of herself and Abby with a selfie frame and there might have been some creative photoshopping involved with the Anzac Poppy wreath showing in the centre of the frame. Well done and thanks for listening.

00:51:57Melissa Ellis: Now we also heard from Chloe Bravos who was also in New South Wales. So New South Wales and New Zealand were very good on brand this weekend. Yes. Chloe said, we felt a bit alien at the very dry Tamworth wetlands today. Got my tea so that Dave and I could both get effed together to achieve Alphabeteer status. I was certainly feeling effed off with the final hill at Tamworth wetlands. Who puts a 50mm uphill slog leading up to the finish flags? And there was a picture of our potty-mouthed bravos in the Tamworth Wetlands event court flute.

00:52:35Tony O'Connell: Mel, continuing along with our theme of NSW parkruns, we're going to jump across to the United Kingdom where we speak to Helen Rudder. And Helen had to say, Andy and I met Stanley the Dachshund, the UK Vitality parkwalk mascot at Pymmes. We walked for the big parkwalk, but also because I have London Marathon tomorrow. And the photo was of Helen and Andy holding Stanley. And I think we have a few adventurers running London. Good luck, Helen. So there was... more than just the ones we mentioned earlier. Obviously, there's quite a few. And as I said, I didn't want to start listing everyone because I was sure that we'd miss people.

00:53:19Melissa Ellis: Now, Sarah Maas, Mass, Mass, came to us from New South Wales again. After a massive Anzac Day yesterday in Brisbane, we drove the alien spaceship to Kingscliff, passing the sunny parkruns to arrive at the wettest parkrun I have ever done, it was pouring rain so I made the decision to run barefoot turned out to be a good choice as I ran my fastest time this year celebrated with an Anzac Day biscuit and there was lots of emojis in there of running people rain clouds bare feet and medals so congratulations Sarah and there was a selfie from Ryan of himself and Sarah on the beach so it looked nice at least

00:53:59Tony O'Connell: It certainly did. And coming to us from the West Side, we had Andrew Turner. I completed my Cowell at Mount Clarence parkrun in Albany on the shore of King George Sound from where many Anzacs departed Australia for the final time. A beautiful morning and a friendly crew of volunteers. Happy to nab the number one token and that's now one from every state in the Northern Territory now. I might have to try another run in the ACT to try and complete the set. And Andrew shared a stunning view of the King George Sound coastline.

00:54:31Melissa Ellis: Congratulations, Andrew. That's a pretty good effort. I wonder if that's a club. A first finisher in every state and territory. Now, we also heard from Val Warwick, but she wasn't in Tassie. She came to us from New South Wales, again with the New South Wales. Definitely the Warwick's were aliens this day, as we were the only ones to cross the sea to do this iconic parkrun, Broken Hill Racecourse parkrun. No flags, but emus are on our national emblem today. So Simon and Sarah, that's my nod to the pod. And she said, see photo in comments. And there was indeed a picture. Well, firstly, of Val and Steve with the flag and the Broken Hill Racecourse core flute. And there was another photo showing emus in the distance. Martine, they saw emus. We tried when we were there and we couldn't find them.

00:55:23Tony O'Connell: Yep, emus at lots of places. But not in the UK, where we heard from Ali Sheppard. Hey Dazza, over here in the UK, parkrun was trying to get the largest number of walkers at parkrun for their biggest park walking weekend ever. So I donned the blue vest along with three friends and park walked at Watermeadows parkrun. But my challenge to you Dazza, Mel and all the other adventurers down under is, how do you pronounce the name of the town where Watermeadows is situated? Toaster. Clue. It sounds like an item you may use at breakfast.

00:55:59Melissa Ellis: That's not how it's spelt, Toc, it's spelt Towcester.

00:56:04Tony O'Connell: It is, and I was going to say that's nothing like how you spell spoons.

00:56:11Melissa Ellis: Toast sister. It's like that Worcestershire sauce that, anyway.

00:56:17Tony O'Connell: That all ourselves is pronounced wrong. But the photo was Ali and her friends park walking, or should that be park jumping? Great photo with a few of them well up in the air.

00:56:27Melissa Ellis: Last but not least, we heard from Maz Strong coming to us from the Great Estate. I landed my URO, unidentified running object, at Aintree for event number 21 and caused some confusion. I completed the course, then took on photographer duties. I neglected to photograph myself while running. So here's a photo of the URO taken at another parkrun on another day. Now, Maz included a link at the end of their comment and it pointed to the parkrun support website. So that led me to learn something new about frame runners, Toc. And I don't know if you knew about this, but I'm going to read from the website. A frame runner is a three wheeled frame where the person is supported by a saddle and body plate. The person propels themselves using their feet and steers using the mobility within their hands and or arms. People with impaired balance can take part in frame running as a recreational or competitive activity and it can be an effective way of improving overall fitness, strength and physical and emotional well-being. We allow frame runners on a case-by-case basis where the participant has a condition that requires their use and the course is suitable. Participants wishing to use a frame runner at a parkrun event should contact our support team via our, and then it was actually cut off, but I suppose website or something like that. But there was a photo of a frame runner included. Now, Toc, do you know, is that Maz? Is Maz the frame runner?

00:58:05Tony O'Connell: I have not had a look. I haven't seen Maz in the frame before, but I'm not saying that they don't get into the frame.

00:58:12Melissa Ellis: Dan, Dan, we need your help.

00:58:17Tony O'Connell: Call on the sun.

00:58:19Melissa Ellis: Anyway, I thought that was really interesting because there is something I did not know about parkrun. Every day is a school day.

00:58:27Tony O'Connell: Every day is, Mel.

the Obi Award — Sherry Brandtman

00:58:28Tony O'Connell: Yep. Mel, we need to pick an Obi out of all those fantastic submissions. Do you have the envelope?

00:58:37Melissa Ellis: Well, I think we already have, Toc, because there's an envelope here to open. So somebody has... Oh, no, maybe the cleaner's doing it these days. It's been pretty quiet on Level 2. There's not much going on anymore.

00:58:51Tony O'Connell: Outsourcing's a great thing.

00:58:53Melissa Ellis: Maybe we need... Oh, we've had a social occasion, but everybody didn't come. We need a barbecue, maybe. A sausage sizzle. Anyway, let me open that envelope. See who the winner is. And this week's Obi goes to... Sherry Brandtman! Yay! For her superior photoshopping skills. But we love the effort that you put in, Sherry. Good job.

00:59:00[background music]

00:59:25Tony O'Connell: And it was amazingly on point for our theme last week. So well done, Sherry.

Emails

00:59:30Melissa Ellis: Now, Toc. We've got mail.

00:59:32Tony O'Connell: We have mail. Timing. Well, we have one email this week and I will read it out. It says, Hi, love the show. Long time listener. Has anyone noticed a high pitch feedback noise when Toc is presenting? It's not there when Mel talks. I don't recall it happening a year back or so. Perhaps new equipment, new setup, new room, new light in the room? Question mark. Happy adventures and enjoy the week off, Mel. Regards, Alana Tariq. Well, I don't think I've changed anything, but I've become remarkably conscious since I read this email. And I'm listening to the chair that I sit on squeak. I'm listening to my mouse squeak as I roll my mouse. I'm hearing my heartbeat in my earphones. I don't know what the noise is. I haven't changed anything up.

01:00:28Melissa Ellis: I agree, though. I have heard it myself.

01:00:31Tony O'Connell: You have mentioned it before.

01:00:33Melissa Ellis: Yes. I actually thought that Jackie's busily getting dinner ready in the kitchen that might just be in the next room and it's the microwave or something. Not that I think that Jackie cooks in a microwave, but I don't know. I just always thought, I can hear that bloody microwave again. LAUGHTER

01:00:51Tony O'Connell: I'm wondering whether it's something electrical interference-wise or maybe next time we record I might try a different room or maybe next time we record I'll try a different house.

01:01:01Melissa Ellis: I think you need to get a new house, Toc.

01:01:02Tony O'Connell: All right.

01:01:03Melissa Ellis: You're not even really trying.

01:01:05[background music]

01:01:05Tony O'Connell: I'll work on it.

01:01:05Melissa Ellis: Okay.

Club Corner

01:01:07Melissa Ellis: Righty-o, Mel.

01:01:08Tony O'Connell: I think it's time we have a listen to Reginald.

01:01:19Reginald 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. Today for Club Corner we are playing Who Am I? The rules are simple, I will ask questions, and you will shout out the name of the event when you think you are correct. Mel and Toc may interject when they think they have it, but you will hear all the clues. And of course, the answer, winky face. There are 9 questions, getting progressively easier. Let us begin. Who am I? 1. I have been used for a parkrun during a palm. 2. More than 20 adventurers showed up. 3. I was not used for a freedom run. 4. It was in the 2020s. 5. I hosted the group in the month of April. 6. My name is one word, plus parkrun, of course. 7. I was visited on event number 311. 8. I have a regal connection. 9. I am in New Zealand. Who am I? My name is Queenstown parkrun. When did you guess my name? Mel and Toc, when did you guess? I hope that you enjoyed this game, and remember, in parkrun life, all non-Milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun, so stay tuned for our future club corners.

01:02:41Melissa Ellis: Shots fired, Toc, shots fired. Reginald's doing a who am I. He's stepping on toes. There's going to be trouble. I don't know about you. Oh, well. Reginald actually asked how long it took for us to guess. Here's a peek behind the curtain. Toc hasn't listened, so he doesn't know yet, and I can't say anything because then I'll give it away, and he has to listen and figure out how long it takes him. I will say that I was playing along for nearly to the end of the questions before I realised.

01:03:12Tony O'Connell: So good luck to everybody who was cleverer than I. Mel, I need to make much better use of the earlier intermission that you flagged to listen in early.

Consolidated Club Report

01:03:24Melissa Ellis: Now, the adventurers Consolidated Club report for Saturday, the 26th of April 2025, of a total of 777 members, 561 took part on this date in 12 countries across 299 locations. Whoever knew that the Adventurers Club would spread to nearly 300 locations in one weekend? In the UK, there are adventurers at 59 events. There were 11 in Sudafrique, three in the USA, two in Germany, Poland, Singapore and Japan, and one in Ireland, Italy and Sweden. We are taking Europe by storm. Locally, we had adventures at 55 events in New South Wales, 48 in Queensland, 46 in Victoria. Australia had 20. South Australia, they were one behind on 19. Tassie were... Doing their best with 11, the North Island had 9, the ACT had 5, the South Island 2, and there was none in the Northern Territory. [Afrikaans: "There were 11 in Suid-Afrika (South Africa)"]

the Frond — Waitangi parkrun, New Zealand (12 adventurers, largest international); Wallaby Track (11, largest in Australia)

01:04:30Tony O'Connell: So no bowling strike this week, Mel, but our largest international Frond was 12 at one event, which is Waitangi in New Zealand. And that was Chris and Karen Gore, Bill and Yvette Turner, Sarah Jantscher, Andy and Wendella Poole, Gail Roderick, Alana and Stephen Trigg, Renata Koch and David Ryan. And we had Andy Poole popped over into Dazza's and said, Today I reached my half-rain 125th event and also set a new parkrun PB at Waitangi parkrun as part of the parkrun World Tourist Meetup with Wendella Poole. And she had a photo of them with the selfie frame and the New Zealand flag, which fitted nicely with this week's listener challenge. There are a few posts coming from the World Tourist event at Waitangi, including one from Budgie and one from David Ryan and Chris Gore.

01:05:24Melissa Ellis: And of course Yvette, she also popped in as well. So yes, it was World Tourist meetup weekend last week as well. Everything was happening. But we had a pilgrimage, which isn't surprising, seeing as there would be a lot of tourists in and around London. But it was Paul Dempsey from Wishart. He was there for the very first time. So well done, Paul, on making your pilgrimage. Also, Colette Goldthorpe. Her home parkrun is Preston in the UK. It was her first run, but she's volunteered there previously and I actually found out that colette tail walked at bushy on Saturday because she was running the London marathon too now the largest Frond Australia-wise was 11 at Wallaby Track that was Ian Shaw Jason and Ollie Andrews April sweet jillian house Deborah jessup Marg prowse kirstie ganji Joe Richard and Jose thingo and Kylie target

01:06:24Tony O'Connell: And Mel, I think that might be the first time that we've actually had the biggest international Frond being bigger than the biggest Australian Frond.

01:06:33Melissa Ellis: Oh, yes. Sometimes I think the international, because we do a lot of Australia and New Zealand and we include the ditch in our, not the ditch, but across the ditch in our, what do we include them in when we're talking about our regional events? We really shouldn't class them as an international one.

01:06:53Tony O'Connell: No, it's just like East Australia.

01:06:56Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

01:06:58Melissa Ellis: Anyhoo, there was also... I know I'm hogging the thing a bit at the moment, but we also had Freedom Day in Sudafreek, and thank you to the Belinda Fairy for being all over that for us because we'd all forgotten, because Johan always reminds us. But... There was adventurers at these following events on Sunday. Freedom Day was yesterday. There was one at Albert's Farm parkrun, two at Fish Hoek parkrun, one at Greenstone Hill parkrun, one at Homestead Lake, one at Huddle. 3 at St George's and 7 at Yzerfontein. Now that was interesting that Saturday 19 adventurers took part at 11 locations in South Africa and Sunday 16 adventurers took part at 7 locations. [Afrikaans: "we also had Freedom Day in Suid-Afrika (South Africa)"]

01:07:46Tony O'Connell: I find that a little bit interesting that with the extra day, whether the South Africans, I guess, is it such a big thing? There you go, you come to Australia and everyone seems to want to participate on the extra days. We all get all excited about it. Is it such a big thing over in South Africa? Yeah.

01:08:07Melissa Ellis: Well, the numbers look little, but don't forget that's just the adventurers. Maybe we just don't have as many adventurers. Or I was going to say something stupid like maybe it wasn't a public holiday, but it was Sunday for a start. And I'm assuming because it's called Freedom Day, it would be like a public holiday there. Anyway, remember, you can add the Adventurers Club as one of your five affiliations on your parkrun profile. Don't go to the 5K app. You've got to do it through your email and your adventurers official login on the parkrun website.

01:08:40Tony O'Connell: And we'd love to see a few more people jump in and register on that. We're at 777 members on that club. How good would it be to be at 800? And I can remember when we were hoping to get to like 300 and 400 and then 500 and we all got excited. We're nearly at 800 members now, Mel.

01:08:59Melissa Ellis: I know.

01:08:59Tony O'Connell: It's huge. Just ticking away there slowly, one adventure at a time.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

01:09:04Tony O'Connell: Speaking of adventures, Mel, we have a new awesome adventure for Australia to share in. We had a launch this week at the Alice Springs Telegraph Station parkrun, which is in the Northern Territory. And it's... From memory, it's about 1,500 kilometres from Darwin, and it's still in the same state. If you're at Ayers Rock, you're four and a half hours away from Alice Springs, so it's a long way from anywhere. But... The parkrun itself is located just a parkrun distance out of town, so it's five kilometres out of town at the historic Telegraph station. This parkrun's been on the cards for probably eight or nine years. It's been going to happen, not happen, but the driving force behind the launch of the local running club, who I believe also hosts the Alice Springs Running Festival, which is coming up later in July, so there's an opportunity to double up and make... A big weekend of it. The courses and out and back, technically it's described as that, but it's actually a little bit of a circle at the top end. So it's almost like a needle shape, a sewing needle shape. We do a little loop at the end, then out and back. I was last at the Telegraph station in 1980, so I'd love to go up there and do this one. This week we had 186 people who gained a finish token and they were supported by 11 volunteers. There were 104 first-time-ever people at it and 17 unknowns, and I'm going to classify most of those as they're not registered yet, probably first parkrun. And if we add the two up, it means 65% of the people at the parkrun were new to parkrun. How awesome is that?

01:10:46Melissa Ellis: We love that. This is very exciting, Alice Springs getting a parkrun. I wish them well. I know they have been having a very successful Heart Foundation local run that went for quite a while. I'm not sure if it's still going, but... Sounds like there's need for it if there's also a running club in the area. I'm excited. I've never been to Uluru. I really want to do a trip to the Red Centre. So I've got plans. Now, thanks very much, Toc, for giving me the next one. There was two launches in the world this weekend. The other one was in Denmark and it was at... Fuglsang So. Fuglsang So. I don't know. Fuglsang. Hey? [Danish: "Fuglsang Sø — 'sø' is Danish for lake, so the event name means 'Fuglsang Lake', as TOC explains on air at [01:11:37]"]

01:11:34Tony O'Connell: Fuglsang is the first word I'd put in the pronunciation. Well, so it's a silent L. And so it's a silent L. And the so, the little line through the O, it actually means lake.

01:11:46Melissa Ellis: Oh, okay. Fuglsang Lake. Fuglsang Lake. Anyway, 95 finishers participated at Denmark's 11th event. This is a two lapper mainly run on gravel with a high point on course offering views across the course and I assume the lake. The first event had 12 volunteers and 41 first ever participants. So hooray and welcome.

01:12:11Tony O'Connell: And Mel, I take from the comment in there about the high point on the course offering views of basically the entire course in their course description is that it's got a fair bit of a hill in the middle of it. If you can see the whole course from a point on the course.

01:12:26Melissa Ellis: I don't know Denmark. I've never been there. Is it hilly?

01:12:31Tony O'Connell: The bits I went to were reasonably flat.

01:12:33Melissa Ellis: I couldn't even tell you how big Denmark is in comparison to Victoria.

01:12:39Tony O'Connell: It's huge. It's bigger.

01:12:42Melissa Ellis: Okay. So, yeah. All righty. Because I know like the whole of UK could fit in Victoria, but Denmark's even bigger?

01:12:50Tony O'Connell: Denmark... is yeah it's a little bit bigger yep I don't know because some of those european countries are really little denmark's almost like it's got land connections but it's almost like islands connected to islands with little land bridges and then a major uh promontory that runs up hard to describe okay well we like Denmark because we have an Australian connection with their queen We do.

01:13:15Melissa Ellis: So I was thinking, because I'm missing our old segment, that we should revise it and start calling it Watching the Numbers at Alice Springs Telegraph Station parkrun.

01:13:29Tony O'Connell: I'll try to sing that next time.

01:13:31Melissa Ellis: Okay. Well, what did they get at their launch? They got 104. No, they got more than that. 186. Yep. Okay. So we'll need to keep count.

01:13:44Tony O'Connell: And let's see how the numbers go up and down. And as I said, with 104 first ever and 17 unknowns, it's probably a lot of local people up there. There wasn't a lot of people in there. There was a lot of people in there results that had like two parkruns or three parkruns. And I'm guessing, you know, people that have been up to Darwin, just up the road. 1500 kilometres probably done a parkrun on a weekend away or whatever but yeah significant number of the people that were at the parkrun there weren't many people with like the shirt logos in the results there weren't many 250s or 100s and that which was great not yet not yet but there's a whole new community out there that get to um yeah get involved

01:14:31Melissa Ellis: What else does our community need to get involved with, Toc?

01:14:34Tony O'Connell: What else our community need to get involved with are the buffs, Mel. I just wanted to do another quick promotion for the buffs because I'm running out of stock. I sent another big batch of them out a couple of days ago. Just if anyone wants to jump in and grab a buff. just send a message to us and we'll get the the details they're 12 bucks each plus postage and once they're gone chances are we probably won't do another run of these oh okay unless we get desperate for money and we want to change the colour and flog off different ones There's always that option, Mel, but let's empty my study of the small box that I have up at first.

01:15:16Melissa Ellis: All righty.

parkrun adventure challengelistener challenge

01:15:17Melissa Ellis: But our listener challenge. Are you listeners still doing the challenges? We had a few this week. This is Talks Podcast. Wish he wants you to post a photo in your buff. Loud and proud.

01:15:29Tony O'Connell: Yep, looking for people to post a photo in the buff. Let's get a couple of great buff photos out there. We had some really creative ones that have come in over the years. We've had the buff on a post with a lake in the background. We've had all sorts of different ones. Let's try and give us something creative with a buff.

01:15:47Tracy: Alrighty.

Sign-off

01:15:48Tony O'Connell: Now, it's that time of the week. Where are you next week? Or where are you this week, I should say?

01:15:55Melissa Ellis: Well, you know, I got all nostalgic going to Toolern Creek, so I thought to myself, there's no place like home.

01:16:04Tony O'Connell: So two weeks in a row at Toolern Creek.

01:16:07Melissa Ellis: No, I'm going to venture back to my original home at Berwick Springs parkrun. Well, that's the plan anyway. I am going southeast to see one of my kids for her birthday and I'm going to head over the night before and be local. So, yeah, feeling like I'm revisiting my old stomping ground. What about you, Toc?

01:16:33Tony O'Connell: Well, as usual, I haven't decided. I've got a feeling that I've got to go somewhere else so I don't go to Inverloch two weeks in a row. So maybe it's an opportunity to work on a bit of a P-index. I'll have to work that out a bit closer to the weekend when I see what we've got going on. We've got Sustainable House Day weekend this weekend at the Cape, which is a pretty big weekend for us. So maybe venturing too far, but yeah, maybe an event and work on a P-index, I think.

01:17:02Melissa Ellis: Oh, that sounds like a cool thing. I wish I could go to Sustainable House Open Day. Yeah, I like sustainable houses. I try to have one of those.

01:17:14Tony O'Connell: I think our estate has five houses in there all open this weekend.

01:17:22Melissa Ellis: Can you remind me next year when it comes around again? I'll try and arrange to come down. Alrighty, so next week is me and... in the comfy chairs on level two. There you go. You have a good week, officer.

01:17:36Tony O'Connell: I shall. I will have a great weekend and I won't wear my blue suit this week.

01:17:42Melissa Ellis: Run free, Toc, run free, and not injured.

01:17:45Tony O'Connell: And Mel, you enjoy going back over to the east side, to the southeastern corridor?

01:17:51Melissa Ellis: I will. As always, everybody, you can contact us via the parkrun adventurers on Facebook or our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. That is it for another week, and we will see you all next week for more adventures.