Episode 424 - Reaching a Rec-Ord

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

Welcome

00:00:23Sarah Jefferson: Welcome to episode 424 of the parkrun adventurers podcast, a podcast about life, if your life is all about parkrun. I'm Sarah Jefferson, coming to you from beautiful Noongar Boodja, Noongar Country. [Noongar: "Noongar country / Noongar land"]

00:00:35Simon Mackley: And I'm Simon Mackley, coming to you from Quandamooka Country. Welcome back to the pod, Sarah.

00:00:41Sarah Jefferson: Thank you. Thank you. I can't believe another month has flown by and that we are well and truly into May now with winter just around the corner for us in the Southern Hemisphere.

00:00:52Simon Mackley: How's things going with you?

00:00:54Sarah Jefferson: Well, I now have a four-month-old, which is crazy to say that. We've graduated from weeks to months. But things are going really well. Hadley's now smiling, giggling, grabbing onto her foot. Her latest trick is poking her tongue out, which she started yesterday. And then as of today, she's hitting really high decibels and screaming. So you can imagine how lovely that is to listen to. Hopefully the listeners don't get a a show of that in the background tonight. But, yeah, it's been lovely getting out into nature with her. She really loves that. Been down to the beach quite a few times, like, dipping her toes into the ocean. Nice. I've also been really blessed with the amazing weather over here on the West Side. So we're still having days in the high 20s, even a few into the early 30s. So that's been quite nice. And I've actually been into the ocean for the last four days in a row. So just saying, Simon, West Side really is the best side.

00:01:57Simon Mackley: Yeah, okay.

00:01:59Sarah Jefferson: So because you have nothing to say about that, how about you, Simon? How have you been going?

00:02:03Simon Mackley: Well, we had a rainy week last week, so yeah, thanks for rubbing your nose in that. But yeah, it seems Sydney and Melbourne are getting the same sort of stuff. Yeah, so we're still sitting in the mid to low 20s. Today felt a bit colder. I don't know why that was, but still T-shirt weather here in Queensland. I see you're wearing a jumper, so you can't rub that in. But I heard that Melbourne was zero overnight, so I'm so glad I don't live down there currently.

00:02:29[crosstalk]

00:02:31Sarah Jefferson: Crazy.

00:02:32Simon Mackley: But anyway, enough of the weather chat. This is a parkrun podcast, so where did your parkrun last week end?

00:02:39Sarah Jefferson: I ventured to a parkrun that we actually don't hear too much about on the pod. So it's Perry Lakes parkrun on the land of the Whadjuk people. So as the crow flies, this event is actually only eight kilometres from the Perth CBD. The course is a two-lap course around a mixture of asphalt and grass around the perimeter of West Lake and a grassy oval. So this was actually my fifth time at this event, but I hadn't visited since the 7th of November in 2020. So I was well overdue for a visit. And to be honest, I actually remember not loving the course previously, which is probably why I haven't been back for quite some time. I don't have any real reason other than putting it down to maybe eight being there's quite a few turns and changes to the course. So sharp turns and also, I guess, changes underfoot. But I did really enjoy the event on Saturday. There were 190 finishes supported by 19 volunteers at this event. And I've actually enjoyed getting back into walking and jogging over the past few weeks. So that's been quite a while for me. Still taking it really easy after having a bub, but I was happy to say that I cracked the 40-minute mark this week. So notably, nearby to the parkrun, there is an area called Bold Park. Upon further research, I found that this park is the largest remaining bushland remnant in the urban area of the Swan Coastal Plain. It actually comprises of 442 hectares of coastal bushland. And this park was designated as an A-class reserve in 1998. So if you enjoy bird life, including sighting some red-tailed black cockatoos and enjoying parkrun among the trees, I feel like you'd really enjoy this event. On Saturday, I didn't have time to hang around too long after the event as I had some visitors arriving from Sydney, landing at quarter past 10. So I quickly ventured home and then out to the airport to collect them. So funnily enough, these friends, this is actually a mutual friend that we share. So I used to run with Jason in Sydney. He used to talk about this guy called Simon. And then supposedly when you used to run with this guy, Jason, in Sydney. He isn't talking about this person called Sarah. And I think that I probably, I'd moved away before you, right? So at one point, you, me and Jace all lived in Sydney. I now live in Perth. You live in Brisbane. He still lives in Sydney. But it's actually one of both of our dear friends that we knew a lot about each other before we actually even met.

00:05:22Simon Mackley: Exactly. And you're so right about not hearing about Perry Lakes as well. Like, yeah, it's one that I very rarely hear from, even from my other WA friends. And great work getting back under 40 minutes. That's obviously quite an effort. And I love the idea of red-tailed black cockatoos. That sounds like a really good reason to visit the area. But I do dread to ask you, and I know that you aren't a big fan of them, but did you see any snakes?

00:05:50Sarah Jefferson: Good memory. No, there were no... No ropes? No, no ropes. That's a tongue twister. I cannot say that once, let alone five times. But no, I didn't see any snakes. But the cause itself isn't actually... Even though it sounds like it's kind of in bushland, it isn't surrounded by overgrown grass or trees, et cetera. So it's kind of quite, I guess, a moan area. So technically... Yeah, there probably could be some there, but yeah, I wasn't really, really worried. I guess I was towards the end of the pack anyway, so I sort of wasn't worried about that. But I haven't been bushwalking or hiking yet because it's still too warm over here and I don't want to risk seeing any of these critters, let's say, underfoot. So anyway, what about you, Simon? How has your parkrun just gone?

00:06:41Simon Mackley: Yeah, for the second week in a row, I was at Fodder Forest parkrun. Wasn't my initial plan, but timing of Jackson's later cancel while we're on the way there game kept me close to home again. As luck would have it, I was able to see a friend, Rodney, finish run down under after five years and one month with all the trimmings. Travis was there and he had the arch set up. There were a lot of run down under merch on the runners. And even though he had four kilometres to complete it, he ran through the finish of the parkrun, grabbed his token and ran another few hundred metres to go under the rundown under arch. It was also the 50th birthday of Shirley, who's one of the EDs there. And there's also a married couple there who are regulars and just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. They had the shock of their life to see about 20 of their family make the journey from different parts of Queensland, all having faux race bibs with the number 50 on them. And Both husband and wife cried when their oldest son got up in front of everyone and explained why they were there and all that sort of thing. So, yeah, it was a pretty special day. And like I said, it was just lucky that I went there because I was going elsewhere.

00:08:01Sarah Jefferson: Yeah, it sounds like an awesome morning despite the cancelled soccer game. And I do love the idea of sort of like a parkrun surprise party. That's a great idea. And great that you were there to see your mate Rodney complete such a great achievement.

00:08:17Simon Mackley: Amazing. Like 14,000 Ks is just, it was a 14,008 kilometres, I think Travis said on the day. But yeah, unbelievable.

00:08:26Sarah Jefferson: Yeah, awesome. All right. So moving from Australia, I guess we should head across to the ditch to hear some stats. So on the 17th of May over in New Zealand, there were 58 events this week. In total, 9,382 finishers were supported by 916 volunteers. The second largest this week was Hobsonville Point with 427, while South End Reserve only had 19 finishers. That was the second smallest parkrun. Attendance records were set at Caroline Bay with 146 finishers. New Zealand welcomed 537 first-timers this week.

00:09:09Simon Mackley: Meanwhile, in Australia on the 17th, we had 501 events. There were 6,060 volunteers supported by 58,371 finishers to run 8,120 PBs. We saw 2,468 genuine first-timers and had 3,822 registrations in Australia for the week. Kununurra in WA was

00:09:19[16 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:09:35Simon Mackley: was the only one to set an attendance record this weekend with 109. And unfortunately, we learnt about the closure of Lightning Ridge in New South Wales. So Railway Park was the smallest parkrun this week with just three parkrunners and the Ponds was the largest with 578.

00:09:53Sarah Jefferson: So when I saw that there was a new record set in Kununurra, Being a West Australian, I did think, oh, I'm going to do a little bit more research into that because this parkrun is situated in an area that is not easy to get to. So in terms of breaking a record, that's not easy to do. So for our overseas listeners, so that they can understand, and I guess even some of our Australian listeners, This is in the very north of Western Australia. So the closest parkrun is in another territory, so the Northern Territory, and it's over 500 kilometres away. And the nearest parkrun in the same state is over 1,000 kilometres away or a 10 and a half hour drive. So yes, it's not really a place that you could just duck to easily for a weekend. So there was an event and is an event on this week as well called the Ord Valley Muster. And it started on Friday the 16th of May and it goes through to Sunday the 25th of May. So it will be interesting to see if the numbers stay high next week as well, or even if there's another attendance record broken. So this festival in Kununurra celebrates the East Kimberley region, cultural diversity, landscape and community. And it features a diverse range of events, including music, comedy, art, storytelling, river cruises and family activities. So of note as well, on the record breaking day on the Saturday, there was actually a rodeo on. So it was actually on the banks of the Ord River. So I reckon that's something to add to the bucket list, Simon. I was actually reading the festival and I was like, wow, there is so much to do in terms of local Indigenous cultural things, arts, like it was incredible what they were actually offering and obviously in the Kimberleys as well, quite unique. And it's the only parkrun that I have been to that I actually saw a crocodile after finishing this event. So we actually had pulled up to check out the dam and there was a crocodile basking in the sun and it quickly, as we pulled up, we kind of scared it and it went into the water. So that was one parkrun I was not tempted to swim after. Supposedly, the saltwater crocs were on one side of the dam and there's freshwater ones on the other side. So apparently on one side of the dam, you can actually swim. But that's the one that we did actually see. The crocon, I don't know. Apparently freshwater ones are timid, but I ain't going in there.

00:12:15Simon Mackley: Even the thought of a crocodile, I would not be going in that water.

00:12:19Sarah Jefferson: No.

00:12:20Simon Mackley: So, yeah, that was very interesting. Thanks for that. Yeah, that kind of sounds like a way to put on the bucket list. And having a rodeo, I would say Mel would love to go there.

00:12:30[background music]

00:12:30Sarah Jefferson: Definitely.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:12:31Simon Mackley: All right, I think it's time we throw over to our roving reports.

Roving report Lyndell Murray — Highfields parkrun

00:12:42Lyndell Murray: G'day parkrun adventurers, it's Lyndell and I am still streaking away on my tourist streak. And today I have come up to the traditional lands of the Jarowair and the Giabal. Is that right? You're fact checking me here. Jarowair and Giabal, I'm not sure. And today I am at Highfields parkrun, just on the outskirts of Toowoomba, which is a couple of hours west of Brisbane City in southeast Queensland. And I have found some fabulous tourists that are local here. Introduce yourselves, please. Sally. And Dick. Now, Sally and Dick, the Run Director today said that you had some stories to tell about parkrun and some adventuring that you've done and what it means to you. Who would like to answer which bits?

00:13:32Dick: I'll start first. We started parkrun here at Highfields nine years ago and we've been pretty much addicted to it since. And so apart from the COVID period, we haven't missed much in the way of parkrun. And we try and get away about once a month and do other parkruns. So we've done just over 90 different parkruns, I think. And we plan our holidays around parkrun. So we've We've just recently had a five-parkrun holiday to Italy and the Alps, and a couple of years earlier we had a five-parkrun holiday to America and Canada.

00:14:09Lyndell Murray: Well, that just sounds terrible. No, look, honestly, I found my people here in you, Sally and Dick, and the podcast listeners are the same. So if you had a highlight, would you be able to pick one or two highlights from your adventuring, do you think?

00:14:27Sally: I think the highlight of parkrun is actually our home, parkrun, where we have this wonderful family. When we celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary, we were sitting at coffee and one of the women said, what are you doing for it? And I said, I don't know. And she said, I think I'll have an afternoon tea. And we had a parkrun afternoon tea. We all turned up on the morning in our 50 shirts.

00:14:51Alice: It was amazing. Yeah.

00:14:53Sally: But we have the most wonderful family here of people, friends and community. Nothing beats that.

00:15:01Lyndell Murray: Yeah. Look, I say this often on the podcast, I'm at the back of the pack all the time and there are still people gathering here to chat. I've been invited to coffee with you, so I will come to coffee as well before I head back down the range. So we've segued now to Highfields and the community here is wonderful. What about the course? Would one of you like to describe the course?

00:15:22Dick: Oh, the course is pretty awful, really, because it's got these three hills that you've got to do three times. But it is very pretty up through the bush and around the sports fields and so on. So, yeah, we get over the agony of it. But the other thing I wanted to point out as a highlight of parkrun really is the amazing friendship that we meet wherever we go. So, essentially, we've got friends all over this country and all over the world.

00:15:51Lyndell Murray: and you've got these people who are immediately friends when you go to a different parkrun that's just really uplifting it is it is it's parkrun is one of the few people in this world where you can just show up and talk to people and people don't think anything of it they just think that it's normal to show up and make new friends as you say yeah it's terrific isn't it all right I am going to hold you to to telling me about some of your adventures so Do you have a top three that doesn't include Highfields or is there a particular overseas adventure that you'd like to tell me about? I'm sure you can.

00:16:27Sally: I think not overseas, but out west from here, the small country towns have these wonderful little parkruns. And they're so friendly. So we've got St George and Surat and Goondiwindi and Chinchilla and Miles and Charleville. We've been to them all. We've been to Wandaun. And it's just amazing to go and meet the locals out in these places and see where they live. Yeah. Yeah, proper parkrun tourism. Yes, I think so. And, yeah, they have lovely little towns and lovely community-spirited people. That's fabulous.

00:17:08Dick: Is there anything you'd like to add, Dick? Yeah, the other one that was a highlight for me was Etna parkrun in Sicily. Yes. Where there were a group of, the track sort of winds through the bush and it was a bit hard to see your way, but there was one man walked ahead of the field dragging a rake and you could follow the mark of a rake and that took you through the trees. And once again, these old people were so friendly to tourists, to a small number that were running that day. Yeah.

00:17:26[crosstalk]

00:17:38Lyndell Murray: Well, that is wonderful. Thank you so much for talking to me. Thank you for sharing your story and your appreciation of parkrun as a community. Is there anything else that you want to add about your home parkrun here at Highfields?

00:17:54Sally: I want to thank Ian Wickham, he's running with us today. He started this parkrun nearly 10 years ago and he then went on to become an ambassador for the region and started a lot of parkruns around here and it changed my life.

00:18:10Lyndell Murray: So his name's Ian Wickham. Ian Wickham. Thank you, Ian Wickham, for everything that you've done. parkrun does change your life. I am so inspired by you. When I grow up, I want to be like you guys. Thank you so much for talking to me today and here's to many more adventures ahead.

00:18:26Dick: Okay. Thanks.

00:18:28Ruth Perkins: Thank you.

Roving report Ruth Perkins — Pont y Bala parkrun

00:18:30Ruth Perkins: Bore da, parkrun adventurers. This is Ruth Perkins and today I'm coming to you from, well, it has to be one of the most beautiful parkruns I've ever been to. We're at Pont y Bala, which is very close to Snowdon, or I'll ask for the official name in a moment. I'm here with the Run Director for today, which is Gerald Cooper. And so, Gerald, have you been involved with this parkrun for a long time? [Welsh: "Good morning, parkrun adventurers."]

00:18:59Gerald Cooper: I've been involved for about five years. We started up a year before lockdown and we were looking forward to celebrating our first year and then unfortunately we had to shut a week before. But we did get going again after lockdown for eight weeks while they did the resurfacing of their flood defences, which was supposed to be a three-month process, ordeal which ended up taking a year to finish so we've been back up running now for about three years and it's gone from strength to strength really we started off we were only averaging about 20 to 30 runners and that's I think we had 70 something today so it is improving and I think we are getting people coming back like you say it is a lovely parkrun

00:19:50Ruth Perkins: Oh, it's so beautiful. So the river that we're running past at the moment, is that, which river is it?

00:19:56[crosstalk]

00:19:57Gerald Cooper: It is the True Erin.

00:19:58Ruth Perkins: True Ellen. True Erin. True Erin.

00:20:01Gerald Cooper: So there's the True Erin and we also run along the River Dee, which is the other side of the sluice gates when you go past the first marsh or the True Erin runs into the Dee.

00:20:12Ruth Perkins: And it's so luscious around here. Luscious green grass, beautiful trees. We're surrounded by the hills. And the turnaround on the out and back is a beautiful lake as well. Can you tell us anything more about that? [Welsh: "Llyn Tegid, the Welsh name of Bala Lake (llyn = lake)."]

00:20:27Gerald Cooper: It's Llyn Tegid, which is Bala Lake. It has a famous fish that lives in the lake. I forget the name of it, but they call it Tegid, and that's where he gets the name. They call the fish Tegid, and it's the only place in Britain, or in the world, that that fish exists.

00:20:49Dick: Oh, wow.

00:20:50Gerald Cooper: A little bit of a famous history about Bala Lake.

00:20:54Ruth Perkins: Oh, it's beautiful. Yeah. So we've got a very, very flat, fast course here, haven't we? Yeah. Do you get lots of people coming here to be super speedy?

00:21:06Gerald Cooper: Yeah. A lot of people who are trying to get personal best times come here. Since we've had the surface relayed, it is very fast. It does catch you out occasionally if the weather, if it's a bit windy as you get round towards the lake, it does become a bit of a sting in the tail and catches a lot of people out. So you have to choose a day when it's not windy if you want to get a personal best here. But yeah, it is popular.

00:21:29[crosstalk]

00:21:31Ruth Perkins: I feel like I picked a very, very good day today. Is it always this gloriously sunny? Of course, of course. Always, always. Of course, as I say. Yeah, the luscious green grass around here has nothing to do with amounts of rain or, yeah. We could be painting every night. So did you start off at this parkrun then? You started this parkrun?

00:21:34[crosstalk]

00:21:56Gerald Cooper: I started this parkrun, but I used to volunteer at Dolgellau parkrun, which is about 17 miles away. In fact, most of the volunteers here volunteered at Dolgellau. We broke away from them. It was all amicable. It's just that the Event Director at Dolgellau was happy for us to open up, and we help each other out occasionally. In fact... We take it in turns. One does Christmas and the other one does New Year and every year we swap. So we help each other as much as possible. So yeah, we all started, most of us started at Dolgellau and then brought it to Bala.

00:22:32Ruth Perkins: Great. So you've said to me already that you have done a bit of tourism. Mm-hmm. So have you got any highlights? So it's mean to say not to talk about this parkrun because we've already talked about how amazing this one is. But do you have maybe three others or something that you particularly stick in your mind? It's a difficult question because every parkrun is different, isn't it?

00:22:54Gerald Cooper: It's like you never know what you're rocking up to and there's always a surprise at a parkrun. I think one of the best ones I've done is Fountains Abbey, which is a really... And again, I think the reason I enjoyed it so much was it was a beautiful day like today and it really showed the beauty of the place. So if anybody is looking for a really nice parkrun, Fountains Abbey is a really good one. Yeah, Erddig is nice in Wrexham. Oh, yes. Yeah, that's a nice one. If you're after a hilly one and you like hill running, Wepre is another good one. Yeah, big fun.

00:23:22[crosstalk]

00:23:34Ruth Perkins: big fan I'm I'm I have to admit no offence to beautiful flat fast parkruns but I love a hilly parkrun I love a traily one well we're doing snowdonia marathon tomorrow then yeah or I'm only doing a half and it's on the roads it'll be easy

00:23:50Gerald Cooper: It'd be a few hills.

00:23:51Ruth Perkins: Yeah, just a little bit of hills, yeah. Is there anything more that you'd like people to know about Pont y Bala?

00:23:58Gerald Cooper: No, just it's a beautiful place, as you mentioned, to come to. And I think you'll find that the locals are very hospitable. We've been supported by the local community from day one and they've been fantastic. And they pride themselves on this being a really, really friendly park. So I hope that come across today.

00:24:17Ruth Perkins: Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah, it's been really, really lovely. And I'm looking forward to heading to the cafe. Which one are we recommending? We're going to Tea Coffee this morning.

00:24:26Gerald Cooper: Tea Coffee.

00:24:27Ruth Perkins: Great. Well, thank you so much for all you do here and for bringing this beautiful parkrun to the parkrun world. And I'm sure you'll keep going from strength to strength because it's wonderful. So thank you so much for all you do. Well, thank you, Ruth.

00:24:40Gerald Cooper: Thank you very much for coming. Appreciate your time. Thank you. Take care.

Roving report Heather Hunter — Taree parkrun

00:24:46Heather Hunter: Hey parkrun adventurers, this is Heather. I'm at the 10th birthday of Taree parkrun today, and I'm talking to Rebecca, who I've met a couple of times at different parkruns, but we've never really chatted, chatted. So I'm just going to ask her a few questions. As you know, we do. How long have you been involved here at Taree parkrun?

00:24:55[background music]

00:25:04Rebecca: We moved up from Sydney two years ago so we kind of got into it as soon as we moved and have loved it ever since. And what keeps you coming back to Taree? For me it's easy, that's the local, but coming and running along the river every Saturday morning definitely is the best way to start the weekend.

00:25:23Heather Hunter: I should have prompted you about this question but I will also ask you, can you describe the course for the listeners?

00:25:30Rebecca: nice flat about 15 metres from the river park bit of grass and only two hills two lap course nice and sunny and cool and breezy sometimes too yeah and plenty hot sometimes as well yeah absolutely um and how did you get involved in parkrun at the start well back in 2018 my boss actually introduced me to parkrun and encouraged me to go and run the Willoughby course And I loved it and then took a little bit of a break and then came back again once we moved up here.

00:26:01Heather Hunter: Nice. Do you have a favourite three events that you've been to or just parkrun experiences? Have you been around to very many parkruns at all?

00:26:12Rebecca: Yeah, so quite a few. I guess number one for challenging would be the Lithgow one. Number two, I love running out at Forster on the Crusher Dust. It's a good challenge. My home parkrun. Beautiful ocean views the whole way. It's really, really nice. And then a third one that's different, Rooty Hill, flat, fast course, straight out and back. Nice and easy.

00:26:34Heather Hunter: Thanks. And how many different parkruns have you done all up? Do you know? I'd have to check my stats on that.

00:26:39Rebecca: I think it's about 20 or 30 different ones.

00:26:40[background music]

00:26:41Heather Hunter: Yeah, nice. Well, thank you very much for chatting to me. And, yeah, enjoy the rest of your weekend. Yeah, you too. Thank you so much.

00:26:56Sarah Jefferson: We are back from our roving reports. So we heard from Lyndell at Highfields parkrun talking the inspirational Dick and Sally. I'm sure lots of the adventurers out there either want to be like them when they grow up or found themselves agreeing and are already like them planning their holidays around parkrun. I did actually have a look at the results to see if Dick and Sally are adventurers and it doesn't actually appear that they are. So If they are tuning in to the podcast to hear their roving report or their interview, they'll need to click on their groups. Seems like they definitely should be an adventurer and add themselves to the adventurers group. We also heard from Ruth Perkins interviewing Gerald Cooper in Wales today. So I found it really interesting about the fish that was mentioned. It really intrigued me. And I really like visiting parkruns and places with unique points of interest. So the fish he's referring to, if I'm pronouncing this right, Gwyniad, and so it's spelled G-W-Y-N-I-A-D. So it's referred to a Welsh white fish belonging to the salmon family. So this species is in fact endemic to Lake Bala in northern Wales. And finally, we heard from Heather Hunter in Taree. Now, I think that this actually might be the first time hearing from Heather on the pod. It's always lovely to hear a new voice. So it sounds like a lovely morning there, Heather. And fun fact, I do actually know this area very well. I know that Heather's home run is Forster, and I actually went to school in Forster and grew up in Forster, even though I now live probably 5,000 kilometres away on the other side of the country. But it is certainly a lovely part of the mid-north coast in New South Wales.

00:28:52Simon Mackley: It sure is. And, yes, it was nice to hear from Heather. And sort of I got a bit intrigued. You got intrigued by the whitefish. I got intrigued by the name Ponte Bala. So I had to look up what that actually meant. So pont means bridge and bala is the outflow of the lake. So effectively the parkrun is called bridge over the outflow of the lake. Love that. Okay.

Dazza's

00:29:18Simon Mackley: So this week, Dazza said, today is World Telecommunication Day. It's a day to celebrate the fact that people from all over the world can still be brought together. It's celebrating adventuring to parkruns everywhere and yet all meeting in one cafe afterwards. 5Ks can sometimes feel like a long distance, but maybe you travelled a bit further to get there, or your message might do the travelling, or maybe today you'll just phone it in. However far away you actually are, come into Dazza's and let us know how it went. So we didn't actually have a challenge this week. However, people picked up on the telecommunication thing in Dazza's, so we tried to put that in for the post.

00:30:00Sarah Jefferson: So in Queensland, we heard from Claire Corkill at Capestone Lake parkrun. Claire said, Bob, bracket loudly, communicated her displeasure at the 7am start time rain and being in the pram for our first tourist parkrun of the year, Capestone Lake parkrun. Very thankful for Jack Corkill for walking with us. It's funny how much slower you can go on a flat course when you have to carry a six kilo unimpressed baby baby. and push an empty pram. It looks like an emoji of boxes or bricks. So I can definitely relate, Claire. Completing a 5K with a 6K weight vest certainly is no mean feat. Sounds like a lovely adventure for the three of you. I've actually said to my partner that I've carried our baby for nine months, so it's now your turn to carry her for the next nine months for parkrun. So anyway. Well done to you.

00:31:00Simon Mackley: Well done, Claire. Next, we heard from Heather Hunter, who was at Taree parkrun. So Heather shared, there was a sea of red at Taree parkrun's 10th birthday celebration today. Speaking of telecommunications, I remember reading a story at the Devonport Maritime Museum about a man who pretty much walked along the seabed of Bass Strait laying cables. Maybe it was the electrical cable rather than telegraph. Maybe someone can refresh my memories. And Heather shared a photo of the start-finish line looking very festive, filled with balloons, lots of people wearing red, and they must have been really prepared as there was a large shelter put up there too. Looks like a great morning.

00:31:42Sarah Jefferson: We heard from Lynette Anne at Bright parkrun in Victoria. Dazza, I'm grateful for telecommunications and all that connection we are privileged to have most of the time. I enjoyed a couple of hour drive talking all things parkrun with Natalie Carpenter and Heather Heard. These two really need to add parkrun adventures to their profiles. Thumbs up. Bright parkrun to take in the stunning autumn scenery. Top morning indeed. Fresh local apples at the finish line. Run Director added wonderful humour to the run brief. 10 out of 10 to the RD at Bright today. So there's a photo posted of Lynette with her two friends donning smiles with the beautiful orange autumn leaves in the background. And we certainly agree, Lynette, that they need to sign up to the adventurers. What I do now is that when I'm at breakfast with friends and the emails come through, I actually ask them, of course, grab their phone, click on manage profile and add them to the adventurers group if they are consenting to that. But surely after hearing their shout out, Natalie and Helen will be on board.

00:32:52Simon Mackley: I think that's a great idea. Good tip there. Next, we're heading up a little north to the ACT where we heard from Yvette Turner, who is at Point Hut Pond parkrun. How lucky we are to live in a world where staying in touch with friends near and far is made so easy. Hooray for telecommunications. I organised a few friends to meet me at Point Hut Pond parkrun this morning. My tail walked, Rebecca scanned barcodes, and Christy and Mia ran. It was a very foggy morning in the deep south of the ACT, but nice to be out in the fresh air doing something fun. We all went for brunch afterwards and had a wonderful catch-up. And there's a photo with the four ladies looking very rugged up, and we thank you all for your volunteering.

00:33:37Sarah Jefferson: So in WA, there were actually only two posts from WA this week, and we've chosen to share David Messengers. So Mr. Spreadsheet's latest goals and achievements he actually posted. So ran my fastest time of the year at Galup Reserve parkrun and did three volunteer roles for my 18th volunteer this year, raising my V index to seven. Aimed for eight in about two months. So quite impressive stats there for this year alone. Congrats on the fastest time this year, David, and all of these volunteers. Great to see people tackling volunteer challenges as well. And David shared a screenshot from his 5K app of his V index showcasing all of the green on it.

00:34:19Simon Mackley: And next we heard from Debbie Jessop who said, for me, a repeat visit to Studley. My cousin travelled about two hours and her best friend Hayden joined for his very first parkrun. Now here is the interesting part. Hayden said that a nice lady named Lyndell was walking, chatting with him, and I wondered if it was Lyndell from the podcast. Lyndell, I wanted to find you and say hello, but I didn't know your face. If you're reading, thank you for walking with Hayden. And there was a photo of Debbie, her cousin, and Hayden with raincoats on with the Studley sign. Now, we can confirm that the nice lady, Lyndell, was none other than Lyndell the Legendary from the Channel 5 news group. It sounds like a lovely morning there together and we're lucky, we're so lucky you're apart Crossford Lyndell. Let's hope your cousin and Hayden will be back for more parkruns after their first successful participation.

00:35:11Sarah Jefferson: We heard from Carolyn McRae at Queen's Belfast. Carolyn wrote, lots of telecommunications as used for navigating around. Queen's Belfast for us today.

00:35:23Simon Mackley: And we're heading back to Queensland where we heard from Val Warwick at Burrum Heads Beach parkrun. Val said, we left Hervey Bay in teeming rain to travel 40 minutes to Burrum Heads Beach, where it was only light rain, but stopped for the 5K. We met up with fellow adventurers Kate and James, who did his 50th today. This photo taken by our grandson is sent to you via the amazing world of telecommunication. Being elderly, Steve and I remember when television first came to Australia. And in fact, I remember the party line phone at my grandparents' farm, putting in trunk calls home to Sydney when I first went teaching on the south coast of New South Wales, et cetera, et cetera. Telecommunications have changed dramatically in my lifetime. Thanks, Dazza, for the reminder. No brickie for us all, but everyone enjoyed the coffee van at the finish line. Wrong photo, correct photo in reply. Yep, definitely elderly. And Val shared the correct photo of herself, Steve, Kate and James in their adventurers shirts. Sounds like a great morning, even though it was raining cats and dogs. Plus, thanks for sharing a recap of a few of the many telecommunications you remember so vividly in your lifetime, Val. Life-changing, of course. Even podcasting, right? Who would have ever thought that we would make friends from all over the world due to a weekly parkrun podcast? It's amazing for sure.

00:36:48Sarah Jefferson: Yes, it certainly has changed a lot and podcasting and the community that we have is certainly amazing, agreed. Heading over the ditch, we heard from Brett Bailey at Neale Park parkrun. So while Brett didn't completely make reference to telecommunications, we thought it was worth a mention. He said, hi Dazza, this week we touristed to my hometown of Nelson at the top of the South Island for our NENDY Neale Park parkrun. I was working in the area this week and Tanya flew up for the weekend. Nice seal path near the water and the Founders Museum. Just managed another sub 30 and ticked off an N. Then parked faff at the cafe of Founders. And look, there's another doggo in the photo and two dogs emoji. There's a photo of Brett with a parkrun sign and how great it is when you have a job that you can actually combine work and a new parkrun event together. I know that lots of us are constantly thinking about how we could get a job that could do this. Well done, Brett. It looks like it's certainly getting quite fresh over there in New Zealand.

00:37:55Simon Mackley: I can imagine it's getting a bit chilly. Next, we heard from, we go from NZ to NT. So Andrea Booth was at Darwin Park. It's not every week we have someone coming to Dazza's from the Northern Territory. So here we are. Andrea stated, hi, Dazza. Thanks to telecommunications podcasts and this Facebook group, I connected with Janice and some friends of Sam Schroder's at Darwin parkrun this morning, all from different states but connected by parkrun. And there was a picture of Janice and Andrea with the Darwin parkrun sign wearing their easily identifiable adventurer shirts.

00:38:34Sarah Jefferson: It was nice to see someone coming from the Northern Territory for sure.

00:38:39Simon Mackley: It was.

the Obi Award — Claire Corkill and Amelia Corkle

00:38:41Sarah Jefferson: Okay, Simon, do you have the Obilope there with you? I think I trusted you this week with that.

00:38:49Simon Mackley: I have got it in front of me. And the Obi goes to Claire Corkill and Amelia. So congrats on making it out of the house to another state and adventuring, no doubt with a lot more luggage than ever before, which I'm sure you understand, Sarah.

00:38:50[background music]

00:39:13Sarah Jefferson: I certainly do. Well done, Claire, and look forward to hearing about all of the adventures that the three of you will get up to.

Emails

00:39:21Sarah Jefferson: Okay, moving on to emails, Simon. We had an empty inbox this week. Apart from our roving reports, we didn't have anybody writing in to us. So don't forget that you can write in to us at any time.

00:39:35[background music]

Club Corner

00:39:36Sarah Jefferson: Okay, we are going to throw to Reginald.

00:39:48Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III: This is Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III with Club Corner, and I am coming to you from Arrernte Country. Are you ready? Who am I? Question one, I am something new. Question 2. I am associated with the number 2. Question 3. I have two words in my name, or three, depending on if you count parkrun as a word. Question 4. My course is described as an out-and-back. Question 5. I follow the curves of the Brisbane River. Question 6. You can catch a ferry to me. Finally, question 7. I started way back in 2011. Did you guess? Did our illustrious hosts guess? I am New Farm parkrun, from sunny Queensland. New Farm was the second parkrun to open in Queensland, and as a member of the successor club, the Number Twos, and the Dirty Dozen Club, it was one of the first 12 events to start in Australia. And remember, there are over 500 parkruns in Australia, so stay tuned for future Club Corners.

00:41:04Simon Mackley: And we're back from Reginald. So I don't know how you did with it, Sarah, but I got it after question five. That might be because it was up here in Queensland. But, yeah, what did you – how did you get it?

00:41:19Sarah Jefferson: When Reginald mentioned it following the Brisbane River, I did think, oh, I wonder if it is New Farm, as that's one of the very, I haven't done very many in Queensland. That is one that I have done. And actually it's one that we met up and actually did maybe 18 months ago or so.

00:41:37Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III: Yeah.

00:41:38Sarah Jefferson: But I'm loving the Who Am I's. Thank you, Reginald. Yes, he's treading on your toes, I know. I love it.

00:41:46Simon Mackley: I do it once a year. Reginald can do it the rest of the year. That's fine.

Consolidated Club Report

00:41:53Sarah Jefferson: All right. So now before we jump into the Consolidated Club Report, back in March when we recorded together, Simon, I actually made a prediction that by the end of May, we would have 800 members. So we'll find out a little bit about the numbers in a minute and how close we are to that. But I will say that in two months since recording that in March, we have gained 17 new members, which I think is quite impressive for only a couple of months. And we do say it very often, but it is really nice to see this community continue to grow. All right. So without any further ado, the adventurers Consolidated Club report for Saturday, the 17th of May, 2025, of a total of 786 members, 565 took part on this date in 13 countries across 283 locations. In the UK, there were adventurers at 58 events. 10 in South Africa. Canada had three. Japan, Poland, Sweden, and the USA each had two. Denmark, Italy, and Singapore all had one. Locally, we had adventurers at New South Wales and Victoria were on a tie, 49 events. Queensland, 39. Ooh, this has got to be a typo. S-A-N-W-A is 89. I'm wondering if it means. It's eight or nine. Yeah, but that's quite low, right? We've been up around, I'm wondering if it's 18 or 19. Anyway, Tassie had eight, ACT seven, Northern Territory two, North Island six, and South Island had three.

00:43:43Simon Mackley: I reckon it might be 19.

00:43:47Sarah Jefferson: I'm going to jump one.

00:43:48Simon Mackley: Yeah. No, it's all right. Just let it go.

the Frond — Mole Valley parkrun (international frond of 10); Hidden Vale parkrun (largest Australian frond, 7)

00:43:52Simon Mackley: International fronds. So we had a frond of 10 at Mole Valley where there was Denise Evans, Ellie Soper, Christopher Miles, Colin Hare, Rhiannon Taylor, Nikki Elway, Andy Eyrie, Kim Leonard, Debbie Eyrie and James Avery.

00:44:09Sarah Jefferson: Okay. Just quickly jumping back, South Australia and Western Australia were on a tie, so 18 events each.

00:44:15Simon Mackley: 18, okay. Okay.

00:44:18Sarah Jefferson: Okay.

00:44:19Simon Mackley: pilgrimage we did have somebody at bushy this week now I'm hoping that I pronounce this okay Andy harrod callahan um so it was actually her third visit to bushy good to have a pilgrimage largest frond in Australia we had a couple that were quite close but I'm going to go with the frond of seven which was at Hidden Vale uh in Australia that was event number two where there was Roger luther Erica Liotta, Barbara Luther, Tracy Leiper, Ian Greenstreet, Rhonda Whetton, and Catherine Greenstreet. And then we had three events that actually had six, and that was at Aveley, Shellharbour, and Wynnum. And remember, you can add the Adventurers Club as one of your five affiliations in your parkrun profile, as Sarah mentioned before.

Alice Springs Telegraph Station numbers watch

00:45:13Sarah Jefferson: Now I'm really lucky and you may want to fast forward this pod for the next 20 seconds because I've got the ongoing segment of watching the numbers at Alice Springs Telegraph Station parkrun. So this week there were 136 parkrunners who participated in event four. 41 of these were first timers to this event with 19 of those being their first ever parkrun. This week there were 37 people who returned to record events their second, third or fourth parkruns. Still, there are no adventurers that have visited this parkrun.

00:45:49Simon Mackley: Wow.

00:45:50Sarah Jefferson: So still on the lookout as to who it's going to be.

00:45:53Simon Mackley: Yeah, exactly. Who's going to take that mantle?

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

00:45:58Simon Mackley: So we're going to head on to launches. And this week there were seven launches and none of those were in Australia. Yeah. So the first one we're going with, and this is an absolute stitch-up from TOC, but someone's got to do it, was a Yamaguchi Kirarahaku kinen koen parkrun in Japan. So welcome to the newest Japanese event. I'm not going to say it again. Running alongside the edge of the Tsukunomi Sea and the Kirara Tamakoteki Park. The course is described as a permanent jogging and walking course of 3.5 kilometres plus 0.5 kilometres, 250 metre turnaround and one kilometre. That is quite the way to describe it. The nine volunteers outnumbered the eight finishers for the week. So a little behind the words in this parkrun. So Yamaguchi means mountain entrance, kinen meaning memorial or wish and koen meaning park.

00:47:04Sarah Jefferson: Good to see Japan continuing to grow. Yes. Right. Equally as stitched up this week, we have a parkrun launch in Finland. Urheilupuisto parkrun.

00:47:19Gerald Cooper: Well done.

00:47:20Sarah Jefferson: So this is in the Finnish town of Turku. This multi-lapper is Finland's eighth parkrun. So the name of this parkrun translates as sports park. and had 62 finishes for the launch. 35 of these were first-time-evers, and 17 people volunteered. In the translated volunteer roster, they have both an aftermost and token dealer. So I'm assuming that's just the way that it obviously translates a little bit differently.

00:47:50Simon Mackley: Pale Walker and token something, but I like token dealer.

00:47:55Sarah Jefferson: Like finished tokens, right, I would assume? Yeah, like you're in Vegas. That's what I was picturing too.

00:48:02Simon Mackley: They would be Finnish tokens in Finland.

00:48:06Sarah Jefferson: Oh, nice. Yes. Very punny.

00:48:10Simon Mackley: Very punny. In the UK, we had Castle Woods parkrun. So just west of Aberdeen in Scotland, the village of Aboyne hosts Castle Woods parkrun. This two-lapper starts at a cool railway bridge and runs through an ancient Scots pine forest. Nine people out of the 93 finishers celebrated their first ever parkrun and they were assisted by 18 volunteers.

00:48:36Sarah Jefferson: We had another launch in the UK, Christie parkrun. So this is in the northern part of Northern Ireland in the town of Coleraine. Christie parkrun is an out and back along the River Bann. 18 volunteers assisted the 78 finishers with only three being first time ever parkrunners, possibly due to the nearest parkrun, Portrush, being only 11 kilometres away.

00:49:02Simon Mackley: Nice. And I have been to both Coleraine and Portrush many years ago for a wedding. And Portrush is one of those very few parkruns like the beaches that runs all on the beach. Next, we're heading over to North America to Willie Blake Community parkrun in the USA. So Willie Blake can be found in Tucson, Arizona. The launch saw 10 volunteers and 46 finishers. The course is described as an out-and-back paved course along the northern loop of the El Paso and southwestern Greenway.

00:49:37Sarah Jefferson: Another launch, this time in Canada, Fort La Tour parkrun. So St John in the south east of Canada, is the latest home to parkrun. This three-lapper had no unknowns in week one. That saw 56 finishes, five volunteers, and 41 finishes were first-time-ever participants. It's quite impressive, no unknowns at all.

00:50:01Simon Mackley: And a lot of first-timers. That's brilliant. Yeah. And the last one we're going to talk about is Lucy Park parkrun. Now, this was actually supposed to start the previous weekend, but it didn't. It had severe flooding, so it was held over and started this week. So it's located in Wichita Falls, Texas. It had 80 finishes completing week one. Of those, 69 were first-timers, so a lot of first-timers there as well. And if you add the six unknowns, then there was around 94% of them were new to parkrun, which is a huge stat. That's amazing. Yeah, exactly. An out-and-back course starting at the main pavilion at Lucy Park and winding the along the circle trail next to the Wichita River, past the falls, along a fully paved 10-foot-wide path that is mostly flat with some gentle hills.

00:50:54Sarah Jefferson: So I'm assuming, and I feel like you might have mentioned this on a previous pod, Simon, that coming into the summer over there, possibly why these events are launching.

00:51:04Simon Mackley: Yeah.

00:51:04Sarah Jefferson: So many of them.

00:51:05Simon Mackley: At the time of Palm, Australia was ahead of the UK, but I think that they are now, well, they're at least, I think it's five or six ahead of Australia now, and it's only going to get more and more as the summer goes. Well, summer hasn't even hit there yet.

00:51:20Sarah Jefferson: So the Northern Hemisphere is taking off.

00:51:23Simon Mackley: It is.

parkrun adventure challengelistener challenge

00:51:23Sarah Jefferson: All right. So looking forward, the listener challenge this week. So you need to try and name your parkrun in emojis at the end of your comment. So I guess for me, if I was doing the parkrun that I went to the week just gone, Perry Lakes parkrun, I could do an emoji of a pear. Who knows what I would do for an E? I'd probably just write that letter. And then a picture of a lake and a tree and then a person running. So I know that people... out there in our community are very creative. So I like the idea. I think that's why I like Reginald's, like, who am I, like a guessing game. So I feel like I'm going to spend a lot of time in Dazza's this week trying to guess without looking at the pictures, I guess, with the signs. Anyway, I look forward to that.

00:52:14Simon Mackley: Make sure you post the photo as well, though, so that we know what the emojis actually are as well.

00:52:19Sarah Jefferson: Yes, maybe you can do Val's trick where you, like, post a blurry picture so then no one actually knows it and then further down you can actually post the real one.

00:52:27Simon Mackley: Sounds like a good idea.

Sign-off

00:52:29Sarah Jefferson: So we'll take some inspiration from Val's mistake. All right, Simon, where are you going to be on Saturday for parkrun?

00:52:37Simon Mackley: Well, my hope is that I'm going to be heading out to Hidden Vale for Event 3. And I think that I might have seen that some of our Channel 5 news crew are going to be there this weekend. So let's see if they listen before the event. What about you? Where are you heading to this Saturday? Okay.

00:52:53Sarah Jefferson: I am going to head to Edinburgh Oval for their event 238. So this event is semi-close to home for me and I'll be working on my P Index. We will still have our friends here, which is very exciting, to go and do some touristy things. Actually, I do have, we're going to see the new Banff Film Festival.

00:53:14Simon Mackley: Oh, okay.

00:53:15Sarah Jefferson: So that's exciting.

00:53:17Simon Mackley: Yeah.

00:53:17Sarah Jefferson: Get our inspiration for some, you know, adventures up and coming. And then I think we'll go and have ramen. So won't be hanging around. But, yeah, we'll have a day of adventures ahead of us.

00:53:29Simon Mackley: Are they going to parkrun with you?

00:53:31Sarah Jefferson: I think they're going to be dragged to parkrun with us. Given that this morning Matt, my partner, actually booked a 6 a.m. sauna in the dark. So they were down. There's a sauna. There's saunas by the beach. For $20 you can go in the sauna and then you go into the ocean for the hour. So Jason went down and did that for an hour. So I'm sure if he can do that and he's a runner, he can do parkrun.

00:53:54Simon Mackley: Yeah, good. I like it.

00:53:56Sarah Jefferson: Yeah. Otherwise, I'll just put, you know, Hadley's making that screaming noise. I might just get her to do that at, you know, 6 a.m. So they're kind of awake anyway.

00:54:05Gerald Cooper: Yeah.

00:54:06Sarah Jefferson: Yeah, I think that's fair. Anyway, next week, Mel and TOC are back in the comfy seats. So I look forward to tuning in and hearing where they have been and what they've been up to.

00:54:19Simon Mackley: And as always, you can contact us via parkrun adventurers on Facebook or our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. That's it for another week. We'll see you all next week for more adventures. And thanks for joining me again, Sarah.

00:54:33Sarah Jefferson: Thanks, Simon. Bye. Bye.