Episode 425 - Tracky Dacky Doo Dah Day

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

Welcome

00:00:22Melissa Ellis: Welcome to episode 425 of the parkrun adventurers podcast, a podcast about life, if your life is all about parkrun. My name is Melissa Ellis and I am coming to you from Wurundjeri Country.

00:00:35Tony O'Connell: And my name is Toc and I'm back in the driver's seat and I'm coming to you from Bunurong Country. How are you tonight Mel?

00:00:43Melissa Ellis: I'm good. Have you upgraded the comfy chair for a racing car seat or something?

00:00:48Tony O'Connell: Oh, well, I've stolen Jacqui's comfy chair. I'm not on the little kitchen chair tonight.

00:00:53[crosstalk]

00:00:53Melissa Ellis: Oh, you're going to be swivelling backwards and forwards all night, are you?

00:00:58Tony O'Connell: Oh, great. We're going to get more squeaks and squawks in the background noise then of my chair squeaking, are we?

00:01:04Melissa Ellis: Is that more comfortable for your injury, Tony? Are we going to do a big confession?

00:01:12Tony O'Connell: I think we'll pop that one nice and early. Yes, I'm out of action for a while, Mel. I have a stress fracture in my tibia and I find out tomorrow what the avenue for treatment is going to be. It's a very unusual one in the front of the tibia and it could be a long-term injury, I think. So it could be out on the volunteer register, I think.

00:01:35Melissa Ellis: Oh, Tony, that's not good. I know you're going to keep positive because that's just your MO, but we wish you a speedy recovery with that.

00:01:46Tony O'Connell: Thanks, Mella. It's just lucky that I don't like running and walking much and I can sit down and be patient. And I'm sure Jacqui's going to love the next several months that they're talking about recovery.

00:01:57Melissa Ellis: You need to take that yearly chair out on the street. You need to get some, yeah, some other form of mobility. Can you swim?

00:02:10Tony O'Connell: I'm not allowed to swim at the moment unless I strap a buoy between my ankles so I don't kick. If I'm not allowed to kick, I'm not allowed to move. Can't do much.

00:02:22Melissa Ellis: Can you go to the gym and just do arms? Yes.

00:02:25Tony O'Connell: Yeah, I'm allowed to go and do seated work. And that is about the extent of what they've actually told me I'm allowed to do. I'm not allowed to cycle. I can't stationary cycle even with one leg. They don't want me doing that. Anyway, Mel, we're talking parkrun and we're going to talk about the last episode, which was episode 424, reaching a record. And we had some feedback from Yvette Turner. Yvette said, thinking of everyone in the rain affected areas of Australia, my heart goes out to you. It's also National Volunteer Week from the 19th to the 25th of May with the theme of connecting communities. Thank you to the thousands of people that volunteer at parkrun each week. And thank you to all of the parkrun adventurers podcast hosts who volunteer their time to bring us a great podcast every week. Your efforts are much appreciated.

00:03:21Melissa Ellis: Aww. We got a thank you.

00:03:25Tony O'Connell: I read that and I was actually really, it made me feel really happy. So thanks, Yvette.

00:03:31Melissa Ellis: Thanks, Yvette. That's lovely. And we did have some bad weather over the last week. And Heather Hunter also commented on the last episode. She said, So hard to comprehend and so widespread. Thanks for another great episode. So yes, the very event that Heather did her roving report from last week was inundated and I'm assuming they won't be running this week.

00:04:02Tony O'Connell: That whole area is flooded. Yeah, as is a fair segment of central and northern New South Wales, Mel.

00:04:10Melissa Ellis: Hopefully those waters don't take too long to subside. But I think we might hear a little bit more about the weather and the effect that it had on parkrun a little bit later on. But for now, Toc, it's time for you to tell us where you were last week.

00:04:26Tony O'Connell: Now, I had the privilege and the pleasure of celebrating National Volunteer Week by standing up on the stump and being Run Director at Event 504 of Inverloch. It was drizzly all night and right through the morning up to parkrun time. And so we only had 84 finishers turn up. I think the sugar people didn't arrive. I had 11 amazing volunteers help me run a great day because I really couldn't do much. So I just stood there and pointed and everything just happened. Inverloch parkrun is one of those places that I pulled up in my car in the car park and the tub was taken out of the back of the car before I even got out of the driver's seat. Everything was just set up. I went to try and help even pin the poster up and it was already up. Everything was done. So I just... put the fancy vest on and talk to people so pretty cruisy um as I said looked like it was going to rain it was going to rain we had all these tourists we had a number of people come from Queensland to do their finish their alphabet we had people from all over the place we had a lovely lady from West Beach in South Australia and Adelaide come over um By the time parkrun go, the sun had come out. I promised the masses of people that it was going to be sunny at Inverloch and halfway through parkrun it was sunny. So it's always sunny at Inverloch and I'm going to stick with that. Mel, how about you? How did you put in the Saturday of National Volunteer Week?

00:06:01Melissa Ellis: Oh, well, I didn't volunteer at Park, for pointing that out although I did I did go I returned to juniors the previous Sunday but I think that was the day before volunteer week started so I guess you can't count that or the week that I spent editing the podcast for the episode I wasn't in Anyway, moving swiftly on, I was, oh, Tony, I was feeling a little bit grumpy on Friday night because one of my parkrun besties and my partner Dave were both off doing other fun things without me. And I didn't know where to go. And I was on a time limit, so I couldn't travel far from home. And I started to look up P&X ideas and have a crack at what Wilson numbers might have been available to me. And then I thought, you know what? I'm just going to go to Toolern Creek. I thought, what am I doing? Why don't I just make my own life a little bit easier and go and visit some people that I know? And do you know what? I'm absolutely wrapped that I made that decision because I turned up and there were smiling faces and I had conversations and I thought, yes, I am part of this community, even though I'm not here very often, but I know people and mostly I know people because of juniors. So that's how I've assimilated myself And they do look rather surprised when I turn up, I must say. But it was so lovely. And I just had a lovely run. Because Toolern Creek's a nice, relatively flat concrete out and back. So there was no pressure or hills to climb or anything like that. And I was quite happy with my time. And the weather was fine. It was a beautiful morning, actually. I think we had 14 degrees or something for parkrun morning. So that was quite nice. So not much else to say. It was event 471. So Toolern Creek, are they going to hit their 500 early next year?

00:08:07Tony O'Connell: They're going to get to their 500 very close to it, I think. In fact, yeah, it could be early in January, depending on whether they do any of the extra days, but it'll be January sometime.

00:08:18Melissa Ellis: They do usually do Christmas Day at Toolern Creek. Yeah, and there was 79 other parkrunners joining me on the morning.

00:08:27Tony O'Connell: Sounds like a lovely day, Mel. And for a parkrun that you can see almost out of your back window of your house, it's always good to have one nice and handy that you can just duck over and feel like part of the community.

00:08:38Melissa Ellis: Yeah, and I've told myself, Toc, if I am not travelling, I just need to go there more often.

00:08:43Tony O'Connell: Make life easy for yourself.

00:08:44Melissa Ellis: Exactly.

00:08:46Tony O'Connell: Mel, speaking of different events, and I think we'll go across to some numbers, and we'll start off across the ditch with New Zealand. And this week, New Zealand had 60 events, so they're growing again. They had 9,528 finishes, which was up slightly, about 146 on last week. And they had 974 volunteers, which was up on last week as well. Lost Lagoon was welcomed into the parkrun family, and we'll hear a little bit more on that later. And over in New Zealand, Caroline Bay and Foster both set attendance records. Southend was the most intimate parkrun with 13 finishes, while once again Hagley was the biggest with 640 finishes.

00:09:33Melissa Ellis: Well, I like that we're bringing these stats now. I like to know that these little bits of information like Hagley's regularly the biggest one. I'm sure... Oh, no, we've had this conversation about where Hagley is and I've forgotten. LAUGHTER

00:09:47Tony O'Connell: We have. Let's just say it's somewhere near Christchurch.

00:09:50Melissa Ellis: Right. Yes, it's on the South Island because I assumed it was on the north. Yeah, no, that's interesting. And I like that name of Lost Lagoon. That is a way cool name for a parkrun.

00:10:02Tony O'Connell: Did you like last week's New Zealand Stats where we had the second smallest and the second biggest, just for a bit of variety?

00:10:08Melissa Ellis: Do you know what? I didn't notice. That's terrible. And I even edited it. Oh, well. And listened to it, like, twice. But never mind. Now, meanwhile, here in Australia, we recorded 63,330 finishes with 5,833 volunteers. We saw 8,856 personal bests set and The Ponds was our largest with 778 volunteers. At the other end, Port Broughton had five finishes. Now, this surprised me, Toc, when I saw The Ponds. I was like, wait, what? What happened at Albert Melbourne? But then I remembered it was rainy here.

00:10:50Tony O'Connell: Albert Melbourne and Southbank. Southbank's also traditionally, and Queensland's been a bigger one. So The Ponds is just growing and growing. And if you look at their event history, it's an event that is just growing and growing. Yes.

00:11:05Melissa Ellis: Now, there were three attendance records set in Australia last weekend, and one was Kununurra. We spoke about that last week, and it's an attendance record. So they got 116, which was seven more than the previous week. Casula Parklands, they also overtook their previous record with 175, which was 26. Six more than their previous best effort, which was 66 weeks ago. So that stood for over a year. Macquarie University, they got 603, beating their previous best by two.

00:11:42Tony O'Connell: Lots and lots of events in there. Also... Probably a lot down on numbers, Mel, this week with our rain that we had. I know right across the eastern seaboard, we'll look at some cancellations later, but I think a lot of events were probably down on numbers this week just due to the inclement weather.

00:12:02Melissa Ellis: Yeah, that is likely. So we had other news that happened this week, which was a little bit contentious depending on which side of the fence you sit on, but the 11 millionth registration occurred in parkrun World and... surprisingly enough it was an Australian it was Matthew o'toole and he registered his home parkrun as Edinburgh Oval now Matthew is a junior 10. now he did run because we looked him up of course he did run along with 96 others at the act belong commit special event as part of national volunteer week And this event was briefly referenced last week by Sarah because that was where she was intending to be on Saturday. Now she did actually run and she backed up her sub 40 from the previous week with a 36.22. So good job, Sarah. This was a takeover event, of Volunteers by Act, Belong, Commit, which is described on the event page as WA's longest running mental health promotion campaign, encouraging everyone to keep active, connect with others and do something meaningful for good mental health and wellbeing. So we know that very well, don't we? That aligns very well with parkrun. Now, houseguest jace sarah's houseguest that is not mine he ran as an unknown while his wife Bec looked after hadley so Sarah and Matt could both enjoy a run so thank you for volunteering Bec and well I've done a bit of a deep dive into this 11 million um because I love my stats and numbers and um

00:13:44Tony O'Connell: Out of the 11 million registrations that we've had in parkruns so far, just over 10 million, in fact, 10,100,000 have done under 25 parkruns. And there's nearly half of that number yet to christen their barcodes. So I guess that gives us a little bit of thinking about what can we do when we get people to register? to make them take that all-important first step and turn up, but the even more important step of turning up the second week. So there's a little bit of thinking to be done out there. But with some other numbers, and these are only rough numbers, there's about 400,000 have done between 25 and 49 parkruns. So if you're in the 50 club... there's 250 000 people that have done between 50 and 99 there's 188 000 that have done between 100 and 249 43 000 that have done between 250 and 499 and there is only 2 287 people that have done over 500 parkruns oh that's a low number

00:14:37[16 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:14:54Tony O'Connell: It is a very low number. And I didn't have a look at what Darren Wood's stats are, who's done the most around the world. I did actually look up the table and I forgot to write it in. But he's up around 900 or somewhere like that. On the volunteering side, because I love volunteering numbers, and especially with it being National Volunteer Week, out of that 11 million registrations, 10,350,000 have either not volunteered or have only done one volunteer. The numbers then drop much quicker than with the runners so 66,000 have done between 25 and 49 volunteers 38,000 have done between 50 and 99 24,000 between 100 and 249 3,732 have done between 250 and 499 volunteers

00:15:35[15 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:15:50Tony O'Connell: But this is a bit that I find amazing. There's 298 people out there that have done between 500 and 999 volunteers. And then you get to the amazing four people that have done over 1,000 volunteers. And there's one person with over 1,100 volunteers. So that person's volunteering at... the 5k and at the junior but that is an amazing commitment when you have a look at it to have done you know that's over 10 years of volunteering twice a week

00:16:22Melissa Ellis: That's incredible. Thank you for bringing us those stats, Toc.

00:16:25Tony O'Connell: But as I said earlier, Mel, I really would like to work out how do we get the people that have signed up, how do we get them out of the car on the Saturday morning when they're looking at the people at parkrun and thinking, am I really one of them? Do I want to go over? Or, you know... How do we get the people to commit and do that first one? And as I said, do that second one because I think people start to enjoy it more when they do their all-important second parkrun. You know, maybe something, if anyone in the audience out there has got any suggestions they might want to email in, give us some ideas.

00:17:01Melissa Ellis: I'll tell you my idea. They need to bring a friend. You need to do it with a friend, the first of you, till you get your confidence. That's what I think. So we need to adopt people.

00:17:14Tony O'Connell: Just shanghai people off the street or...

00:17:19Melissa Ellis: I don't know, maybe I'll put a shout out on my social media this week and just say to any of my friends who may watch me every week, post my parkrun photos, if they actually fancy going along to a parkrun to reach out to me and I will go and visit them and go with them to their first parkrun. Maybe we can do that. We put on our socials and... You never know. There might be somebody that sits there and watches all the things you do every week that thinks, oh, I'd really like to do that, but I'm not quite game. Yep.

00:17:51Tony O'Connell: Who knows? Who knows what the driving factor is? But let's see if we can help find it.

00:17:55Melissa Ellis: Yeah, we'll have our own little... I'm going to have my own little attempt anyway. See if I can change one life. Maybe I can. Now, in other news, as you referenced earlier, there were over 40 cancellations this week around Australia, mainly due to the extensive rainfalls down the east coast of Australia. That saw some places record 600 millimeters of rain in 48 hours. That's a lot of rain.

00:18:22Tony O'Connell: There was, Mel, and I saw a few pictures of different courses. Obviously, a lot of pages putting up courses saying, sorry, we're cancelled. And there were some courses, and I can't think of the name of the one that I saw, but they've got a shelter at the start line, and apparently the shelter was eight metres underwater. Eight metres? That's the height of the shelter plus eight metres of water. So they've got 10 or 11 metres of water where their course would normally be. It's an amazing amount of water. So it is a parkrun that follows a creek and it is low set in the creek, but that's just an amazing amount of water to be in anywhere.

00:19:04Melissa Ellis: That wasn't the Taree one, was it?

00:19:06Tony O'Connell: No, I can't recall, Mel. I was just flicking through social media and saw the image.

00:19:11Melissa Ellis: Anyway, we do hope that everybody is safe and putting their own health and wellbeing ahead of getting to a parkrun, not being on the roads in bad conditions, which we are probably going to have to think about this week as well.

00:19:25Tony O'Connell: Yep, we've, rain's actually just started here. Mel, while we've been recording, I can hear it on the roof. Hopefully that doesn't come through the microphone, but it's probably the first real solid rain we've had in probably since Christmas. Yeah.

00:19:39Melissa Ellis: Yeah, right.

00:19:39Chris Wells: Wow.

00:19:40Tony O'Connell: Anyway, Mel, back on track. Merch. We have new merch and it's finally something I can get excited about. Now, parkrun have announced that they have two new seat cover towels. So the little towels with the little pocket to hang on your seat. And as both a heavy sweater and someone who actually likes going and running and then jumping in the water for a swim and then coming home, these things are awesome. I'm really on board with this one. We also saw the shoe notches come out. I'm not so on board with that. It's not my cup of tea. But with the car seat covers or the towels, one of the designs is a black base with apricot parkrunny things on it. So it's got coffee cups and barcodes and stopwatches and parkrun logos. The other one has a floral print on a black background. And look, after failing to purchase the shoes because I've got fat feet, I can't fit the parkrun shoes. As Danny pointed out when he co-hosted with you, I didn't buy the Goodas because they only came out in regular, not the BFG model, and I've got a big Buffet. I finally got something I can get behind now, so I've ordered them. I've ordered one of each, and they're coming.

00:20:57Melissa Ellis: Oh. Hooray! And guess what? I've ordered one too! I was super excited with these. Now they aren't terry toweling type of towels, they're microfiber. But from the images that are provided on the parkrun Australia shop, they do look like a good size. And as you said, they have this little zippered pocket on one end that when unzipped means that they can slip over the headrest so that your towel's not going to slip down as you're driving. when you're trying to sit on it to protect your nice seats from your sweaty bum. And what else did I love about it? I loved the fact that if I am going, like I can use it when I'm away overnight for my parkrun tourism. So if I go and change or have a shower after parkrun out of my sweaty activewear, I can put it in the zippered section if I want. And then I'm not going to drop my sweaty top on the grass from the caravan to the toilet block so that's good too but also that floral print that was what were they used for that picnic blanket that was out a little while ago that by the time I decided I had to have one they were not available anymore and I really liked the design so yeah I think I I'm on a winner because the towel is a lot more practical than that picnic blanket would have been because I already had a picnic blanket I didn't really need one

00:22:28Tony O'Connell: And Mel, I've got to admit, when I saw these come out, I thought, oh, yeah, I want that. Sometimes stuff comes out and I look at it and think, yeah, I'll think about that. These come out, oh, I want that. And I thought, I'm going to order it quick and see if I can beat our little South Australian friend that has all the merch. I want to get mine before she gets hers.

00:22:50Melissa Ellis: My problem was I it's playing with my OCD that I only ordered one because I feel like now like the seats aren't going to match and I need two even though I can't sit in two seats at once and then I would have liked one of each design because I did like both designs but I couldn't have a different one like I couldn't have two different ones in my car because that would play with my OCD too so yeah that's it's hard to be me.

00:23:16Tony O'Connell: Oh, Mel, I looked at the image. The image shows two car seats, a driver and passenger, one of each, and I thought, yep, that'll do, so I'll have one of each.

00:23:24Melissa Ellis: Yeah, you don't have my agonising brain. That's good for you.

00:23:30[background music]

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:23:31Tony O'Connell: Righto, Mel, let's keep moving along and let's go over. I'm a bit excited about some of this week's roving reports. Let's go and have a listen.

Roving report Yvette Turner — Leeton Sport and Recreation Precinct parkrun

00:23:45Yvette Turner: Good morning. My name is Yvette Turner and a very happy parkrun morning to the parkrun adventures. My normal parkrun is in Canberra, but today I am at Leeton Sport and Recreation Precinct parkrun and I'm talking to one of the Run Directors here, Chris Thompson. Good morning, Chris. Good morning. Chris hadn't ever heard of The adventurers so she'll probably be listening out for this podcast so she can hear it. Now Chris is one of the Run Directors here so Chris how did you get involved in this particular parkrun?

00:24:19Chris Thompson: Andrew our Event Director was trying to get it up and running and let us know about it which is when I first found out about it so then when it started I started participating and fell in love with it. Then found the 5K app and it's become an addiction. It does become an addiction.

00:24:34Yvette Turner: Now, how many parkruns have you done in total?

00:24:38Chris Thompson: 120-something.

00:24:39Yvette Turner: Yeah. I know you volunteer a lot. Do you get to tourists a lot?

00:24:44Chris Thompson: I do, yes. I try and set a target of 10 tourists a year because everything's so far away for us and takes an effort. So, yeah, that's my target each year. So, yeah, I think I've done...

00:24:52[crosstalk]

00:24:56Yvette Turner: 35. Oh, different parkruns. Yeah. Perfect. And have you done any international parkruns at all? No, not yet.

00:25:00[crosstalk]

00:25:01Chris Thompson: Just Australia so far. Hopefully later this year I might get to do one in New Zealand.

00:25:05Yvette Turner: Oh, lovely. That's the plan. Yeah. And out of all the parkruns you've been to, what are your favourite? Have you got a favourite one or a favourite couple of parkruns?

00:25:12[crosstalk]

00:25:13Chris Thompson: Burley Griffin's probably one of my favourites. Oh, yes. In Canberra.

00:25:16Yvette Turner: Yeah. Runs through the golf course. So, yeah. Very nice. Oh, fantastic. Yeah. And this week is National Volunteers Week. So how does your parkrun go with volunteers? I know it's always tricky getting them, but... Generally, we're not too bad.

00:25:30Chris Thompson: We do have a core bank that regularly volunteer and if someone has pulled out at last minute, they'll step up. So yeah, we've got a good bank. It's nice to get some fresh ones, but... Yeah, we do have a good bank of reliable volunteers. Perfect.

00:25:42Yvette Turner: And for people who have never been to Leeton and this parkrun, can you just describe the course for us?

00:25:49Chris Thompson: It's a really big U-shape, I guess you call it. It's very flat, so great for PBs, anyone chasing a PB. And you do pass the start line plenty of times, so in winter you've got plenty of chances to drop your jumpers and layers off as you pass.

00:26:01Yvette Turner: Ah, that's always a bonus. And for visitors to Leeton, do you have any things that you would tell people to go and visit while they're visiting?

00:26:11Chris Thompson: Depending on how long they've got, definitely go and check out the Historic Hydro. It's a great building and that area and the Roxy. If you're staying longer, there's Winton Malthouse and Altina Wildlife Park. Lots of, the river's not far away. So yeah, lots to see and do. You can feel lots of time.

00:26:30Yvette Turner: Perfect. And today was event number 199, which is so exciting. So I'm very sad we're not here for the celebrations next week. Oh, are you? Do you know if they're planning anything? Trying to beat our record of attendance.

00:26:35[crosstalk]

00:26:44[crosstalk]

00:26:44Chris Thompson: So our record's 130. So ideally we'd like 200 on our 200th event, but we're aiming to beat our...

00:26:50Yvette Turner: current record oh that would be fantastic so any adventurers listening if you are looking to go somewhere next week how about coming to Leeton for sure um so thank you very much Chris I really enjoyed the parkrun today um the weather is just beautiful I thought it was going to be much colder and I got very hot it does get cold yeah yeah um but it's been great and thank you so much for joining us today thank you thank you bye

00:27:07[crosstalk]

Roving report Lyndell Murray — Hidden Vale parkrun

00:27:16Lyndell Murray: G'day parkrun adventurers, it's Lyndell and today I have bundled Tracey in a Tutu into my car and we have taken a bit of a hike out to Hidden Vale parkrun, brand new parkrun, well not brand new, a few weeks old and on the lands of the Yuggera people about an hour west of Brisbane. And I'm here with Morgan. G'day, Morgan. How are you today? Good, Lyndell. How are you? Great.

00:27:42Morgan: Excellent. Nice run you got here. Beautiful, isn't it? Beautiful day, you know, out in nature, which is a bit of a nice change to a lot of parkruns. So I think that's... such a difference for us out here indeed um now we it's a trail park one here um out and back um with company of the kangaroos um is there any other wildlife out here um there is other wildlife but we we hope not to see many of those the slithery ones so generally um you'll see a heap of kangaroos out there in the morning they'll um they're so used to seeing people so they'll kind of watch you run past and let you go on your way um but yeah we are on a nature refuge here um so um the wildlife centre which is on site here actually does a heap of research for the animals out on the 12 days 12 000 acre property that the course is on so many many you know um animals you know native to Australia out there that you'd see as well brilliant which makes it a perfect place for a parkrun for trail running for mountain biking and that's all here too right yeah so on the 12,000 acres we've got 110 kilometres of mountain biking and trail running so I'm a trail runner myself so you can kind of run for hours and probably not see another person but there's water out there it's just a perfect spot for people to kind of get into nature and not have to worry about cars and all that sort of thing.

00:29:04Lyndell Murray: Yeah. Brilliant. Now, we are at event number three today. Yeah. How long has this been your brainchild?

00:29:13Morgan: So, my husband and I actually moved to Grandchester five years ago. I work here at Spicers Hidden Vale. We always thought, how cool would it be to have a parkrun up here because it's the perfect spot. We know the trails well and... I came back from maternity leave on the 3rd of January this year and I went and spoke to Dan, our general manager, who is also Run Director here, and said, what do you think about a parkrun? He said, go for it. So I've actually heard that we've been the quickest parkrun set up in Australia. It actually only took us three months, but we just wanted to make sure we'd passed Easter and everything like that before we launched. Yeah, three or four months and we've been up and running but obviously it's been in our head for a long time and um now I had the opportunity after I've had a couple of kids to get it all up and running and going and I've got the time to do not that I've got the time but yeah yeah they're old enough to be able to come up here and be here for the day brilliant and obviously you know being on a resort perhaps funding was available to you and you didn't have to worry so much about that Yeah, definitely. And that was one of the reasons I think we were able to get it up and running so quickly. So we had the benefit of being on private land. So Jude and Screw were able to give us landholder approval and also help with the funding as well, which covers defibrillator flags, tokens and all that sort of thing. That was such a big benefit for us, not having to go through councils to get funding and have to get grants. So I think that fast-tracked the whole thing probably by months, not having to worry about that. So we're very appreciative for Jude and Screw, who have also been here a long time as well and saw that it would be a great thing for the community as well to have here.

00:30:47[crosstalk]

00:30:49Lyndell Murray: Yes. Now, third weekend, you've had big numbers, small numbers, reasonable numbers again this week. What do you think the local community is going to be like here? Are there lots of local runners showing up week after week?

00:31:01Morgan: So I've put the word out on some community pages and got a heap of interest. Not necessarily runners, but people just wanting to get out and go for a walk in the morning and that type of thing. So this first few weeks, we've had a lot of people from Brisbane, you know, the people that want to get to the new parkruns. All of the adventurers. Yeah.

00:31:19Alison Fraser (King): Yes, exactly. Which we love. Sorry about that.

00:31:21Morgan: But I think as it goes on, I think we'll probably see a lot more local people coming up to go for a walk and, you know, have brekkie at the barn afterwards and that sort of thing.

00:31:30Lyndell Murray: Yeah. We'll bring people together and it's a nice morning out.

00:31:34Morgan: And that's the thing, like with Grandchester, You know, there's not a lot of stuff for us to do out here. So it's nice for us to have the opportunity to kind of get together and do something that's free and community based every week.

00:31:45Lyndell Murray: Yeah. I know you had visitors here from Toowoomba and Dalby. So that's sort of. Darling Downs region as well. So you'll probably get visitors there as well.

00:31:50[crosstalk]

00:31:53Morgan: Yeah, we've heard of people coming from all over the place. So I had people from Pittsworth and Dalby and, you know, north side of Brisbane, Gold Coast. So it's nice to see people adventuring all over the place. Yeah.

00:32:06Lyndell Murray: Fabulous. Okay, now have we covered the course out and back fire trail?

00:32:11Morgan: Yeah, so it is a fire trail. Like I said, we do have... all of this the single trail here which is the majority of the trails we have but just for the purpose of parkrun it is probably a bit easier to have fire road where people aren't getting lost and it's not single trail so a little bit of inclination out on the way out but it's nice downhill on the way back but yeah it just means that it's easy for people to follow and there's not too many problems along the way.

00:32:39Lyndell Murray: yeah the turnaround's a cattle grid yeah yeah and the turnaround does climb up a little bit at the end so it's this little pinch just at the turnaround point but like I said then you can kind of cruise back and it's a nice easy run on the way home yeah brilliant all right is there anything else that you would like the parkrun adventurers to know about Hidden Vale parkrun oh

00:33:00Morgan: apart from the most beautiful parkrun in Australia. And we've got the best almond croissants to finish off your parkrun with. No, I think we've just got such a beautiful community out here and it's just such a different place to go. You see your kangaroos and your wildlife and finish off with a coffee and pastry in the barn. It's just a nice little spot to have your morning run started.

00:33:24[crosstalk]

00:33:24Lyndell Murray: Speaking of which, let's go get breakfast.

00:33:26Morgan: Exactly.

00:33:27Lyndell Murray: Thank you, Morgan. Thank you for taking the time to talk to me. And thank you for making this wonderful contribution to your community.

00:33:33Morgan: Well, thank you. Thanks for coming out.

Roving report Alison Fraser (King) — East Otago High School parkrun

00:33:36Alison Fraser (King): Kia ora koutou adventurers. It's Alison here. And today I have rocked on up to East Otago High School parkrun, which is the first parkrun to launch of 2025 here in New Zealand. And the South Island has done it once again. It's another South Island parkrun. And this one is in the town of Palmerston, which is about 45 minutes north of Dunedin. And it is in the grounds of a high school. And I did a little bit of a look before I set off on my adventure. And this high school has a role of less than 200 people. [Te Reo Māori: "Hello / greetings to you all, adventurers."]

00:34:10Morgan: But I'm gonna go and do my parkrun and then go and have a chat with the Run Director.

00:34:15Alison Fraser (King): Well, I'm now with Event Director and today's Run Director, Chris Wells. So welcome to the podcast, Chris.

00:34:20Chris Wells: How are you, Alison?

00:34:21Alison Fraser (King): I'm pretty good. East Otago High School, how does a parkrun end up in the grounds of a high school in New Zealand?

00:34:28Chris Wells: Well, tried to set it up here in Palmerston and I went to about three or four different places and they all wanted paid for the use of their property. And as you know, parkrun doesn't have any money. Well, we don't at the grassroots. And I went to the school and they just open arms. They're a community school and they just wanted to have more community involvement in their property.

00:34:50Alison Fraser (King): That's pretty cool. It's the first parkrun in New Zealand to be in school grounds. And we've got one in a university and one now in a high school. So I guess primary school next?

00:34:58Chris Wells: Yeah, possibly. Well, I tried to combine the primary school, but crossing a road, it was sort of, unless we set up another one over there. Yeah.

00:35:06Alison Fraser (King): Now this course, some people tell me it was three laps but I actually think I'm going to call it three out and backs but in a loop kind of format.

00:35:16Chris Wells: Yeah well we have sort of come to term it as three inner loops and three outer loops and we did that so that we could contain it within the sports field and the two dog legs in there into the field as well to get our 5000 metres.

00:35:32Alison Fraser (King): Yeah and that makes it quite sociable.

00:35:35Chris Wells: Yeah, you can stand out there where you come off the field to the finish line and watch people going in five or six different directions. And, you know, if you're a social person, you can say g'day, how are you, and cheer each other on as well.

00:35:51Alison Fraser (King): And today it's a small field. You typically get small fields at this parkrun. Before today, I checked the average was 32. I got token 14 today. And if that was a regular out and back course, I'd have been incredibly lonely. But there were people around me all the time.

00:36:07Chris Wells: Yeah, I know. It's really amazing. And if you sort of stand back a bit from the entrance there, it's like a picture frame. You see all these people going in different directions and you just unconsciously think, holy smoke, I hope they're going the right way.

00:36:21Alison Fraser (King): It kind of makes up for it all being on, well, the vast majority, like 99% of it on grass.

00:36:26Chris Wells: Yeah, that's right. Yeah. And some people say it's hard. Some people like it. Like a fellow here today from Oamaru, he said, oh, it reminds me of being back at school. You know, you do something wrong, go out and do three laps of the field.

00:36:41Alison Fraser (King): And the seasons are changing. Today we're a nine o'clock start because we're in the bottom bits of the South Island. So I can see why it would be nine o'clock because it was still, you know, the light wasn't that great at eight. But it also meant we had frost.

00:36:57[crosstalk]

00:36:57Chris Wells: Yeah.

00:36:57Alison Fraser (King): So it was quite frosty on the feets.

00:36:59Chris Wells: Yeah, I set up the course this morning. My feet are still cold, frozen. But when I left home this morning with my sackbar and all the gear on it, just after about quarter past seven, it was still just breaking light.

00:37:17Alison Fraser (King): What's it going to be like in the middle of winter?

00:37:19Chris Wells: A few weeks away? Yeah, that's right. Before we went off daylight savings, we were setting up the course with head torches on and that. So we bear up to the challenge.

00:37:31Alison Fraser (King): Now tell me your parkrun story Chris. At the run brief I shouted out my arbitrary milestone of 300 and you mentioned that you did 200 last week. This event is only 17 events old so where did you start your parkrunning?

00:37:45Chris Wells: I started my parkrun up in Napier at Anderson's parkrun and I was introduced to it by my sister Vanessa from Auckland who had been doing it for a period of time already. and we had a family get-together on my 65th birthday up there. And, you know, I'm 68 now. No, it might have been my 60th. Anyway, whatever it was, it was on my birthday. And yeah, so that's where I started. And Daisy, my dog, and I... Daisy's probably done about 180. And I've done, as you say, 200. And when I came down here, I said to my friends before I left Napier, I'm going to set up a parkrun in Palmerston. And some of them encouraged me and some said, no, don't do it, Chris. But no, I went ahead and did it myself. And... The beauty about doing it myself, it was really easy when I called a committee meeting. I just got 100% acceptance of what was proposed.

00:38:45Alison Fraser (King): Did they think you were mad for wanting to set up a parkrun in a small town? I mean how many people live in Palmerston?

00:38:51Chris Wells: Last census there was a thousand and fifty so I think we're doing pretty good when we look at other parkruns which have four thousand people and they're getting 30s and 40s and we've got a thousand and fifty here and as you say our average is 30 odd and last week we got 32 the week before that we got 29 I think so you know

00:39:13Alison Fraser (King): Yeah, it's a nice little intimate parkrun.

00:39:14[crosstalk]

00:39:16Chris Wells: Yeah, that's right, yeah. And we have had a huge support from locals, businesses and individuals.

00:39:23Alison Fraser (King): And we should state that if people are hearing the word Palmerston and they're thinking of somewhere else in the country, we're a different island to Palmerston North. They've got the North to distinguish there on the North Island. And there's also a Palmerston parkrun in Northern Territory, Darwin.

00:39:39Chris Wells: Yeah, I did try to find somebody and I found them. They had registered in the Palmerston one, not knowing that.

00:39:49Alison Fraser (King): Not knowing it should be East Otago High School.

00:39:51Chris Wells: Yeah, that's right. But we've also got other events which our people here are associated with. Like if we look over my shoulder, you see the Puketapu monument on top. That's the roundabout in October on the Sunday. So people can come along here and do the East Otago High School parkrun on Saturday and do the Puketapu on Sunday. Oh, yeah, yeah.

00:40:16Alison Fraser (King): There's a magnificent looking monument up the top there and I'll put a photo of that I think in the parkrun adventurers Facebook page but I was reading the sign for it on our way in and it's for someone who settled here in the 1860s and ended up creating the Ministry of Agriculture.

00:40:36Chris Wells: Yeah that's right and was instrumental in having all the the huge property is broken up for smaller farmers and for people that could afford them and that sort of thing and not just the gentry type thing.

00:40:50Alison Fraser (King): So for a settlement as small as Palmerston you're definitely punching above your weight.

00:40:54Chris Wells: Yeah no we're doing really well and you know I'd just like to thank everybody for supporting us.

00:40:59Alison Fraser (King): Well thank you so much for having us today Chris. It's been chilly but a very warm welcome.

00:41:00[background music]

00:41:04Chris Wells: Yeah it was four degrees when I left.

00:41:07Alison Fraser (King): Wow yeah I definitely felt it.

00:41:14Melissa Ellis: And thank you to our roving reporters this week. What a great bunch. We had Yvette talking to RD Chris Thompson, who did a great job for her first roving report. I loved her enthusiasm and her knack for finding fellow parkrun tourists to spread the gospel. We also had Alison who ventured south to the town of Palmerston. Only 1,000 people in that town and the school has a roll of less than 200. So what a great effort getting a parkrun for that community. She was also talking to an ED called Chris who set up the event by himself. Now, I had to laugh when he remarked about how easy it made his committee meetings, now we also had our very own Lyndell the Legendary coming to us from the newest event in Queensland she was with Morgan they were talking about the out and back trail which sounds really inviting with its native fauna I'm thinking you'd be in favour of the almond croissant in the barn, TOC

00:42:14Tony O'Connell: Yeah, it definitely sounds like something that would make it worth attempting to go and visit that particular one. I actually love the name too, Hidden Vale. It's, yeah, just got one of those little names that sounds really cool.

00:42:26Melissa Ellis: Yeah, and having brunch at the barn, that sounds cool too.

Dazza's

00:42:31Tony O'Connell: Righto Mel, this week we also heard from Dazza. And this week Dazza said, today is Aviation Maintenance Technician Day. Whether it's the volleys at parkrun or the people who make sure your plane only touches the ground when it's meant to, there's always unsung heroes working in the background. Spare a moment to thank them whether your plane got you somewhere safely or... or you're able to execute a perfect zoomie. Whatever flying looked like for you today, let us know how it went whilst Dazza uses his technician skills to fix you something.

00:43:05Melissa Ellis: I just want to jump in, TOC, just quickly, because just as you were reading that, I had a bit of a think about those words, the unsung heroes in the background, working in the background. Our equal opportunity employee probably doesn't get enough credit for how much work he puts in every week. And he was actually the author of this very Dazza's post. So I would like to say a personal thank you to Dave. Dave Bravo. Bravo? Bravo, Dave Bravos, for all the work you put in to help us every week. You're very quiet in the background, but you acknowledge the hard work that you put in.

00:43:42Tony O'Connell: Dave is very quiet, but yes, he does contribute significantly into the team. So thanks, Dave. And this week, our listen to challenge was try and name your parkrun in emojis at the end of your comment.

00:43:56Melissa Ellis: It was. And this created a lot of fun and excitement. And people even started getting into it on Friday Night Talk. Now, firstly, we hear from Geoff Glaab coming to us from the USA. And he said, huge salute to aviation maintenance technicians. None of us could have the adventures we have without them. And he had the salute emoji. Zoomed 200 kilometres north to finally run my NENDY at White Lick Creek parkrun in Indianapolis on Indy 500 weekend. And he's got that little checkered flag emoji. a lovely flat shaded out and back course near the airport. I even kissed the bricks. I don't know why I would do that. Is that a thing? Kissing the bricks?

00:44:37Tony O'Connell: I have no idea. When I read that in the week's comments, I thought I must go and look that up and try to work it out because it was a set of bricks across the finish line on the course. And I at first thought it was some sort of Blarney Stone reference, like Ireland or something, or I don't know.

00:44:55Melissa Ellis: Okay. Well, anyway, Jeff shared a photo of himself with the pop-up holding a parkrun tourist sign. But you know what I thought when I saw that? Oh, they have pop-ups in America. I don't know that I knew that, that they had pop-ups.

00:45:09Tony O'Connell: I don't know. No. I think they have a mix of both. I think I've seen photos with frames as well. So maybe they have both in places. Okay. Rightio, coming back to WA and Gareth Arnold. It was Junior Takeover at... And we had a series of emojis. We had a car. And Mel, you might have to help me out here. I think it's a dinner plate with a knife and fork. And... The inbox. An inbox.

00:45:38Alice: Mm-hmm.

00:45:40Tony O'Connell: Ah, and then an L in brackets. So here I am with my smallest adventurer, who is timekeeping, Earl Grey pleased as a, and a choco milk for Aussie. And there was a picture of Gareth and a junior volley at Kadina Trail. Yeah, car, dinner. Okay.

00:45:59Melissa Ellis: In, car, trail, tray. It's an in tray, tray with the L. Okay.

00:46:06Tony O'Connell: Car dinner tray L. I spent way too much time Saturday night trying to work out some of these emojis. I'm not good at it. I watched some of the comments on Friday night with people trying to bounce them around and I was lost.

00:46:24Melissa Ellis: Yeah. Okay. So here's the next one. Jason Andrews coming to us from the Great Estate. And he said, and it's a wave emoji, and it says, been a while since my last post, but this week we adventured, in brackets, zoomed, down the M1 to, and these are the emojis. It's the circle emoji that's read with the line through it, like a stop or no deal kind of. Don't go here. And then a fist and then the flame and then a tree and then like a bush forest or something. And then a person running. Oh, it's probably a park. And then a running person. Anyway, nice crew per any parkrun. Good chat post run on a nice course. Numbers were down due to the event this weekend at Halls Gap. Can't claim credit for the emojis. Ollie was bored on the long drive home. And then there was the smiley, laughy face with the tongue sticking out. Okay, so here we go. Ollie and Jason, they were at Bannockburn Bush. They have a photo with the event core flute. And we actually used that photo for the Consolidated Club Report this week. So Bannock, Burn, Bush. So there was Ban, so that was the circle with the line through it, Ban. And Knock was the fist. And Burn was the flame. And Bush, the tree, was the bush. Yeah, so that was clever. Good job, Ollie. And how tall is Ollie getting? My goodness.

00:47:56Tony O'Connell: Well done, Mel. As I said, some of these are very cryptic and I am not all that good at working through them, but let's have a go at another one. Helen Rudder coming to us from Scotland. We were in Bonnie, Scotland and went to Elder Park. It was my first continuous 5K run in ages. I thought I was flying, but my aircraft body is past its best and keeps breaking and found this journey tough as it makes yet another comeback attempt. Should have retired like a Concorde, but I won't. And we had a couple of laughy faces. And then we had a series of emojis in three lines. We had a little baby face with a left arrow and a tick face. We had a lady's face emoji with a left arrow and a cross. And then we had a flower and a tree. And I'm going to insert all that and work that out as being Helen Patricia was at Elder Park.

00:49:02Melissa Ellis: Well, she did say that in her postdoc, so that's not really that clever.

00:49:07Tony O'Connell: And she happened to post that picture in her adventurer's Top doing her pop-up balance pose on the Elder Park pop-up, which I've just looked up to actually work out, even though it was in the written description and I missed that bit.

00:49:22Melissa Ellis: Yeah, so the old lady emoji was elder because she's an elderly person. And that's why it's tick. And then there's a younger person and there's a cross because it's not a younger park, it's an elder park.

00:49:35Tony O'Connell: Okay, with my squinty eyes, that top emoji was a little baby emoji with a tick, not an old lady emoji.

00:49:43Melissa Ellis: No, it's an old lady with her glasses on. My goodness, and you're even wearing your glasses. Okay, next we heard from Bill. He was also in the Great Estate and he said, the navigation tools worked for me to where I was going, I think. It was a low pass over the course as we landed due to low cloud cover and damp conditions. The odd thing is when I disembarked at the terminal, this place has a selfie frame where one has to work out where it is via the emoji clues. And then he had the hands up in the air emoji times three. I hope I landed in the correct place. This has confused me because why is Billo getting an aeroplane?

00:50:24Tony O'Connell: It's our Aviation Week theme.

00:50:26Melissa Ellis: It's the figure of speech, isn't it? Anyway, so, yeah, okay, yeah. Billo's up on the border. Why is he flying a telemarine? Anyway, so these were the emojis that he put. He put the money emoji and then a times or a cross or an X and then the numerals 1,000, then a mountain and a railway track, the letters TR, the beer emoji, A capital P and a running man. And deciphered, that stands for grand. So the money times 1,000, that's a grand, right? That's clever. Good job, Billo. Grand ridge. So the mountain was the ridge and rail trail was the railway track and trail TR with the beer emoji for ale. Trail. Clever. And then, of course, parkrun, running man. We all know those bits. So good job, Billo.

00:51:24Tony O'Connell: And Billo quite cleverly posted all that over the top of the selfie frame over the name Grand Ridge Rail Trail so that you couldn't even cheat and actually look to see where he was. So I thought that was actually a really good job as well.

00:51:37Melissa Ellis: Oh, I wasn't so clever because I think I glimpsed a bit of Mirboo in the background.

00:51:45Tony O'Connell: For those that know. Now staying in the Great Estate and we heard from Andrea Booth. Hi Dazza, this past week I've been very grateful for the aviation industry having taken a joy float over Kakadu National Park and then returning home from Darwin. With Jells parkrun cancelled due to park upgrades, I ventured locally to Plant and Ear and Crick River Emoji parkrun.

00:52:13Melissa Ellis: Well, they didn't work out when I cut copy and pasted, TOC. So I thought I better explain what emoji she used. It was a planted ear and a creek slash river. So where do you think she was?

00:52:27Tony O'Connell: I can read what's written in the right-hand text box, Mel. And Andrea was in the selfie frame at Gardiners Creek parkrun.

00:52:34Melissa Ellis: And she's still managing to make us all jealous about how she recently went to... To Kakadu and everywhere. Yeah, she was at... I've been watching her photos. I'm very jealous. At Uluru, yes, all righty next we heard from Kelly tims coming to us from Queensland and Kelly said hi Dazza Belinda and I ventured by airplane emoji two okay here's the emojis I'm gonna describe to you an old lady a thumbs up a son uh I don't know forest and a road and a pee and a running person this morning A lovely few days has been had exploring this outback country town, learning about the history of aeroplanes. We even saw an emu crossing the parkrun track after finishing. So there was a photo of Kelly and Belinda in the event core flute at Old Thomson River Road parkrun. So the old was the old lady. The Tom was the thumb. Tom Thumb. Huh. Then there was the sun, Thompson, and river. So that was the little, hard to tell, but it was a river. And then a road. Yeah, so very clever. I believe the girls spent quite a bit of time working that out. Righty-o, Mel.

00:53:59Tony O'Connell: The next one, Maria Weeks, coming to us from Finland. Hi, Dazza. I flew to Finland yesterday, and today earned a new flag on my profile. And we had a clock emoji, a coin emoji, a running emoji, and... I'm not sure what sort of face that is, but it's a face emoji with an eye-rolling type thing in it. And when we put all that together, we end up with a picture of Maria standing with the Tokoinranta pop-up and looking back at it. So we've got the clock, and that's the Tock. We've got some money, which is a coin. It's a Tock coin. We've got someone running, which is the Ran. And the eye-rolling one... What am I missing here, Mel, for the tar?

00:54:52Melissa Ellis: I don't know. I couldn't figure it out.

00:54:56Tony O'Connell: I got the first bit going anyway. Well done, Maria. And a great picture. It looks like quite a big lake in the background there, so I might have to do a little bit more profile on that one and have a look at it for myself.

00:55:11Melissa Ellis: now next we heard from Graham Wilkinson coming to us from Scotland he starts with his emojis so there is a outdoor wilderness emoji a dice a kangaroo a running man and what's that last one hmm I don't know, a road? I can't tell. Anyway, apparently the birthplace of the Macropus genus. Fastest time this year for me under cloudy Scottish skies, though fortunately last night's rain did not return. Now, okay, so it's very interpretive, these emojis. So this is all a bit tenuous. But anyway, so that wilderness emoji, that's a feld. And then there's a die and then a kangaroo. Feldiru. Feldiru. Feldiru parkrun. Yeah. Yeah. So there you go. Good job. And there was a person in a kangaroo costume in the photo. I don't know who that was. I don't think that was Graham.

00:56:18Tony O'Connell: And that's another event that we might have to look at. We have our Kangaroo Island and we have our Wallaby Trail, so we had our Macropod Challenge in Australia. Is that another event that we need to think about putting in it? And that's going to make it a bit more challenging.

00:56:33Melissa Ellis: Oh, it's going to make it an international challenge. Yeah. Graham just needs to come to Australia and he'll be ahead of the pack.

00:56:41Tony O'Connell: Rightio. And speaking of someone who's been to Australia, we hear from Johan in South Africa. And he writes, it's a stunning morning at... And then we had three emojis. We had a sun emoji, a town emoji and a tree emoji. And he's written with so many familiar faces. And if we put that together, obviously the sun is the sun, the town is a city, and the tree is a parkrun. So Johan posted a stunning sunrise photo and then a group photo with a selfie frame with four friends. And the selfie frame says, Gary Player Golf Course, parkrun, Sun City.

00:57:23Melissa Ellis: Yeah, and again, I don't know that I...

00:57:26Tony O'Connell: realised South Africa had event core flutes or are they making their own I don't know I know we had a little bit of the background on the um New Zealand ones a little while ago so perhaps that's something we need to deep dive in and see if we can get some information on that as well although the actual core flute doesn't look like it's a A regular one. It's not the shape or style that I've seen before. So maybe it is one that's been produced locally.

00:57:58Melissa Ellis: Hmm. Interesting. Okay.

the Obi Award — Kelly Timms

00:58:03Melissa Ellis: Would you like to know the winner of the Obi?

00:58:06Tony O'Connell: Mel, have you got the envelope?

00:58:09Melissa Ellis: I do. Hang on. Let me open it. This week's Obi goes to... Kelly Timms up there in Queensland. And I know that Kelly spent a lot of time working out her emojis for her parkrun. We haven't heard from Kelly before. I do not think. It's her first time to Dazza's. So she gets rewarded. Hooray.

00:58:10[background music]

00:58:43Tony O'Connell: Well done, Kelly. And I think you had nearly the most emojis in there to get the town riding. But given that you were at Old Thomson River Road parkrun, which is a lot of letters in itself, well done.

Club Corner

00:58:56Tony O'Connell: Righto, Mel, I think it's time for us to go across and listen to what Reginald has to say.

00:59:09Reginald 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. Given that this series is about parkrun countries, I have best yet profiling. Let us begin back when parkrun was not parkrun, but rather a time trial, starting in Bushy in October of 2004. Back then, there was not even a country for Bushy to belong to, as it was flying solo. Other time trials came along and spread through England. Then the time trial thing began to spread and made its way to Wales with Cardiff Time Trial in February 2008. By the time Scotland started in December of 2008 with what was then known as Glasgow parkrun, the TT had clearly become AP and the name change kicked in. In due course, with other name changes, Glasgow became Pollok parkrun. The last of the UK countries began in Northern Ireland with Waterworks parkrun Belfast in November of 2010. But parkrun UK is a multifaceted body, much like the concept of the UK as a whole, being that it is the sum of many parts and protectorates, some of which are individual sometimes, and other times part of the whole. From 2011 to 14, the UK even included a piece of Afghanistan with Camp Bastion existing for 111 parkruns. Even odder than Afghanistan, parkrun UK in the TT Days included the Rolf Valley Time Trial which was in Zimbabwe. This was in 2007, and in a piece of trivia, I believe that all of their events were held mid-week, because back in TT Days parkrun was not always on a Saturday. To skip ahead some years, and to polish off what is under parkrun UK, we are adding another five areas which are UK, but not, but they are. Let us not poke the bear that is our non-Antipodean listeners. In order, UK added Jersey in September 2015, Guernsey in April 2016, and Isle of Man in October 2017. Then we have more remote places having joined the UK with Falkland Islands events, yes, plural, in 2019 and 2021, followed by Akrotiri and Dhekelia in January 2022. All of the above is one still existing parkrun country according to parkrun HQ, but could be as many as 11 in the real world. See how we can quickly get a lot higher than the official 22 countries. There is more to come, and next time we will feature some parkrun countries that do exist, and one that does not exist. And remember, in parkrun life, all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun, so stay tuned for our future club corners.

01:01:50Melissa Ellis: And thank you very much to Reginald for coming to us with what is really the first edition of the Countries series, telling us all about the United Kingdom and the different countries that that region encompasses, which is very varied. I'm not going to go over them all because I can't remember them all. But what I do want to mention and which has been provided to me in our show notes was for our international listeners, we thought we would reference a pound and what that's actually worth here in Australia. So in Australia, a pound is roughly two Aussie dollars and that would be $2.25 New Zealand as well. I believe.

01:02:37Tony O'Connell: And Mel, a couple of other little references that have come out that have been put in by the show note fairy into our thing. How far is the United Kingdom from Australia? And our reference is 16,000 kilometres, which is more than 3,200 parkruns. But I guess if that depends if you're departing from Melbourne or Perth, there's quite a few parkruns difference in between.

01:03:03Melissa Ellis: Hmm, that is right. So yes, good to begin this series. So I'm looking forward to learning more about the idiosyncrasies of the other countries that make up the parkrun world. But anyway, time to move on, TOC, let's not linger.

Consolidated Club Report

01:03:19Melissa Ellis: We've got a Consolidated Club Report to discuss. And this week, the adventurers Consolidated Club Report for Saturday, the 24th of May, 2025. Of a total of 791 members, 553 took part on this date in 18 countries across 312 locations. In the UK, there were adventurers at 67 events. 67. They are getting miles in front of our regions here in Australia. Anyway, there was 10 events with adventurers in South Africa, four in Germany and the USA, two in Ireland, one in Canada, Finland, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Singapore and Sweden. Nearly didn't get that breath. Locally, we had adventurers at 52 events in the greatest state, Queensland. They tied on 52. New South Wales had 47. There was 21 on the West Side, 13 in South Australia, 10 in Tassie. The North Island had eight. ACT had six. South Island had three. And there were two in the Northern Territory.

the Frond

01:04:28Tony O'Connell: And Mel, our biggest international frond was at Durlston Country Park with four people, and that was Stuart Morglund and Tamsin Smith and Kim Leonard.

01:04:38Melissa Ellis: And the pilgrimage. We didn't have anybody at Bushy this week. Uh-uh. So I've replaced Bushy, with ivan Neville now ivan took three flights and 28 hours from Australia to Fulham Palace in London and he posted a picture of himself with a gigantic Fulham Palace pop-up I don't know if that was just the way the photo was taken I didn't think the UK pop-ups were that big, TOC but that one looked extra big it did in the photo didn't it melt looked huge Now, interesting to note that Ivan was also there with Ian and Alexander Thompson. I don't know if they know each other. I don't think they do because I think Ian and Alexander might be Brits. I don't know. I'm making that up. But Ivan is definitely from Australia. My research tells me he has parkrun 190 times in 20 parkrun countries, but he appears to have originated from the ACT.

01:05:40Tony O'Connell: Good research. Thank you.

01:05:42Melissa Ellis: Now, our largest Australian frond was a frond of 12 at Hidden Vale in Australia. It was Shane and Catherine Wharton, Ryan Stoddart, Simon Mackley, Steve O'Connor, Sarah Maas, Delise Golding, Karina Campbell, Lyndell Murray, Brett Johnston, Hayley Bower and Tracey Wood. That is Tracey in a Tutu. Now, Ryan Stoddart came to Dazza's and he said, did my 200th different parkrun location today at Hidden Vale parkrun with Sarah. Good to see Simon Mackley there. And also in attendance were Tracey in a Tutu and Lyndell the Legendary. And he shared a photo of himself, Sarah and Simon with the selfie frame.

01:06:27Tony O'Connell: Well, it's just good to remind people that you can add the Adventurous Club as one of your five affiliations. We're sitting on 791, so we need nine people to crack that 800 figure. Be good to see that happen fairly soon, as one of our co-hosts, Sarah, predicted we'd hit it in May, the figure of 800, and I think she might be right on the money if we can get a couple of people behind it.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

01:06:53Tony O'Connell: Moving along, Mel, parkrun globally. We've now had 74 launches for the year. And there's another little note in the show notes here, Mel, that says that there's no tongue twisters this week. And that's because I spoke to someone at headquarters and asked if they could put all their tongue twisters on the week that Simon's on, particularly if he can have the really difficult ones, the Japanese ones and the Finnish and the Norwegian ones. That'd be much appreciated, Mel. So this week we've got nine launches and I'm pleased to say that they're all pretty straightforward to pronounce. So I'm going to kick off with Lost Lagoon parkrun in New Zealand. Lost Lagoon is located on the South Island in the northwest coastal town of Westport. The course is a three-lap around the Lost Lagoon track with a short tail at the end. Our 15 volunteers this week guided 112 finishers for week one, including 66 people who ran their first ever parkrun.

01:07:53Melissa Ellis: Next, we had Courtenay Airpark parkrun in Canada. And this is found on Vancouver Island. Courtenay Airpark is Canada's westernmost parkrun, a flat out and back course along the Kaomarks Estuary. 20 finishes for week one, including 13 first timers. The start finish is at the north end of the air park runway. And the turnaround is in the Millard Nature Park Forest.

01:08:18Tony O'Connell: Righty-o, Mel, across to the UK, where we had one this week for Coronation Park parkrun. And it's about halfway between Birmingham and Nottingham in the Derbyshire town of Swadlincote. UK's latest edition attracted 293 finishers, and out of those 293, they had just one solitary first-time-ever person to parkrun. But they were helped around by 27 volunteers, and it's a three-lap course.

01:08:46Melissa Ellis: We also had Mace Ranch parkrun in the USA, just out of Sacramento in the state of California. Mace Ranch attracted 118 finishers for week one. An amazing 73 of these completed their first parkrun and were supported by 10 volunteers. This is an out and back course starting at Mace Ranch Park and then onto the Wild Horse Greenbelt Trail. The turnaround is by the golf course and the finish line is in the same location as the start. Always handy.

01:09:16Tony O'Connell: Always is with an out and back, it makes it easy to set up. Next, we're going to go across to Norway, and we have Greveskogen parkrun, and it's located in Tønsberg, which is 105 kilometres by car south of Oslo. This week we had 109 finishers complete Norway's newest parkrun. Out of these, 83 finished their first ever parkrun. That's... Nearly 80% of the field finished their first one. There were 22 volunteers and the course is a two and a half lapper in a figure of eight shape.

01:09:54Melissa Ellis: Next, we've got Plaatbos Nature Reserve parkrun in South Africa. This is an out and back course on a dirt road through the indigenous forest of Plaatbos in the South African National Parks Reserve. The forest is on the central south coast of South Africa and was completed by 81 finishers and nine volunteers.

01:10:13Tony O'Connell: And we're going to go back to Canada. Canada had two launches this week, which is really huge. They've had four for the year now. And we had Orchard Community parkrun. Orchard Community is located in Toronto and it's an out and back twice along a wide paved ravine trail above the Bronte Creek. 16 volunteers on the roster for week one and 80 finishers.

01:10:35Melissa Ellis: Oh, and they keep coming. North Sea Camp parkrun in the UK. 21 finishes, six volunteers participated in week one of a new parkrun in Lincolnshire, located in the North Sea Camp Open Prison Facility.

01:10:50Tony O'Connell: Now, just to keep up the trend of doubles, the USA again. Two this week, once again, Redmond Central Connector Trail parkrun. This one's a double out and back for the double launch. Redmond Central Connector Trail is the sixth parkrun in the Seattle area, and they had 114 finishes and 12 volunteers.

01:11:11Melissa Ellis: All right. Well, that is a lot, but we did charge straight through them. So welcome to all those new parkruns in the parkrun family.

Watching the numbers

01:11:20Melissa Ellis: But your favourite segment, TOC, in our ongoing segment, which we call watching the numbers at Alice Springs Telegraph Station parkrun. It was event five and they had 149 finishers with nine volunteers. Still no adventurers. There were 57 first timers of which 24 it was their first ever parkrun and 33 were visitors. I don't know how we established 33 were visitors. How would we have established that, Toc?

01:11:52Tony O'Connell: I'm assuming that 33 were probably first time there, but multiple parkruns.

01:11:58Melissa Ellis: Oh, yeah, that's true. That makes sense. So, so far in the numbers, they started with 186, then 147, then 156, then 136, and then this week 149. So they are hovering around that 150 mark, which is the Dunbar number.

01:12:17Tony O'Connell: And numbers are very consistent there, Mel. For a parkrun, you'd expect the launch quite often has a few more, but the four weeks after that have been very, very consistent, which is great to see.

01:12:28Melissa Ellis: It tells me that... people that are coming through as tourists, but not necessarily parkrun tourists, but maybe just out in the area for other reasons, like on their way to Uluru or something, they are going, oh, awesome, there's a parkrun.

01:12:48Tony O'Connell: And I wonder how many people, given that Alice Springs Telegraph Station is actually about 5km out of Alice Springs, I wonder how many people are just turning up on a Saturday morning to go and visit the Alice Springs Telegraph Station, which is a historical landmark in itself, and saying, what's all this crowd of people here doing? Let's join them.

01:13:07Melissa Ellis: Maybe. Why wouldn't you?

parkrun adventure challengelistener challenge

01:13:10Melissa Ellis: Okay, so next we've got a listener challenge, TOC. What have we come up with?

01:13:17Tony O'Connell: Well, I'm loving this one. Saturday the 31st of May is National Tracky Dax Day. And I reckon we should throw it out there for people to interpret that as they will.

01:13:29Melissa Ellis: Yes, but I did think that we should explain tracky-dacks to our wider audience. Now, tracky-dacks is an Aussie slang term for tracksuit, that unflattering kind of masculine but unisex athletic outfit, also called a jogging suit, but known by most of us as warm-ups. And The definition that I found says a complete trackie consists of long pants with an elastic waist, the DAX, and a matching waist-length zippered or pullover jacket with or without a hood. Trackies are usually made of warm soft knit or fleece fabric. And might I say they should have a cuff at the bottom of the DAX.

01:14:14Tony O'Connell: Trackie DAX. Now, where would us Aussies be without our trackie DAX?

01:14:18Melissa Ellis: Tony, I don't even think I own a pair anymore of tracky-dacks. I think I might have to go to the op shop to find a pair of tracky-dacks, but I'm feeling a little bit inspired.

01:14:29Tony O'Connell: Well, Mel, I don't wear long pants at all. I very rarely. But two weeks ago at parkrun Day, it was actually pretty chilly and I knew I was going to be sitting in a chair not moving. I was timekeeping. So I actually pulled my trackie dacks out of the cupboard. I found a pair and I reckon it's the first time I've worn them in a long, long time.

01:14:51Melissa Ellis: Well, good for you. And I think seeing as we've come up with this idea, we are going to have to lead by example and present a photo of ourselves in our tracky-dacks.

Sign-off

01:15:02Tony O'Connell: That's going to be very stylish, Mel, very stylish. Righty-o Mel, it's that time of the night again. Where are you next parkrun day?

01:15:13Melissa Ellis: Well, I'm glad you asked, Tony, because on my current challenge I have set myself, I need to be travelling a little bit, quite regularly actually. So I am doing another car, long car trip over the border to the land of the crow eaters. So do you know where that is? You would.

01:15:33Tony O'Connell: I certainly do.

01:15:34Melissa Ellis: Yes, I'm going to South Australia. I've got Reynella East in my sights and we'll see. We'll see if we get there. I haven't booked my overnight accommodation yet, but that is my plan. What about yourself?

01:15:47Tony O'Connell: Well, Mel, as we sort of hit upon at the top end of the episode, I have a little leg injury. I'm going to see a surgeon tomorrow. So what happens with me is going to depend very much on what my surgeon tells me. But I'm hopefully going to do a road trip, possibly to New South Wales or the ACT to try and get closer. I'd actually like to go to the ACT because I've only got a couple of events there to wrap up the day.

01:16:15Melissa Ellis: act area so yep maybe somewhere like Point Hut Pond or Ginninderra for me sounds like a plan and next week, next week, TOC, it's me and Simon back at the level two with a view come for chairs but thank you for joining me this week I'm sorry about your injury I hope you get the best result at the doctors that you are hoping for

01:16:43Tony O'Connell: Yep. Oh, look, Mel, I'm just going to take it as it comes. And look, there could be a lot more tracky-dacks in my future, I think. But, Mel... Thank you for recording. It's always great to catch up and have our little chat beforehand and to go through the recording. 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 in your trackies next week for more adventures.

01:17:53Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III: Join the parkrun Party all around the world.

01:17:57Alice: It's free, it's free, it's free.