Episode 426 - Lost Property

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

Welcome

00:00:22Simon Mackley: Welcome to episode 426 of the parkrun adventurers Podcast. A podcast about life, if your life is all about parkrun. I'm Simon Mackley on the lands of the Quandamooka.

00:00:33Melissa Ellis: And my name is Melissa Ellis coming to you from Wurundjeri Country. Hey, Mel. How are you? I'm good. Very good. And it is another week gone by, Simon. Good to see you again. And thank you for coming back and joining me yet again.

00:00:50Simon Mackley: No problem. Good to have different voices, right? What's it been like up there in Queensland? We've had a bit of rain. Yeah, it's gotten a little bit colder. And when I say a little bit colder, I know it's not southern state colder, but I did wear jeans on the weekend. So that was the first time I've had to pull those out. So, yeah. How about you? How's the weather down there?

00:01:16Melissa Ellis: Yeah, we're having unseasonally mild weather. So it was very pleasant today. Warm. There's still warmth in the air, which is quite unusual for the second day of June. But I'm not complaining. I'll take it. It's the drought, Simon.

00:01:32Simon Mackley: Oh, yeah.

00:01:32Melissa Ellis: Funny weather because we're in El Nino, aren't we? El Nino cycle.

00:01:38Simon Mackley: We are, yes.

00:01:39Melissa Ellis: Which isn't good. And I did observe on my weekend, which I'll tell you a little bit more about just shortly, but, yeah, it's very dry out there. They have not had rain.

00:01:51Simon Mackley: Yeah, that's not good. I would very happily send the rain down there, 100%.

00:01:56Melissa Ellis: I haven't really heard about how it's been going up in the flooded areas. I know that We did talk about the fact that all the parkruns were inundated and we had a lot of cancellations. I'm not aware of what the cancellation situation was last weekend, but I didn't hear that there was a particular large amount. So hopefully that means that those parkruns that got flooded didn't have course damage.

00:02:22Simon Mackley: I haven't heard anything either. Obviously, we all saw the pictures of Taree. And, yeah, it was very strange that we heard from Heather two weeks ago and then a week later it was underwater and that sort of thing. Actually, I know a friend went to Wauchope, which is just sort of west of, well, near Port Macquarie. Wauchope. Wauchope, yes. And, like, she rode from Port Macquarie to Wauchope. So I'd say that the, yeah, the floodwaters have abated and, yeah. Wauchope must have been fine to run.

00:02:57Melissa Ellis: Well, that's very good. Now we've got a little bit of feedback from last week's episode, Simon. So this was from the fact that I commented Ian Thompson having been at the same event as Ivan Neville. Now, Ian commented on the podcast post and he said, to answer your question, no, we don't know Ivan Neville. As well as not knowing Ivan, I also ran my 500th at Fulham Palace last week. So congratulations. Awesome. This is the way we have to find this out, Ian.

00:03:30Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:03:32Melissa Ellis: Call you out on the pod and then you'll let us know afterwards. Never mind. We hope you had a wonderful 500th at Fulham Palace. But then he went on to say, I might have even scanned him afterwards too. And he checked his volley app and he did indeed scan Ivan. So what are the odds, Simon? I do ask you. And he showed the screenshot as evidence. So there you go. Adventurers adventuring together. Without knowing.

00:04:00Simon Mackley: Yeah, no, that's awesome. Where were you this past weekend? I know where you were, but do you want to tell the listeners?

00:04:06Melissa Ellis: Well, as planned last week, I drove seven and a half hours westward to South Australia to complete event 351 of Reynella East parkrun with 154 others. I travelled solo and I camped in my new Jiminy the night before in the Adelaide Hills town of Hahndorf, which meant I only had a 30 to 40 minute drive to parkrun the next morning. Raynella East is part of the Adelaide Hills and it's situated within the traditional lands of the Kaurna and the Peramangk peoples. Raynella East is a metropolitan suburb of Adelaide and sits about 40 minutes south of the South Australian capital and not far from the Happy Valley Reservoir. The parkrun itself is set within the Byards Road wetlands, surrounded by housing estates and linked green corridors. I was greeted by the very friendly volunteers, led on the morning by Joint RDs Chris Bray and Blair Claridge. Blair was celebrating his 25th volunteer. Reynella East isn't an event we hear a lot of and I really had no expectation of what it would be like. They have done very well to map the 5ks within the wetlands with the course forming two loops that circle and criss-cross the park. It's quite flat overall and it's a mixture of pavement and gravel and I was assured that it is very pretty when it's filled with more water although it still looked really pretty to me, there's a small car park with street parking also available and a small toilet block in close proximity to the start and finish area I was pleased to see and chat again to adventurer April sweet who I'd met recently at dray's reserve although I didn't hang around to brunch instead heading to nearby mackers for a takeaway decaf flat white for the long drive home sadly without my puffer jacket, which I discarded on my first trip past the start line. I'll just have to go back for it in a few weeks. Damn.

00:06:04Simon Mackley: Wow. So did somebody find it?

00:06:07Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I did. I messaged the event team, more so because I thought to solve the puzzle, if they did happen to pick up a random black puffer vest, I would say, oh yes, that was mine. I through it as I ran past the start finish area after my first lap but of course when I crossed over the finish line I was more excited about chatting to April uh that I was reclaiming my jacket and so I was halfway back to Melbourne before it occurred to me that I was sans puffer vest

00:06:41Alice: Oh, no.

00:06:42Melissa Ellis: Yeah, it's all right. It wasn't an expensive one. And I have three, so. Okay. Yes, anyway, that was my weekend. So a big long drive. But I really am enjoying sleeping in my little car.

00:06:57Simon Mackley: Yeah, it looks like a good setup. Like I saw the photo that you shared. Yes. It looks really cool.

00:07:02Melissa Ellis: And it's really easy and it's comfortable. I just have to get those screens to put on the windows so I've got a little bit more privacy as I'm sleeping and no random people can just sort of wander past and peer in at me.

00:07:15Simon Mackley: Yeah.

00:07:18Melissa Ellis: But it's a lot easier than a tent because I don't have to, like, do all that packing up in the morning.

00:07:23Simon Mackley: Yeah.

00:07:23Melissa Ellis: Yeah.

00:07:24Simon Mackley: Awesome. It looked good.

00:07:26Melissa Ellis: Yeah, so I am enjoying that very much. But, you know, it wouldn't fit more than one person. It's just a solo kind of a thing. But anyway, I digress. Simon, please tell us all about your set day.

00:07:39Simon Mackley: Well, I stayed on the lands of the Quandamooka and I went to Cleveland parkrun for my 10th time. I was joined by 114 others and we were supported by 12 volunteers. One of those was my fellow ambassador and friend, Carmel. While we had light rain, it was a lovely run. Yeah. So there was plenty of people there, but I think there was some sugar people that stayed in bed as well, knowing that it was going to sprinkle with rain. I want to talk though about two weeks ago, because I went out to Hidden Vale, as you guys all heard last week. And that is one amazing little parkrun for something that is, well, it took me like an hour and a half to drive there. And it's west of Ipswich, which is, yeah, well out of Brisbane. Yeah, like I met up with Tracey in a Tutu, Lyndell, Ryan and Sarah. The course is fantastic. Nice wide fire trails. And I can't wait to get out there again. I would highly recommend it to anyone who lives out that way or who wants to get out there in the Aussie bush. But next time I'll definitely be visiting the barn afterwards. I know that Lyndell was told that there wasn't much food left that she would like. So it might be a good idea if anyone's going out there to go straight to the barn as soon as they finish their parkrun. I parked for way too long to be able to hang around and have breakfast and coffee.

00:09:12Melissa Ellis: So is that because the food is really, really good that it gets scoffed up and there's nothing left? Is that what you mean by there was nothing for Lyndell?

00:09:23Simon Mackley: I think it's partially a dietary choice. Okay. Plus it was also that I think there was more people there than they probably expected. Okay. Um, because the course itself shares a trail, like the start of a trail with, um, some mountain bike, um, trails. So like Morgan said last week, there's 110 kilometres of mountain biking trail out there running in mountain biking. But, um, where the start line is, is not far from where the mountain bike, um, sort of meeting point is. So there was, there's probably more people out there than they'd expected is, is my guess. Um, and it was partially a dietary choice.

00:10:07Melissa Ellis: But do they do morning breakfast mimosas, asking for a friend? I didn't see anything alcoholic like that, but do tell. Never mind. Moving straight on to our stats, Simon.

00:10:24Simon Mackley: All right, well, I'll jump in with New Zealand. So on the 31st of May, there were 57 parkruns, in New Zealand with 9,698 parkrunners and 974 volunteers. The most intimate Kiwi parkrun was Hamilton Park with just 18, And the busiest, as we've heard in the past, was Hagley with 751. Meanwhile, in Australia, we had 505 events, 6,220.

00:10:47Melissa Ellis: Some volunteers supported 66,650 participants and 2,347 of those were real first timers.

00:10:51[14 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:11:05Melissa Ellis: Now, interestingly, Railway Park in Queensland was the smallest with only two parkrunners. And the Ponds in New South Wales was the largest with 847. Again, they pipped the regular. This is interesting, isn't it?

00:11:22Simon Mackley: The Ponds, I believe, had a special event, though.

00:11:25Melissa Ellis: Oh, they did. Oh, yes. More to come.

00:11:28Simon Mackley: More to come. Exactly. Exactly.

00:11:30Melissa Ellis: All right. But in other news, there was an extra special day in the Nordics, I do believe. So the Consolidated Club report for Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden's special Ascension Day on the 29th of the 5th. So out of 792 members, 40 adventurers took part at 12 events across the four countries. The largest frond was at Uppsala parkrun in Sweden with 89 participants and six adventurers. They were Charlotte Mitchell, Malcolm Peaty, Graham Wilkinson, Elizabeth Sequeira, and Helen and Steven Davis. I know Helen and Steve. And I also wanted to say a special congratulations. Now, this wasn't Ascension Day, but it's a good time to bring it up. Our friend Danny Norman from the With Me Now pod, he ran his 500th unique event, at Haga parkrun in Sweden. And we can't say it in Dazza's because he doesn't come to Dazza's, but that's okay. He was with fellow adventurers Phil Olson, Andy and Wendella Poole, and Sarah Jantscher, Jantscher. Now, we know Danny. He was also with his lovely partner, Jem, Beth Stee, and Tiny Steve. Beth-sty, not Beth-sty, Beth-sty.

00:12:48Simon Mackley: Got to get that right. Yes, congratulations, Dani. I actually put some comments later in the pod about that, but I'm glad that we've now got that 500th different event off the table there for Dani.

00:13:00[background music]

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:13:00Melissa Ellis: All righty. Now, this week we've heard from one of our roving reporters, so let's go and have a listen and see what she's got to tell us.

Roving report Ruth Perkins — Puolarmaari parkrun

00:13:17Ruth Perkins: Good morning, parkrun adventurers. So I am coming to you today from Finland. We're in Helsinki. Well, very close to Helsinki at Puolarmaari parkrun. I'll check on the pronunciation later. So I'm looking forward to chatting with the RD in a little while. Before that, I've just had the pleasure of meeting a fellow listener of parkrun adventurers and someone who has been listening for a long time. And that is your name?

00:13:47Matthew Wateridge: Matthew Wateridge.

00:13:48Ruth Perkins: And Matthew, you said to me that maybe you'd been listening from almost the start?

00:13:53Matthew Wateridge: Yeah, yeah, I was searching podcasts, looking for new podcasts back in the day and found episode two. So it was Scotty and Mel at the start and I've been listening ever since and loving it, really. I look forward to each one coming out.

00:14:05Ruth Perkins: That's really wonderful. So you said to me as well that most of the time you find when you go to a venue that you're the only parkrun adventurer there.

00:14:12Matthew Wateridge: Yes, I check the website every week or the Facebook site every week and wherever I am, one. So it's nice. Two days ago it was four of us. I didn't see anybody. So it's nice to meet a fellow adventurer.

00:14:22Ruth Perkins: Yes, so there was four of us at Tokorin Ranta, which is also in Helsinki, but more towards the centre. So today we've come out to some beautiful woods. It's a little bit hilly in places.

00:14:33Matthew Wateridge: Yeah, bumpy, bumpy, but a stunning course.

00:14:36Ruth Perkins: So I take it that maybe you are a bit of an adventurer, Les, and have you done many parkruns abroad?

00:14:44Matthew Wateridge: I've done a few abroad, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Norway, Germany. And today is my different event number 475.

00:14:54Ruth Perkins: 475 different events. That's absolutely incredible. Oh my gosh. So how long have you been parkrunning for?

00:15:03Matthew Wateridge: 2010, I started. Home runner of Basingstoke, so it was one of the first 10, so got involved early. Lots of people, small course. Got too big, so we went to a new one, and then another one, and then another one, and 475 runs later, you're in Finland.

00:15:19Ruth Perkins: That's amazing. So which parkruns have you done in Australia? Because I'm sure the adventurers would be keen to hear that.

00:15:27Matthew Wateridge: Albert Park, there's three in Melbourne. Albert... And I can't remember what the other one was called. It began with M, but I can't remember. Sorry.

00:15:37Ruth Perkins: That's all right. I've put you on the spot terribly there. And so I'm going to do that age-old question. Have you got highlights, like maybe three that you would say were your favourites? Yeah.

00:15:49Matthew Wateridge: Yeah, favourite's absolutely Queenstown in New Zealand, by a mile. I loved it, absolutely loved it. It was a bucket list one, looking forward to it, and it didn't disappoint. Really enjoyed it. Sherwood Pines near Nottingham, loved that one. Any of them, really, to be honest. Tees Barrage, that was in Middlesbrough, but that's no longer runs, but I had a really good run on a nice sunny day, and it was a great course.

00:16:15Ruth Perkins: Oh, that's, yeah. Wow, okay, so I'm going to put the other two on the list, not that one, obviously, what a shame. And so, is there one thing that you would say you love the most about listening to parkrun adventurers? Again, I'm putting you on the spot there.

00:16:30Matthew Wateridge: I just like the different presenters. You get a different view from more than that. With me now, you get the same two people every week. So it's nice to have a change. Sorry, Danny. Sorry, Nicky. But yeah, it was good. I like the different people with different views and different opinions. It's good.

00:16:45Ruth Perkins: And have you got any more trips coming up soon? Have you planned to go and travel to anywhere else for parkrun?

00:16:49Matthew Wateridge: We're off to the Netherlands in a couple of weeks for the extra day. Sit hard. So yeah, it'll be good. Just for the one note in the Netherlands. Looking forward to that.

00:16:58Ruth Perkins: thank you so much for chatting with me today and good luck with the rest of your adventures including your final 25 to get to your 500th different venue I think Danny Norman today is doing his 500th different yeah I think there's two guys here who have done over 500 today wow 500 different events Dave and Steve Tarrant are here today incredible well there you go we're in a good place today thank you so much for chatting with me no worries thank you Okay, I'm very lucky now to have a chat with the RD for today. Maybe the ED as well? Yes, and your name is?

00:17:35Mark Davis: Mark Davis.

00:17:36Ruth Perkins: Brilliant. Thank you, Mark. And you've corrected me on my pronunciation of this wonderful parkrun. How would be the best pronunciation of it?

00:17:45Mark Davis: With a rolling R as well.

00:17:49Ruth Perkins: No, we're going to try.

00:17:56Mark Davis: Yes, I'm going to practice.

00:17:57Ruth Perkins: So you do help set up this parkrun, is that right?

00:18:00Mark Davis: Yeah, in 2021, there was this American gent called Scott Pritchard. He was a partner at the time of the lady who established Tokoinranta, and they wanted to establish another one in Espoo. We were lucky to come here in Puolarmaari. So he posted on Facebook, I'd been involved with parkrun in the UK. I said, I've got to be involved here, so let's come along. We've got it set up.

00:18:19Ruth Perkins: And you've been parkrunning for a while. Where was the first place you started out parkrunning?

00:18:24Mark Davis: Lister Park in Bradford, 2013. I can't remember the month, but quite a while ago.

00:18:29Ruth Perkins: Yes, I think you just showed me that maybe you did something like 186 runs, it looked like, just in Lister Park in Bradford. Yeah. Yeah, brilliant. So what do you think people should know about this wonderful parkrun?

00:18:34[crosstalk]

00:18:42Mark Davis: In Puolarmaari. I mean, the sense of community, of course, in every parkrun. Great set of people, great set of volunteers, but the nature, it's beautiful. You know, you've seen the run today and it's through the forest. It's very different in the seasons. So now we're coming towards summer, very green, winter, full of snow. It's like a winter wonderland. It's beautiful.

00:19:02Ruth Perkins: Yes, I do feel like I should come back for snow as well to see that. But the bird song is absolutely incredible today. And it's just been such a friendly place to be. Would you say you've got any highlights at all of your time in parkrun?

00:19:17Mark Davis: Maybe not a specific highlight, but a certain time that sticks in my mind. When we relocated to Finland, we came five years ago. It was right in the heart of COVID. So there was not a lot of social activity. But when Parker and I got up and running, it meant we had a sense of community. We met new friends and we've met friends here, friends for life now. So I think that's the one thing for me is kind of very, very meaningful about Parker, especially what we've established in Puolarmaari here.

00:19:39Ruth Perkins: And do you have people on the core team who... have been coming similar for the whole time here?

00:19:46Mark Davis: Yeah, actually, when we did the check-in, there were three or four different routes we could have taken, and I'm sure there were two or three of the core team members that were running at that time as well, so they've been around since day one in Puolarmaari.

00:19:57Ruth Perkins: Well, thank you so much for today. It's been brilliant, really friendly, and you've even brought the sunshine out for us. Glad you enjoyed it. Thank you for everything you've done.

00:20:00[background music]

00:20:07Mark Davis: Thank you.

00:20:16Simon Mackley: And we're back from our roving report where Ruth was in Puolarmaari parkrun in Finland. She was speaking to RD Mark Davis and Matthew Wateridge, who's been listening to the parkrun adventurers since our second episode. So I had a feeling that Matthew, when he said that he'd done one in Melbourne studying with them, that it was going to be Maribyrnong, and it was. He's got a very impressive list of events with 475 different events in 625 runs. Adding to that, he's also volunteered 328 times at 49 events, and one of those he's done 271 times, which is Basingstoke Juniors.

Dazza's

00:20:58Simon Mackley: So rolling on to Dazza's, this week he said, May is Share a Story Month. Lots of stories can come out of parkrun, whether it's How You Went Today, how you got there, or what stopped it going the way you'd hoped. However your parkrun day went, come into Dazza's and share your story. After all, Dazza is nothing if not a great listener. And we're going to kick it off with a fellow pod host, TOC, who was in the ACT. He said, it was a corker of a day in Ginninderra parkrun with Jacqui, Claire, Jack, and Amelia. So many stories during the walk, backed up with many park faff stories over breakfast. Have a great day, Dazza. And TOC shared a selfie of himself, Jacqui, Claire, Jack and Emilia.

00:21:45Melissa Ellis: Next, we heard from Sam Schroder coming to us from New South Wales. I've got a story for you, Dazza. This morning, we got up extra early and drove to Macquarie University parkrun, where Evie reached her Junior 10 milestone. Hence our white shirts. Those 10 parkruns have been done at seven different locations. No idea where she gets the tourism bug from. We did wear tracky bits, but Luke is the only one with the actual Dax and we all took our tracky jackets off for the photo. And there was a picture attached of Evie, Luke and Sam framing Luke's pink tracky Dax nicely, used as the photo for the Consolidated Club Report. Nice one.

00:22:27Simon Mackley: And next we've heard from Jo McLean in New South Wales. She said, my story today started a decade ago when some friends and I decided to check out this new event called parkrun in the local area. Ten years later, I feel so blessed to be part of a wonderful community locally and through adventuring. That is the epitome of inclusion, connectedness and belonging. We celebrated the Ponds parkrun's 10th birthday today in loud shirts rather than tracky-dacks. and smiles with 847 fellow revellers what a morning. And the photos show Jo and Natalie with Jo decked out in a very loud shirt and pink celebratory tutu.

00:23:10Melissa Ellis: And thanks for sharing at Dazza's Jo. So now we know why there was the big numbers at the ponds. It was their birthday! Now, we also heard from Wendy Pallant. Is that how you would say it? Simon Pallant. I'd say that, yeah, Pallant. And she is in Sweden, achieved my jet setter with a trip to Sweden. Sign Language Support at Sackatars, Scatters, something like that. And post-event clear-up at Bildsparken. Both great parkruns and well-served by public transport. And Wendy shared a collage of photos showing the two Swedish events with the post-event clear-up gear and the parkrun morning crowd. Now, I looked up the jet setter to get my facts straight, because it's a bit like the World Tourist kind of a club, but it is to run parkrun in five different countries.

00:24:10Simon Mackley: I'm a long way off that, having just two. Okay, next we heard from Leanne Evans, who came to us from Tasmania. She said, tracky-dacks aplenty at Kate Reed parkrun, where the puddles were icy and the boardwalk crunchy, but the sun was shining and the volunteers smiling. Cooler conditions obviously suited many as the course record was broken and numerous PBs achieved. And there was a stunning photo of the sun sparkling across the single track at Cape Reed.

00:24:40Melissa Ellis: Such a pretty track, that one out there in Tassie. Nice to hear from you, Leanne. Next, we heard from Johan Duvenhage coming to us from South Africa, Sudafrique. I had a whirlwind trip to the Sits... Sitsikama National Park. Sitsikama National Park on the border between the Eastern and Western Cape Provinces. So I could complete my Eastern Cape Province again. But visiting Plaatbos Nature Reserve parkrun is about more than just ticking off another event. The stunning natural forest makes one feel one with nature. And the awesome team led by E.D. Bradley... Yomat makes you feel welcome and one of the community. Seriously, worth the effort to reach this parkrun that is in the middle of somewhere and nowhere. And Johan shared a photo with the RD wearing a blue RD vest. So that was a little bit different, I noticed. And Johan, your adventurous shirt goes so nicely with your apricot hat and jacket. [Afrikaans: "South Africa"] [translation uncertain]

00:25:45Simon Mackley: Nice one. And we heard from Ruth Perkins again. She said, hi, Dazza. I whipped off my trackie-dacks and headed to the luscious Puolarmaari parkrun Espoo in Finland with a bunch of tourists. For my second parkrun in a row, I was with three adventurers, but this time I tracked one down. Matthew Robert Wateridge on the left has been listening to parkrun adventurers since the second episode. I grabbed a quick roving report, as we just heard, with him. And Dave Wright on the right is a With Me Now fan. So Ruth with Matthew and Dave in the Finnish pop-up.

00:26:23Melissa Ellis: Or with it, because they couldn't be in it.

00:26:25Simon Mackley: It's a pop-up. Yes, you're right.

00:26:29Melissa Ellis: Anyway, next we heard from Renata Koch, who was in Norway. Beautiful weather in Oslo this morning. Tøyen parkrun did not disappoint. So many tourists and very welcoming local parkrunners and volunteers. The hills were not bad at all either. The pic is with today's R.D. Peter, originally from St. Peter's parkrun. Peter from St. Peter's. There you go. And the photo was of Renata and Barb Luther with R.D. Peter in his 10-gallon hat. What's with that?

00:26:57Simon Mackley: I don't know, but I actually know Peter. Oh, very good. Honestly, I do, yeah. So he's friends with my stepbrother. Yes, I've run with him a couple of times. Anyway, well, now I know that he's actually from Tøyen. There we go. Okay. Yeah, next we heard from Margie Lewis, who was in WA. We're continuing our touristing on our holiday. Some would say it's a parkrun holiday. We visited Kununurra parkrun for a great one-lap circuit. Beautiful morning for a parkwalk. So Margie and friend in the Kununurra event core flute.

00:27:31Melissa Ellis: Kununurra is getting a lot of mentions lately. It is, yes.

00:27:35Simon Mackley: It's the time of year to be there, obviously.

00:27:37Melissa Ellis: Next, we heard from Maz Strong coming to us from the greater state. I finally reached my 100 today at Karkarook. It's only taken since 2017. Nobody who knows me will be surprised to hear that I also volunteered both before and after my run. And there was a picture of Maz on their running frame. Congratulations, Maz, on your milestone. And thank you for volunteering.

00:28:01Simon Mackley: At Kaki Paki. And lastly, we heard from Brett Bailey from the South Island of New Zealand. He said, Hi Dazza, a bit of a touristing to Lost Lagoon parkrun in Westport on our King's birthday weekend. Nice three lapper around a tidal lagoon in showery conditions. 43 parkrunners bit down from the inaugural last week, but knocked off our NENDY and got a number two. And there was the number two emoji, shall we say. Don's at Bluefest as a parkwalker. A nice breakfast and park faff at PR's Cafe. Great name. No trackies. They would have gotten a bit soggy in the rain on the last lap. The first parkrun on the South Island's west coast. And there was a photo of Brett and Tanya zooming on the course. Definitely representing there.

00:28:50Melissa Ellis: Nothing worse than soggy trackies.

00:28:52Simon Mackley: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

00:28:57Melissa Ellis: Okay, and that brings us to the end of Dazza's. Phew, we got through that. Lots of happenings going on.

the Obi Award — Ruth Perkins

00:29:03Melissa Ellis: But, Simon, have you got the Obilope? I do have the Obilope.

00:29:09Simon Mackley: And we'll just open it up. And the Obi this week goes to... Ruth Perkins.

00:29:25Melissa Ellis: Hooray. Well done, Ruth. Thank you for bringing us that little bit of a roving report from over there and finding a long-term listener. Good job.

00:29:38Simon Mackley: Yeah. Second episode is amazing back in the Mel and Scotty days.

Emails

00:29:43Simon Mackley: And we've had some mail, haven't we, Mel? You've got mail. Yep, quite a bit. We heard from Travis from Run the World, who has been in touch and told us that he's just finalised the 2024 Run the World list. And we had a doubling of the previous year with 40 participants that had put themselves down as parkrun adventurers. Can we beat that in 2025? Or here's the way that we could possibly do that. Run the World currently has a referral incentive in place called Project 1000. Existing members can win a $200 Wild Earth voucher every week through referrals. When someone new joins on a 12-month membership, they'll be asked where they heard about Run the World. And they can select referred by a friend and place your name down to go in the draw to win. The more referrals, the more entries in the draw. So good luck, parkrun adventurers.

00:30:43Melissa Ellis: Yes, and we probably should maybe recap the Run the World platform. It is a virtual running event that you can join and you can make your way by logging your kilometres around a map of Australia. That was the original, it was originally run down under, or you can choose different countries around the world. Now you can run around New Zealand, you can run around Europe I think and you can run around the UK and maybe more there's lots but anyway we've had Travis on the pod and interviewed him before and any participant in run the world can nominate a club that they represent so if you nominate the parkrun adventurers as your club we get kickbacks basically so we encourage you to do that it helps keep the pod running to be fair yes it does We don't need a lot of money, but we do need some and we do appreciate it. Any little bits help. But Simon, we have another email, one of the few. And this one says, hello there, Mel and Simon and the fellow adventurers. I've been listening to the adventurers for approximately three years now and I feel like my geographical knowledge of Australia has improved slightly over that time. However, one thing that I do wonder about is the geographical location of Rachel and her successor, Reginald. The other thing that I sometimes struggle with is the pronunciation of the ancestral countries. For example, I believe Mel's ancestral country is Wurundjeri, and I have figured out that to be an area west of Melbourne, Victoria. Simon's Quandamooka Country phonetically was easier to work out, to spell and to say, and therefore easier to spot in Queensland. So I've tried to work out where Reginald is from and I only have his pronunciation of his ancestral country to go off as he doesn't make any other geographical references in his segments. I think I have narrowed it down to Arrernte Country. Now, if that is the case, from looking that up online, then Reginald might be near Alice Springs. Am I getting warm? Do you see where I'm going with this? Therefore, Reginald must know an adventurer who can do... Alice Springs Telegraph Station parkrun. By the way, I found this week's piece by Reginald on the various parts of the UK fascinating. Further to that, much like with the Peel Club in Australia, there is a challenge for us folk in the UK to do, which is the Jordan Club, which is to do all 13 regions that the UK is split into. So far, I have done 11 with just the Channel Islands and Northern Ireland left to do for that particular geographical challenge. For those that wondered, I am based in the northwest region of the UK. Please let me know if I'm way off track. Calum Burrell, A461587. Now, it just so happens, Simon, that apart from Reginald, we have a friend of the pod who knows the country in that area very well and says, correct, Arrernte Country is indeed in Central Australia. Slightly to the west is Western Arrernte Country and to the east is Eastern Arrernte Country, surprisingly. Alice Springs is in the heart of the region and there is the spelling of the Aboriginal word for Alice Springs. Huh, not sure I can say it, Simon. How about you? I would try and say impartly. Very good. But I don't know.

00:34:15Simon Mackley: I'm just guessing.

00:34:17Melissa Ellis: So Friend of the Pod also says that it is now possible that Reginald slash Rachel could attend parkrun. Seeing as they're so close, they probably could. I don't know that Reginald... is a runner themself. Well, I thought he was a nascent being anyway. It also is worth mentioning that the T's are pronounced as D's. That's why it's Arrernte Country, not Arenda.

00:34:43Simon Mackley: And we had another email that said, hello adventurers, a relatively new UK listener here, loving the pod and working my way through the back catalogue. I love the pod format and the presenters and the roving reporters are all so personable and engaging. The inclusion of international events is great for us non-Aussies, but I also love hearing about Aussie and Kiwi events. I was lucky enough to do Albert Melbourne, Mossman, yes, and Cairns in 2023 and hope to return. I had a fantastic parkrun week, participating in my first European Extra Day in Copenhagen on Thursday, then spending the rest of the day cycling between all four Copenhagen parkrun courses, walking one lap of each. My level of fitness wasn't up to a full freedom run of each course. I wasn't able to stay until Saturday and return to the UK, running Bromley parkrun for the first time on Saturday to work towards my 100 different events. Keep up the great work on the podcast, which is much appreciated. Unfortunately, I don't own a pair of trackie dacks. And that was from Gary Derwent, who has a very small parkrun athlete ID of just A684. So that tells me that Gary has been in parkrun for a very, very long time.

00:36:12Melissa Ellis: Thanks for writing in, Gary. Lovely to hear from you. Funny that he has been to Australia and he's done Albert, Melbourne, so not too far from where I reside. And Mossman, your old home, Simon.

00:36:25Simon Mackley: He's gone from one end of the country to the other as well, going all the way up to Cairns.

00:36:28Melissa Ellis: Yes. Now, this is the last email we've got. It's a long one. Strap yourself in. And it says, hi, Mel, TOC, Simon, Sarah and Ollie. I was interested in what you were saying in the last episode about the numbers of people who have registered and not done a parkrun or who have done only one parkrun, etc. On Saturday, I managed to convert one of these registered ages ago people to doing their first ever parkrun. My niece. My niece is in her early 20s and has been a student in London for the last three years. She currently lives in a flat that is within a stone's throw of Burgess parkrun. Her flatmate goes each week, and a few weeks ago he persuaded her boyfriend to do his first parkrun. Her flatmate has tried to encourage her to go and volunteer. Like many young people, she rarely gets up before 10am on a Saturday. I knew that last Saturday would be difficult for me as my parkrun buddies were all doing parkruns in Sweden and I should have been with them but had to cancel my trip to Sweden. So I asked my niece if she would come and walk around the parkrun with me. I thought that as she could literally get out of bed 10 minutes before the parkruns start and still make it on time that it wouldn't be putting her out too much. And she agreed to my surprise. However, then Burgess cancelled due to another event in the park. The next nearest parkrun was Peckham Rye, which involved a bus journey, but the bus went from outside her flat straight to the park, so she said she would still come along. In the days before, I sent her details and told her that she had to register with parkrun to get a barcode. I hadn't heard anything from her, so a couple of days beforehand I looked her up on the 5k app. She has an unusual name, and lo and behold, there was one parkrunner registered with her name. However, this person had registered several years ago before the pandemic with their home event being at a place nowhere near anywhere she's ever lived, Harlow. She then tried to register as a new parkrunner and the system said that she was already registered with the same email and address. It was this same parkrunner. She had no memory of registering and had no idea as to why she was registered with Harlow as her home event. Other than she thinks perhaps she just made a mistake when selecting her home event. Anyway, she turned up and did her first ever parkrun and enjoyed it. Afterwards, we went to the cafe in the middle of the park and to my surprise, I saw the cafe was next to two Aussie rules football teams who were getting ready for a game. It turns out that the Peckham Rye Park, where the parkrunners held, is also the home of the South East London Giants Aussie Rules football team, and they were due to play the Wimbledon Hawks that day. My niece did her second year of university at the University of Melbourne, and then she told me that while she was there, she had been to an Aussie Rules football game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, where there were 90,000 people. It turned out to be Carton vs Collingwood. Oh, Simon, I can put my music in. Hooray. Yay. So will she do another parkrun? Well, she says she will. And we have unfinished business at Burgess. So I guess I'll let you know. Wishing Toc all the very best with his tibia fracture healing. I'm sure you'll be back running before you know it. And that was Love, Ali Sheppard. So Ali also posted in Dazza's and shared the photo, which showed the Southeast London Giants. And the Office Lady replied to Ali, and I thought it was worth reading out for our international listeners, a little bit of an explanation about our Aussie rules. And the Office Lady said, an Aussie rules game goes for four quarters. Each quarter goes for 20 minutes and the breaks are six minutes at quarter time and three quarter time and 20 minutes at half time. During play, if the ball goes out of bounds or a goal is kicked, the clock is stopped until play resumes. So quarters can take often 20 to 30 minutes. Going to a footy match is a proper day or an evening out and you have to eat a meat pie. I don't make the rules. So that was Sam explaining to Ali why the two AFL teams seem to be taking a very long time and nothing seemed to be happening. I think that was their warm-up. They'd arrived and they were doing all their warm-ups on the ground or anyway, whatever. Yes, that is our national game and we love it.

00:39:20[background music]

00:40:51Simon Mackley: And those London teams both have Aussie AFL team names.

00:40:55Melissa Ellis: They do, the Hawks and the Giants. Yes. All righty. So that is enough of all those emails for now. Thank you to everybody for writing in. It never rains but it pours.

00:41:05[background music]

00:41:07Simon Mackley: Yeah, no, it's good to have a lot of them.

Club Corner

00:41:09Melissa Ellis: We love hearing from you. Now it is time for us to throw to Reginald.

00:41:20[background music]

00:41:22Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III: This is Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III, with Joke Corner, where one attempts to be funny and or witty, and I am coming to you from Arrernte Country. Are you ready? Let us get to it, but first some advice. Never scream into a colander. You will strain your voice. What is as big as a hippopotamus but weighs nothing at all? A hippopotamus is shadow. What do you call a one-legged hippo? A hoppo. I recently came into a lot of money... And that is how one gets fired from the bank. And if I were corporeal, then it would hurt me to say this. I have a sore throat. One never promised that the jokes would be good, or that I would be good at telling them. but one has persevered irregardless. And remember, in parkrun life, all non-Milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun, so stay tuned for our future club corners where we will return to our country profiles.

00:42:27Simon Mackley: And we are back from Reginald. And I'm wondering, Mel, if we could have Rachel back for the jokes. She's obviously killing it there on the comedy circuit, and Reginald doesn't really have much competition, so... What do you think?

00:42:43Melissa Ellis: Shots fired. Shots fired. Shots fired. I'm going to leave that one unloaded.

Consolidated Club Report

00:42:47Melissa Ellis: And I am going to say the Adventurous Consolidated Club report for Saturday, the 31st of May 2025 saw a total of 792 members. 556 of which took part in 13 countries across 281 locations. In the UK, there are adventurers at 54 events. There were 10 events in South Africa with adventurers. Sweden had four. Denmark and Norway each had three. Finland, Ireland and Singapore had two. And Germany, Italy and Lithuania had one. Locally, we had adventurers at 47 events in the greatest state. New South Wales and Queensland had 46. WA had 21. South Australia had 16. There was eight in Tassie, six in our capital, Canberra, ACT. The North Island had four, the South Island and the Northern Territory both had two.

the Frond

00:43:46Simon Mackley: Excellent. And because we've had lots of adventurers travelling, we've had some international fronds. So we had a frond of six at Yudusgurgen in Sweden, where there was Christopher Miles, Charlotte Mitchell, Ellie Soper, Colin Hare, Elizabeth Sekera and Graham Wilkinson. And I'm going to mention the frond of five that was at Haga in Sweden which was Phil Olson, Danny Norman, Sarah Jantscher, Andy Poole and Wendella Poole.

Pilgrimages

00:44:18Melissa Ellis: Now, pilgrimages. This was exciting because this week we had three people and they were Dan Baldwin, Colleen Kleinschmidt and Neil Scott. Now, their office staff have done the background for me. We know that it was Dan Baldwin's first time to Bushy and he finished in 2225. That's pretty nifty for Bushy. Gosh, Dan, good job, buddy. He was in position 204. He is from WA with Applecross and Canning River having had the most visits. But not for a while. He has been on the road. And I've bumped into Dan. He was at Pucker, one of the recent times that I went to Pucker. Anyway, that's beside the point. Dan posted in Dazza's, with the photo evidence that he was there with his partner, Sandy, too. Now, Colleen Kleinschmidt, it was her first visit to Bushy. She finished in 2018 in position 772. We think she's from the USA, maybe Darnie Park, which is in Boston. Darnie?

00:45:24Simon Mackley: Darnie.

00:45:24Melissa Ellis: Dennehy okay and then Neil Scott we know Neil it was his first visit to Bushy too he finished in 3122 position 1069 he is from Brisbane he is indeed Now, OK, moving on to the largest local fronds. And with a frond of seven at Shellharbour, our very favourite schlabba, we had housemate Lance, Jason Green, David Foster, Louise Atkin, Delvene McKenzie, Kristen McKenzie and Lauren Pike. We also had a frond of six at three events, Hidden Vale, New Farm and the Ponds. And remember, you can add the Adventurous Club as one of your five affiliations on your parkrun profile. It's easy to do. And if you have any trouble, just drop us a line or ask a friend.

Watching the Numbers at Alice Springs Telegraph Station parkrun

00:46:11Melissa Ellis: Okay, Simon, me again. This is our ongoing segment that we call Watching the Numbers at Alice Springs Telegraph Station parkrun. This week was event six out there at Alice Springs Telegraph Station. They had 121 finishers with nine volunteers. Still no adventurers. We know that Val and Steve are travelling around so maybe they should detour slightly south on their trip before heading north and they could be the first adventurers. From 41 first-timers, 15 were their first-ever parkruns and 26 were visitors. So people are still enjoying the activity out there in Central Australia.

00:46:55Simon Mackley: Hooray. Still decent numbers. That's good. I mean, it's not really dropping off. Sorry, it is dropping off, but it's nowhere near as quick as other launches that we've had recently.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

00:47:05Simon Mackley: And on that, we had how many launches? One, one launch around the world and that was at Newry Greenway parkrun. So it launched with 150 participants which is right on the Dunbar as you mentioned last week. There were 12 people starting their parkrun journey and they were supported by 13 volunteers. Now Newry Greenway parkrun is in Newry in Northern Ireland. The course is an out and back along the Newry Canal Greenway And it seems that whoever the ambassador or ambassadors are in Northern Ireland, they are on an absolute streak at the moment with new events. So that's fantastic work with another one added to Northern Ireland.

00:47:48Melissa Ellis: Yeah, very unusual after the recent spate of multiple launches. Exactly. Let's hope that next week we bounce back.

00:47:56Simon Mackley: We're relying on the Northern Hemisphere for some more launches, right?

00:48:00Melissa Ellis: Yes, although I'd quite like some close to home. Please, Mr parkrun, if you're listening.

00:48:06Simon Mackley: Would be nice.

00:48:07Melissa Ellis: It would help me on my current challenge.

parkrun adventure challengelistener challenge

00:48:09Melissa Ellis: Anyway, the listener challenge, Simon, what have we got for the listeners this week?

00:48:13Simon Mackley: Well, with the 7th of June being so many different days, I think we should go with adding a butterfly to your post because on Saturday it is going to be Butterfly Education and Awareness Day. And don't worry, Dazza, there's still plenty more days that you can post about Dazza's this week.

00:48:33Melissa Ellis: Oh, okay. I wonder how many of our adventurers have butterfly tattoos. That's quite a common tattoo to get, isn't it? I do not have tattoos. Neither me. It won't be me. I do, however, have butterfly wings. Maybe I could run my parkrun in my butterfly wings. Hopefully, and no one will be none the wiser unless they listen to the pot. Correct. Speaking of this week, where are you going to be?

Sign-off

00:48:56Simon Mackley: I am going to be either at Sirromet or Scribbly Gums, have to stay close to home again because Jackson has a soccer game, which is over an hour drive away. What about you? Where are you heading?

00:49:07[crosstalk]

00:49:10Melissa Ellis: Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I want to hear more about Sirromet. How many times have you been there?

00:49:18Simon Mackley: I have been there eight times. It actually completed me getting my P8, my P index up to eight. So if I do scribbly and Sirromet one more time and then another event I think I've got to do five times because I don't have a lot around me other than those at the moment that are high.

00:49:42Melissa Ellis: Okay, well that answers that question. Where am I going to be? I have no idea. It is a long weekend here in the greatest state. So I think that's right, isn't it? Yes, it is. It's the King's birthday. But it is my weekend with my lovely daughter at home. So I'll be staying home and building letterboxes. That's the plan. I don't think I'll be travelling far, so I also might look at working on a P&X. It depends. I don't know. I'll see what I feel like. Fair enough. That's a bit boring, isn't it? But we can't have fun adventures every week.

00:50:21Simon Mackley: That's exactly right.

00:50:22Melissa Ellis: Well, I can't. I can't afford it.

00:50:25Simon Mackley: Well, next week it's going to be Ewan Tock back in the comfy chairs again. So hopefully we can hear back from TOC about how his discussion with this surgeon went.

00:50:37Melissa Ellis: Yes, we'll bring you the medical details, all the gory details next week, all about his amputation, all the horror and Gore, and everybody can go, oh! So we'll bring you that next week. Don't forget to tune in. Thank you for joining me this week, Simon. I shall talk to you again in a couple of weeks' time. As always, everybody, you can contact us via the parkrun adventurers on Facebook or our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. That's it for another week. We'll see you all next week for more adventures.