Episode 428 - Evolution

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

Welcome

00:00:23Tony O'Connell: And welcome to episode 428 of the parkrun adventurers podcast, a podcast about life, if your life is all about parkrun. My name's TOC and I'm coming to you again from Bunurong Country.

00:00:35Melissa Ellis: And my name's Melissa Ellis and I'm coming to you from Wurundjeri Country. And do you know what? I discovered that you can get doormats, that have your Aboriginal country on them. So I'm really thinking, TOC, that I might need to get one of those.

00:00:50Tony O'Connell: I'm surprised parkrun haven't come out with doormats recently. Their merchandise range has extended to just about everything else.

00:00:58Melissa Ellis: I think it would be nice to let your visitors know that you're visiting Wurundjeri Country or Boon Wurrung Country.

00:01:06Tony O'Connell: When we're on country, that's it. Anyway. Mel, how have you been? How's the wardrobe going?

00:01:12Melissa Ellis: Well, I can confirm that in the last two weeks I have not misplaced any more items of clothing. And my sister, she was on the job making sure that I collected up. Actually, I didn't peel any off. It was so bloody cold. I ran in all the layers.

00:01:30Tony O'Connell: And your vest is still enjoying its holiday in South Australia, is it?

00:01:33Melissa Ellis: Yes, I haven't problem solved that yet. Anybody out there who might be visiting, it could be like budgie. Could we get a volunteer adventurer to go, where did I leave it? I've forgotten. Quick, that's not very good, is it?

00:01:52Tony O'Connell: Quick, let's go back to our show notes. Where was it now? Oh dear, I've gone back a few weeks and I'm not far... Oh, someone's cleared our show notes out. I can't go far enough back.

00:02:03Melissa Ellis: No, it was only last week.

00:02:05Tony O'Connell: Oh.

00:02:05Melissa Ellis: Oh no, it wasn't. That was Toolern Creek. Reynella East. It's at Reynella East, parkrun adventurers, I need your help. Actually, I'll be at Myponga this week, so there's a spoiler for later. I'll be at Myponga, so maybe I can just grab it myself. You never know. Anyway, now I'm on the wrong show notes. Oh, goodness, it's all going pear-shaped. Well, why don't you... No, we've only just started, Weston. We're lost already. Who are you? Why don't we get back into routine and you tell me all about your parkruns over the last couple of weeks.

00:02:48Tony O'Connell: Oh, we're going back a couple of weeks. Gee, that's a quick stretch.

00:02:52[crosstalk]

00:02:54Melissa Ellis: I've thrown you. This hasn't helped at all.

00:02:56Tony O'Connell: Two weeks ago, I was lucky enough to attend the first anniversary of Great Southern Rail Trail parkrun at Korumburra. It's one that, as the listeners know, I helped the team a little bit. They were pretty self-sufficient, a great team up there with their launch a year ago. And it was great to go back and celebrate their first anniversary with them. Cool day, like all Saturdays at the moment in Victoria, seem to be particularly cool. And I've seen some comments on the socials about people that are in Canberra at the moment saying they wish they were back in Brisbane because it's cold. Well, yeah, Canberra probably takes it from here, but it has been cold. This weekend, Mel, however, I was back at Inverloch. I was back at the stump. We had pacer day at Inverloch. Always a good fun day. And I met pod listener Natalie Soper, who not only visited Inverloch, but she volunteered as a pacer. And it was her first time ever pacing, and she did a great job getting through really close to her time. So well done, Natalie. Natalie also came back for a bit of parkfaff at Paul the Pieman, the bakery that we all go back to. And we're talking, she only has a V. Inverloch was her second last letter in the alphabet. She now has a V to go to get the alphabet. And she has varsity locked and loaded, ready to go. On the day, I actually paced a 50-minute pacer roll with the crutches. Came in just a touch quick and got told off by the Timekeeper because I was a little bit quick. It was only 20 seconds.

00:04:29[crosstalk]

00:04:34Melissa Ellis: Oh my God, only you would offer to volunteer pacing on crutches.

00:04:40Tony O'Connell: But Mel, do you know how hard it is when you've got underarm crutches to actually look at your watch to pace? So Jacqui walked with us and I had to ask her every kilometre how long it was and try to make adjustments because normally when I pace every 100 metres I look at my watch. I could only look at it once a kilometre and ask somebody else what the time was. So it was a challenge, but we got there in the end and yeah, it was a fun day.

00:05:05Melissa Ellis: Oh my goodness. I hope the injury is mending.

00:05:09Tony O'Connell: The injury is mending quite nicely. I'm cooperating fully with my surgeon's directions, and I've actually stretched it out a little bit to make the recovery a little bit longer than what he suggested, just to give the body a bit more time to recover. So if anything, I'm being overly cautious, but I'd rather that than set off airport metal detectors. Or get an amputation, as someone suggested previously.

00:05:37Melissa Ellis: I think you're just trying to get crutches PBs now. You know what you need? You need one of those... Oh, no, you can't. I was going to say you need one of those walking frames like Maz.

00:05:49Tony O'Connell: I'm waiting for the first event to mark my park walks as assisted.

00:05:56Melissa Ellis: I bet you're getting a good swing now.

00:05:58Tony O'Connell: Yeah, getting a good move on and you actually can slingshot yourself, especially when you go down the little gentle slopes. You can't slow yourself down in those things. So you're sort of hopping there trying to keep your legs in order.

00:06:09Melissa Ellis: But enough about me, Mel. Where was your parkrun for the last two weeks? Well, two weeks ago I travelled back to South Australia and I visited the Avenues parkrun in the Kuitpo Forest. The Avenues was profiled by PK previously and it is a single loop trail course which includes a bit of elevation. It's a smallish event and has a small dirt car park which includes a drop toilet at the start finish area. The Kuitpo Forest is on Kaurna and Peramangk Country near Meadows in the Mount Lofty Ranges. The forest reserve covers an area of about 3,600 hectares, of which about 60% is plantation, which was established in 1898 to ensure a sustainable timber resource for South Australia. The avenues is 45 minutes long, approximately from Adelaide or a 20 minute drive from Hahndorf which is where I was staying for the weekend. We were amongst a crowd of 35 participants and I was pleased to run the entire way without a walk break with Dave keeping me company. The course was marked with cones to prevent runners taking wrong turns although I still managed to get confused a few times so I was glad I wasn't out there alone. Dave ran his 50th event, which he thought he'd kept quiet, but I surprised him with a 50th buff, along with a long explanation of all the ways he can use it. I'm helpful like that. Afterwards, we got chatting to a couple of South Australians, Kerry and Tony, and enjoyed swapping parkrun tales and life stories before heading back to Hahndorf for a day of exploring. Interestingly, the avenues took my interstate parkrun tally to 120, which matches my 120 events in Victoria. This last Saturday, I stayed in Victoria and headed out to Frog Hollow parkrun in the southeastern suburb of Endeavour Hills. There I met my sister Cassie, who agreed to join me based on the fact that it fell within a 30-minute parkrun inclusion zone around her home. Cassie is a recent convert to the pod, thanks to Maz Strong, and has completed 12 parkruns officially and a few unofficially when she forgot her barcode. She forgot it again on Saturday, but thanks to the 5K app, I was able to sort her out. Now, why Frog Hollow, I hear you ask, TOC? Well, it was my ninth visit to Froggy, which upped my p-index now to nine. Also being on the east side of town meant I was conveniently near my daughter Sarah's place for grandson cuddles. Cassie and I had a lovely run chat and headed off afterwards to the Rise Cafe in Narre Warren North on the recommendation of the event team. So this brings me to my next bit, which is one of the reasons I have been smashing the tourism over the last few months. Saturday was also my 493rd event and the Avenues was my 244th different. And I have been on a little mission to see if I can line up my 250th different with my 500th. It's still mathematically possible, but it's getting harder and harder, especially with the lack of Victorian launches this year. To recap, my nearest events, not done yet, are all over seven and a half hours away by car. So... Now I have seven events to do six new and it will come down to the line. Look I won't die if I can't do it and I'm kind of resolved to the fact it won't happen but we will just have to see. It's a week by week type of thing. So I have chosen Sirromet parkrun to be the location of my 500th parkrun and you're all invited. Sirromet is in Brisbane, Queensland and the event is held within the grounds of Sirromet Winery. I have wanted to visit this event since I first heard it discussed in episode 51 when Scotty and Mel interviewed E.D. Liv Coop. So I'm super excited to finally get there and share it with some of my bestest parkrun friends. Oh, and I'm going to walk it because after all, the party is at the back.

00:10:15Tony O'Connell: And I'm really looking forward to that, Mel. I know I think I might walk with you or I might even walk behind you on the day, I think.

00:10:22Melissa Ellis: Oh, yes, you probably will be. Boy, you still be on crutches?

00:10:27Tony O'Connell: No, no, I will be off the crutches by then, but I will still be tail walking.

00:10:32Melissa Ellis: Oh, no. So I'm super chuffed that you, Jackie, will be joining me there.

00:10:39Tony O'Connell: Looking forward to it, Mel. And the goal of lining up the 250th, I know that's something you and I have spoken about probably for, I reckon it'd be 18 months you've been talking about this as a bit of a goal and It's getting closer and closer. It is a challenge, but you've certainly been knocking off a travelling in the last probably three or four months. You had a little run there where you stuck around close to home and then you've gone smack on the travel again.

00:11:07Melissa Ellis: Yeah, well, when I get my mind set on something, I go. But look, look, it's not the end of the world if it doesn't happen. It'll be fine. I'll live forever.

00:11:19Tony O'Connell: Well, as has been quoted elsewhere and, you know, I think our friends are with me now. Nick Nick has said she likes to spread the milestones out so that she can party more often. So, yeah, that's also a pleasant opportunity and a good way of looking at it that you can have two parties instead of one.

00:11:37Melissa Ellis: That's right. Only I don't eat cake.

00:11:41Tony O'Connell: Well, I'll come along. I'll eat your cake and you can have the party. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

00:11:45Melissa Ellis: You can have my share of cake.

00:11:47Tony O'Connell: Because it's well known that I like cake.

00:11:49Melissa Ellis: You do, yeah. All righty. Well, that's us. So what have we got next? We've got some stats.

00:11:56Tony O'Connell: Yeah, Mel, I'll kick off. And last Saturday, the 21st of the 6th across the ditch in New Zealand, there were 62 parkruns and they had 9,559 parkrunners, which was up 607 on the week before. These were supported by 985 volunteers, and they also had a launch, which we'll detail a little bit later in the podcast. Interestingly, no events hit attendance records, and I think for our friends in the Northern Hemisphere, they're probably starting to see numbers starting to swell and blossom, whereas we're starting to see numbers contract because we're going right into winter, and I know we're having the negative degree temperature mornings quite frequently at the moment down here, it's probably only going to get a little bit quieter for a while we've now passed solstice so hopefully we'll start to see it warm up and numbers grow but speaking of growth Hagley was once again the largest parkrun in New Zealand they had 499 parkrunners and Hamilton Park with 16 was the close and friendly parkrun now how'd we go across Australia this week

00:13:06Melissa Ellis: Well, speaking of the cold, I might just bring up a bit of information I heard on the Talkback Radio this morning. And it was also referenced, I think you alluded to it earlier, that one of our parkrunners referenced, I think, Canberra as being cold. But it was actually Goulburn parkrun was minus 10 and colder than Antarctica. So, like, hats off to those Goulburn parkrunners that bared – that's not the right word, is it? Braved, braved the cold. Negative 10.

00:13:47Tony O'Connell: That's rubbish. Well, Mel, it's pretty funny that you slipped the tongue then and said bed because we had the solstice on the weekend and there were a lot of people bearing lots of things on the weekend. And I think we're going to touch on that later as well.

00:14:00Melissa Ellis: I know. It's all happening this week. Goodness me. No wonder we're distracted. But in Australia last weekend, we had 502 5K events with 57,000-odd finishes and 2,000-odd genuine first-timers. They were supported by 6,000 and a few volunteers. Amongst others, listeners Val and Steve Warwick joined the Peel Club this week. Oh, the office fairies have been busy. And at Junior parkrun, there were five events hosting 383 finishers and 97 volunteers. And they've slipped some junior stats in there. I like that. Thank you, Office Fairies. Now, Mount Beauty was the smallest with two parkrunners and Albert Melbourne was the largest with 774. Actually, maybe that was you, TOC. Did you put that information in? That was me. Oh, there you go. I was attributing it to the others, but then I realised it was black font.

00:15:00Tony O'Connell: Yes, another peek behind the curtains, Mel.

00:15:04Melissa Ellis: Alrighty, so...

parkrun news bulletin

00:15:06Melissa Ellis: Moving on to news. Now, this news came to us a couple of weeks ago, but of course, we've had the break. So it's a little bit late getting here, but I wanted to share it with our listeners anyway. And it's Professor Richard Scolyer. He has been mentioned on the pod previously when he was honoured as Joint Australian of the Year for his research in melanoma treatment. And then I believe we also referenced his battle with brain cancer and using revolutionary brain cancer treatments on himself. Now, recently, Richard let the world know that his glioblastoma had progressed. He hoped to live long enough to complete his 250th parkrun. Well, I'm proud to say on the 14th of the 6th, Professor Richard Scolyer AO completed his 250th milestone at GreenWay parkrun in 40 minutes 38. GreenWay parkrun Haberfield had 589 participants supported by 26 volunteers. This was a record attendance beating the previous record of 556 set on the 5th of the 10th, which was also a celebration for Richard and sponsored by Medibank. Now, on his Facebook page, Professor Scolyer wrote the following. Today, I completed my 250th parkrun down at the Greenway. I feel so touched at how many people showed up to demonstrate their support and kindness. parkrun is such an important staple in my week and a fantastic volunteer-run organisation who make it easy and accessible for anyone to get out there and about and join the community. Thank you to everyone who participated, especially all the incredible volunteers, as well as my friends and family who have supported me on this incredible journey. Now, TOC, I just I really love this. I would have loved to have been able to get there to Greenway to have just been there on the morning for that achievement. And yeah, he's he's an amazing, amazing man.

00:17:05Tony O'Connell: He is, Mel. And look, the words that he said that he put on his Facebook page really do sum up a lot of things. But yeah, just the, obviously the love and the respect that the event up there must have for him too. Like I watched, they had the video up of his finish line and just the number of people in the finish funnel and that. It was just really amazing to watch it and actually see it. And it would have been great to have been part of it on the day. Right. Mel, let's move north into Queensland. Sandgate Speed Week. Every year we've, or for the last few years anyway, we've referenced Sandgate Speed Week. It's a parkrun event in Brisbane where the local running clubs get together and basically go flat out for the day and see how many people they can get to go really fast. And a bit of a badge of honour amongst the participants to try being the top group. But some of the stats from this year, pretty amazing. Once again, it was held on the 14th of June. They had 894 finishes, which is a new record for them. There was 183 PBs set at one event. But you look at the times, they had 16 runners come in under 15 minutes. And by the time you get down to the 20 minute, you're at 328. Now, we spoke about this last year and actually tried to contact the lady that was Timekeeper last year to get... to get her to come on the pod and actually talk about what it's like trying to time 328 people quicker than 20 minutes. The first 657 came in under 30 minutes. So that just gives you some idea of how quick you've got to hit those buttons that, you know, the first person's come in at 1431, and in the next 15 and a half minutes, you've had 657 touches of the...

00:19:02Melissa Ellis: the stopwatch yeah I'm just I'm just looking at the maths now I'm like I'm I'm not real strong on my maths but so between 15 minutes and 20 minutes so in in the space of five minutes she had to press the stop or the the app 312 times wow I couldn't I don't think I could do that Tony

00:19:27Tony O'Connell: That's pretty impressive, isn't it?

00:19:29Melissa Ellis: It is. And you can't have two.

00:19:31Tony O'Connell: That's 62 times a minute. So that's basically quicker than one a second for five minutes. Yeah. Who's getting RSI out of this?

00:19:41Melissa Ellis: How's it possible? I don't know how it's possible. I couldn't even count the people coming over the line. I don't think...

00:19:48Tony O'Connell: It's interesting. We look at 32 minutes being roughly the median for a parkrun. And with this one, three-quarters of the field's already through it at that time. And it is the idea that the week for them is, you know, it's fast and furious. But there's a lot of people that just turn up and walk it just to be part of the atmosphere and see the people come through. It must be amazing to watch. And we actually had six adventurers in attendance. Eman was there. Hmm. I'm surprised Eman wouldn't have been at the pointy end somewhere. I should actually look at the results and get a bit of a feel for where Eman actually sat in that pack. Mossy was there, David Moss. We had Michael Blain, John Pointon. Erica Liotta and Hayley Bower were there as well. So, yeah, just a few quick stats about Speed Week.

00:20:42Melissa Ellis: I still like to do Sandgate. It was on my consideration list for my 500th because we've walked it, haven't we, TOC?

00:20:50Tony O'Connell: We have walked that. There was a group of us that walked it.

00:20:52Melissa Ellis: Yeah, and it's very pretty and it goes out along a pier. So it is definitely on my to-visit list one time when I am up there again.

00:21:04Tony O'Connell: But the trouble is, Mel, there's just so many parkruns that come up. We hear the roving reports come up and you think, oh, add that to the list, add that to the list. But the trouble is, the list just gets longer and longer and longer. And there's so many great sounding adventures and so many great sounding parkruns. And it's not just the scenery and that. Sometimes it's just the parkrun itself and the people that are at it that really... they come across as being so interesting and someone should just love to sit down and have a coffee with them and actually enjoy, yeah, enjoy a parkrun day.

00:21:39Melissa Ellis: It's, you know, it was really hard to try to decide on an event, on a location for the milestone. When I, like, if I could go anywhere in Australia, where would I like to go? Because over the years, you know, so many years of hearing about so many great events...

00:21:59Tony O'Connell: yeah it was hard to land on one and in the end I landed on one that was close to where my friend lives for the reason that I always wanted to go there as well of course and for the record Eman actually ran 1653 which was a couple seconds off his Sandgate PB so maybe the big pack held him up a little bit but um it's still blisteringly fast under 17 minutes absolutely yep awesome yeah Mel, another thing that's come up of interest, on the parkrun Australia Facebook page, I saw an ad there actually advertising a spot on the Australian parkrun board as a non-executive director. Yeah, so anyone that's interested in jumping in as a non-executive director, jump on board, have a look on the Facebook page. They actually have a link there that goes to the criteria and all that. And I had a look at the criteria and I thought, oh, that's above my pay grade. I'll just stick with hosting a podcast.

00:22:25[crosstalk]

00:23:00Melissa Ellis: Well, I guess there's no point me looking at it then.

00:23:05Tony O'Connell: Yeah, no, it's definitely looking for a professional person in that role and yeah, good luck to them and yeah.

00:23:12Melissa Ellis: So who's stepping down?

00:23:14Tony O'Connell: I do not know.

00:23:16Melissa Ellis: Is there a way we can find out who's on the board in Australia?

00:23:19Tony O'Connell: Oh, I'm sure there would be. I had not given that any thought. You've given me homework.

00:23:24Melissa Ellis: Okay, yeah, homework. I've had a crack at trying to look that up years ago and I was unsuccessful. And is Scott from Albert Melbourne? Scott Watkins. Yeah, is Scott still on the board? I don't know. More homework.

00:23:37Tony O'Connell: More homework.

00:23:40[background music]

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:23:40Melissa Ellis: All right. Well, while we ponder that, we might throw you over to listen to this week's roving reports.

Roving report Pippa White — Stadspark, Sittard parkrun (Netherlands)

00:23:52Pippa White: So it's the Streakmeister and I'm in the Netherlands for a rather special parkrun. Now it's the Whitman D parkrun and we're here at Sittard at Stadspark. Stadspark Sittard, let's get this right. But we're here for a very special occasion and I'm standing with parkrun's newest V500. Hello Harriet.

00:24:13Harriet: Hello everyone. I'm very excited and very happy that I've completed my 500. And what role did you do today Harriet? So I was tail walking along with Dai and we drove over last night for about over seven hours, probably closer to eight.

00:24:32Pippa White: stay for the single night just for this parkrun cool and what else is it today it is also my birthday it's your very birthday so yeah I've met up with Harriet here at the beautiful beautiful stats park in sitard it's a four lapper um it's beautiful bright summery weather and we're just having a great day we've had brilliant chats with parkrunners from Germany um You were talking to someone from Poland but they weren't a different one. Oh yeah, we met some random ones from Poland at the station. I've joined Harriet on an epic bus journey from France, from Le Mans, just to be here for her birthday in a V500. So Harriet, what are some highlights of the 500 volunteers that you've done?

00:25:14Harriet: I think throughout the time I've been volunteering I've been doing a lot of touring along with Pippa here and my mum and some ones I used to do a lot when I was with friends so one of the biggest ones I think recently was when we attempted to do Muncaster Castle it took three times to get there and the first time we tried to get there we had a detour to Millom where we then got caught in a blizzard but still got the parkrunning other times then I've taken friends along like through For a few of us, we went up to Rothay Park parkrun, which was a lovely sunny day as well. I think we mainly just enjoyed meeting up and making friends at each new park when we go to, and enjoying all the wonderful cafes as well.

00:26:02Pippa White: So, Harriet, you're a little bit different because you don't bring people along to run at parkrun, do you?

00:26:07Harriet: No, I have dragged quite a few friends along to volunteer. And an uncle. And an uncle. This is when we went to one of the Glasgow parkruns and I thought, great, my aunt can have a lion for her birthday. Took my uncle along and forgot that Scotland starts half an hour later. So we met the Run Director who was doing the Event Day Course Check a whole half an hour before we were meant to arrive.

00:26:33Pippa White: So you're also a really keen junior parkrun volunteer, aren't you? When did that start happening?

00:26:39Harriet: So I think I managed to avoid Junior parkrun until the day after my 15th birthday. So I've not managed to ever do a single time around the course. It was when I actually got up to university when a couple of my friends decided... There was no junior parkrun in the area, so they looked at setting one up and I was like, yeah, I'll come along, I'll help be one of the pretend runners, help you test the course and make sure everything's in the right place. And then I just kept going along and became one of the core team for their junior parkrun there. And now I've moved down back to Warwickshire and I'm now a regular volunteer and Run Director at the Stratford Juniors.

00:27:26Pippa White: So that gives you great pleasure, doesn't it? Yes. There's no chance of being able to run at Junior parkrun after all. I did get my 10 V and running milestones though. You did indeed. So she's in two clubs I can never be part of. And what's your plan for the future? Just keeping coming to parkrun. And bringing your friends along to volunteer. Yeah, dragging more friends along whether they're aware of it or not. So congratulations again. Happy V500 and happy birthday. Thank you. I'll go and see if I can find a Run Director. So I've just gone and found today's Run Director who's had to cope with a complete influx of tourists from all over Europe. So hello, Emma.

00:28:05Emma: Hi. Hi.

00:28:07Pippa White: Nice to meet you. So tell me a little bit about your parkrun journey.

00:28:10Emma: Well, my parkrun journey. Yeah, well, it started almost a year ago, I guess. And I was looking here at the park with all the runners, that was the first contact I had here and it's very fun that everybody can join it's for free everybody can just do their thing and everybody is so happy and grateful to be here but also very cheering for other ones and that's really nice so I started running um I started running on the days when it's not Saturday because Saturday is parkrun day and I want to help as a as a volunteer and in the meantime we're a year further and yeah well look how it's growing and now it's a special edition today So I think we had the most people yet. And wow, it's overwhelming.

00:28:56Pippa White: It's good. It's nice. Yeah, everybody's happy. And you made such a proud celebration for Harriet today. So thank you very much for that. Yeah, of course. It's a really special day with that. And I can't imagine 500. Wow. Just one week at a time.

00:29:10Emma: Anyway. Exactly.

00:29:12Pippa White: And it's a four lap course here in this beautiful little park. Yeah. Around Aledo. Is that right? Yeah. A swimming pool.

00:29:19Emma: Yeah, we call it the swimming pool, but I think it's been years ago. But we really like it here with all the green. And yeah, even though it's the city centre, it's a nice park.

00:29:30Pippa White: Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much, Emma. Thank you to the rest of your team. Have a nice day. And that's me over and out.

Roving report Sarah Jefferson — Palmerston parkrun (Northern Territory)

00:29:36Sarah Jefferson: Good morning, parkrun adventurers. It's Sarah here from the West Side, and I'm still up in the Northern Territory. This morning, I'm at event 432, checking out Palmerston parkrun, and I'm here with Christy, the Event Director. Good morning, Christy. Good morning. Thank you for having me. Can I please get you to describe this very unique course for the listeners?

00:29:57Christy: Okay, so when I first try to explain it to people, I get a very confused look on my face, but I try to tell people that if you've done parkrun before, we the number one rule is don't cross any roads so if you cross the road you're going the wrong way but basically we start in the Palmerston water park and we run out towards the car park up down through Durack Heights back we turn around back into the water park and then out onto what we call University Avenue we turn around and then we come back and do basically lap one all over again It's simple once you've actually done it a couple of times and if you're going to run anything more than 19 minutes or anything more than that, you're going to have someone ahead of you. We tell people that. We've got three marshals on the course always telling you where to go. So I haven't lost anyone yet. So that's a good start.

00:30:53Sarah Jefferson: I quite like the course actually because you do see people repeatedly. You do.

00:30:58Christy: You do. So for me, I like to use them as a guide to sort of see how fast or slow I'm going for the day. And you do sort of have your landmarks where you think, oh, I'm at that point. That's 15 minutes, you know. pick up the pace or go a little bit slow. On the course, we do have a couple of inclines, as I like to call them. Some people call them hills. But for me, they're little inclines, which makes it a little bit more challenging.

00:31:25Sarah Jefferson: Now, you did mention that it's at a water park. Yes. I feel like we have exclusive use of this water park right now. There is no water in the pool. That is right.

00:31:33Christy: We do. We're very lucky that the NTG have allowed us to use the park. We have very good facilities here. There's no one here. It doesn't officially open till 10 or 11 in the morning. So we have the bathroom facilities that we can use. And you're right, we do have exclusive use. So not very often we run into other people on the course.

00:31:53Sarah Jefferson: No, and I'm sure not many parkruns would be run kind of through a water park.

00:31:56Christy: No, probably not. And probably don't have this sort of facilities. I've been to quite a few parkruns outside of the Territory and some of them, you know, don't have bathrooms or anything like that. So... And you did mention NTG, so Northern Territory Government.

00:32:10Sarah Jefferson: That's right.

00:32:10Christy: So is it a government-funded water park? Yeah, so this park is government-funded, yes. Awesome.

00:32:16Sarah Jefferson: Now, in terms of when, I guess, people are visiting the Territory, Darwin is the first event and then Nightcliff is the northern compass point. So why should people come out to Palmerston? It's about 20 minutes or so, would you say, from the centre?

00:32:30Christy: Yeah, it depends, you know, 15, 20 minutes depending on the traffic. However... Look, I prefer Palmerston. It's a smaller group. We probably get about 140 to 150 people every week. Like I was saying, we've got exclusive use of the park, so unlikely we run into people on the street. Nightcliff can get over 300 people and you've got other people on the course to sort of contend with and other people that are not doing parkrun and the paths are narrow. That's, you know, my personal preference is Palmerston. But Nightcliff and Darwin have some good views of the ocean. So it's sort of up to everyone's personal sort of what they want. Yeah.

00:33:10Sarah Jefferson: Well, I have actually been very impressed with this. I'm not really sure what I sort of expected from Palmerston, but it's actually been really lovely this morning. We had a beautiful sunrise as well. There's a bit of smoke, probably hearing both of our voices, a bit of smoke in the air, but beautiful sunrise. People head off to breakfast and coffee now?

00:33:14[crosstalk]

00:33:26Christy: Yeah, there's a few people go to a couple of cafes and some people just obviously head on home, but Yeah, if you want to go for a coffee, I can point you in a direction where some people might go.

00:33:36Sarah Jefferson: Awesome. I'm thinking we're going to head to the Parap Markets.

00:33:38[crosstalk]

00:33:39Christy: Oh, yep, Parap Markets, yep. For a Saturday morning. Yep, apparently a laksa in the morning for breakfast is good to go, but not for me.

00:33:45Sarah Jefferson: Yeah, I'm not sure. I'll see how I go with that one. Thank you so much for having us this morning. It's a beautiful course here in Palmerston.

00:33:53Christy: Thank you for coming to our course and hopefully see you again soon.

Roving report Ruth Perkins — Malmö Ribersborg parkrun (Sweden)

00:33:56Ruth Perkins: Good morning parkrun adventurers, it is Ruth Perkins and I am coming to you from Sweden and I am in Malmö. I'm going to ask the person next to me for the pronunciation of the parkrun. Malmö Ribersborg parkrun, perfect thank you and the person I'm talking with today inspired us all at the very start with a brilliant warm-up so what's your name and how long have you been parkrunning for hi guys my name is fabien and yeah I've been parkrunning now for 50 volunteers and 50 parkruns Oh wonderful, so your warm-up is part of volunteering here at the parkrun?

00:34:38Fabien: Yes indeed, so that's something I thought we would start after Covid in 2021 when the parkrun came back after closure and we're thinking how we can bring joy to the parkrun to bring people with good energy but also it is a small excuse also to bring people ready for the Run Director briefing as well.

00:35:01Ruth Perkins: Yes, and I really appreciated some of your signature moves, which would you say is your absolute favourite move to get everybody to do?

00:35:09Fabien: I have a favourite move, you know, of all the crowd here and all the visitors, of course, is the boogie-woogie. It's legendary, actually, but the boogie-woogie is more a state of mind, you know, a state of enlightenment when you're there and you're, you know, moving the knees and the butt just for fun. No, that's super, super fun, yeah.

00:35:29Ruth Perkins: Oh, great. So this is your home parkrun, but you've said to me that you have travelled a bit.

00:35:35Fabien: Yes, indeed. So we start, you know, we like to do a bit of parkrun tourism. When we go to big running events all over the world, like the marathon majors, we always try to squeeze some parkrun over there. So that's pretty cool. And there's one... memory I have was the last year we did Tokyo Marathon and so we did two parkrun in Japan and I must say like on the second week when we went to Osaka so we did the parkrun there and like with the cherry blossom starting that was like absolutely magnificent so a must a sight for sore eyes I

00:36:14Ruth Perkins: say oh I can imagine yes so of the different parkruns you've been to have you got other than this one it sounds like in osaka um have you got any other favourites any that you would recommend other people to go to well I would recommend Malmö Ribersborg parkrun because it's my local parkrun and it's also really flat and really fast so if you're reaching that uh

00:36:35Fabien: you know look after pb so that's one that's one to go but also one that I like, it is also super close from here, is the one in Copenhagen called Amager Strandpark the one nearby the beach in copenhagen that's also a really really good parkrun as well

00:36:52Ruth Perkins: So when I did Amager Strandpark, I did jump in the sea at that parkrun. Is that something that people tend to do at Malmo as well?

00:37:01Fabien: Yes, when the water is nice, people tend to go to one of the piers and jump, but we keep our clothes on. LAUGHTER

00:37:10Ruth Perkins: Oh, shame. Well, I'm hoping the water is friendly today because I'm going to give it a go. How about you? Are you going to go in today?

00:37:20Fabien: Maybe. Maybe not because the water is at 12 degrees Celsius. So that may not be a good idea. But we're going to definitely go for some bakery after. Lovely. There's actually nearby Malmo, there's a sauna, which you can also have breakfast also with your clothes on.

00:37:38Ruth Perkins: Hey, that's perfect. Well, thank you so much for talking with me.

00:37:42[crosstalk]

00:37:42Fabien: Thank you, that was my pleasure. You guys have a nice day.

00:37:45Ruth Perkins: Merci beaucoup. [French: "Thank you very much."]

00:37:46Fabien: De rien. [French: "You're welcome. / Not at all."]

00:37:50Ruth Perkins: And I'm back and I have got with me Catherine Thompson, who is one of the founders of this gorgeous parkrun today. So Catherine, what brought parkrun to Malmo? What started parkrun here?

00:38:05Catherine Thompson: Sure, hello everyone. So my husband has been a parkrunner since 2010 and when we came to Sweden there were no parkruns in Sweden. The country wasn't open to parkrun. So we would go across to Copenhagen in Denmark every week to do our run which for a free event it got rather expensive so as soon as they opened up here we put our hands up and said yes we want to start up here and we've really enjoyed being part of the parkrun community here. It's fantastic.

00:38:32Ruth Perkins: It does seem a glorious place to have a parkrun. We're running around some lakes and we're right by the sea. That's right.

00:38:39Catherine Thompson: And it's a particularly perfect time of year here in spring because you get all of the young little birds that have been born and they're all fluffy. You do have to watch out for the angry geese occasionally. But yeah, the trees are all out in flower and yeah, we're really lucky to have it here.

00:38:53Ruth Perkins: And I've even seen some bunny rabbits hopping around.

00:38:56Catherine Thompson: Definitely. My dog loves them.

00:38:59Ruth Perkins: And there's an amazing sound just by the lake, which I assume might be like frogs? I think so, yeah.

00:39:05Catherine Thompson: There's frogs and insects in there, just full of wildlife, so it's a beautiful time. And also because we're right down in southern Sweden, I had no idea when I arrived about how big Sweden was, but... Because we're right down here, we can run pretty much year round. Whereas some of the Northern parkruns have to cut it off because they've got snow and ice and that's not safe.

00:39:23[crosstalk]

00:39:26Ruth Perkins: So what's your background with parkrun then? Did you, were you parkrunning somewhere else before Copenhagen?

00:39:32Catherine Thompson: Back in Australia, maybe? Not actually in Australia. In 2010, Phil started running Wimbledon Common in the UK. And then I lived quite close to Bushy parkrun. So Bushy was our home run, which is fantastic, being home of parkrun. So yeah, we'd done quite a few of those before we came over here and got started here. We've done little bits, you know, a couple in Denmark and some down in Australia, actually, when I've gone back to visit family. So, yeah, collecting a few here and there. So which ones in Australia have you been to then? The Mount Clarence parkrun in Albany, right on the southwest coast down there. And I think it was Bibra Lake parkrun in Perth as well we've been to. So, yeah, great parkruns, both of them. Although I have to say here, we're very, very flat. And I know Mount Clarence has got a bit of a hill in there with the mountain in there. So, yes, appreciate the flat.

00:40:29Ruth Perkins: It's a very, very flat course here.

00:40:32Catherine Thompson: It is. I like to say we've got a bit of a hill. And for those, obviously, you can't see, but it's maybe a rise of, you know, a couple of centimetres here. So that's our hill.

00:40:44Ruth Perkins: Oh, wonderful. Well, I'm going to say a big thank you from everybody that's been here today and everyone else that's ever been because this is such a glorious parkrun. And you've obviously put a lot of love and time into it and it works well.

00:40:58Catherine Thompson: Thank you so much. We really love having visitors here. It's so fun to hear where everyone's come from. And that's something that I really love about parkrun is that we get to meet people from all over with fabulous stories. So, yes, best of luck. Great. Thank you so much. Cheers.

00:41:05[background music]

00:41:20Tony O'Connell: And Mel, we had another wonderful set of roving reports there. We started off with Pippa and Harriet on the occasion of both Harriet's 500th volunteer and her birthday. And I've realised one thing about Harriet is that I really like Harriet. Harriet's one of us. She talked about driving seven or eight hours just to go for an overnight stay to do a parkrun. So I reckon she's really one of us. Well done, Harriet, on all those different achievements all in one go. And you spoke really lovely. I really enjoyed listening to you. So congrats. We also heard from Sarah proving that the West Side, when they go north side, it's a swimming theme. She's at a water park. What's it with Sarah and water and swimming? And I bet it's a lot warmer than it would be down here swimming. And lastly, we heard from Ruth Perkins, who was coming to us from Malmo. That was on the 14th. Malmo parkrun's in Sweden, and it was their second largest attendance. And we think it might have been because the next day, 40,000 people were actually running a half marathon across the bridge that connects Denmark to Sweden. It's a really interesting bridge to drive, that one, Mel. And it would have been brilliant to run it. But I heard... that the positions for that race actually sold out in a couple of minutes, so 40,000 tickets in a couple of minutes. But not often you get to run a race across a major bridge that just goes for like 20 kilometres, or not 20 kilometres, probably 15 kilometres, across from one country to another. Ruth was speaking with one of the RDs who ran the warm-up, and then she spoke to... Catherine Thompson, who co-founded the event with her husband, Phil Dunstan. And she learned how to do the boogie woogie. So there you go. You learn all sorts of things at parkrun.

00:43:14Melissa Ellis: Oh, that's fantastic. And I just want to extend my congratulations as well to Harriet. We have held that over for a bit. It did come in just after we had recorded the previous podcast. So we had to wait a bit to hear from Pippa and Harriet. But it was worth the wait.

Dazza's

00:43:32Melissa Ellis: Now, on to Dazza's and TOC. We are going to split Dazza's this week. Five comments from each of the last two Dazza's posts.

00:43:43Tony O'Connell: Yes, we are, Mel. And this week, Dazza said, no, this week Dazza didn't say this. Two weeks ago, Dazza said, it's World Blood Donor Day. It's a day to celebrate those who roll up their sleeves and give blood to help those in need of it. If you're a donor, you may get to bathe in the appreciation. Wherever you were on this Saturday morning, come into Dazza's and let us know how it went. Just like giving blood, sometimes the best part of parkrun is the food and drink afterwards.

00:44:12Melissa Ellis: Going off topic, I've been able to donate blood. I actually made myself anemic from frequent blood donations. And I had to have a transfusion, an iron transfusion. So I feel a bit guilty. But, you know, I was really proud to see how many of our adventurers are actually blood donors. And there was lots of comments in that week's Dazza's. of all the people that donate regularly.

parkrun adventure challengelistener challenge

00:44:35Melissa Ellis: So good on you. Now, our adventurer Listener Challenge over the last two weeks was to incorporate something for International Bath Day. So I'm not sure that we got a huge response to this, but anyway, we'll see how we go. Now, first off, we heard from Barbara Luther. She was coming to us from Ireland. And she said, I ran at Bushy, Dublin parkrun this morning. Despite heavy rain, muddy parts and puddles, I enjoyed the run through the park and a great chat with the team members and other tourists. Now to give my shoes a bath and get them dried before the trip home. So Barb managed to get it in. Now there was a photo of Barb with the pop-up. So grats on the Bushy Double Barb. And I think Renata was there with her again too. I think I saw Renata also popped up in Dazza's.

00:45:20Tony O'Connell: I think you're right there about Renata and congrats Barbara. Next we heard from Midzi Middleton from Victoria. Super chilly fog covered morning at Bendigo Botanic Gardens parkrun but great people. Also for the arty and historically interested adventurers the Frida Kahlo exhibition is great if you're interested in the life and culture of Frida in Mexico. Well worth it. And the picture showed Midzi in the selfie frame wearing the adventurer's top and it's great to hear from you Midzi.

00:45:50Melissa Ellis: Yes, I think that might be the first time mid-seas popped up. Now, we also heard from Sherry Cottle coming to us from New South Wales. And she said, pioneer dairy parkrun for us to become Waratah Wanderers. And there was a great big, huge, cheesy face, smile emoji. And the photo of Sherry and Jason Cottell featured a fabulous star jump by Sherry. I actually haven't heard about the Waratah Wanderers talk. We were wondering and pondering earlier, if this was a term for a New South Wales statesman. So we did our homework because we're good podcast hosts and it does appear so.

00:46:26Tony O'Connell: Yes, from a couple of references I've been able to find, it has been called that. My memory mail is telling me that there was another name for it as well. And I cannot think of it and I can't find the other reference. So I'm going to say, given that we've got two references to it, let's just call it that for now. And I'm sure some of the other listeners are going to say, hang on, it's called something else. And they're going to email in and give us some great content for the next podcast.

00:46:52Melissa Ellis: Yeah, I like the Waratah Wanderers. And Cherie, she is a regular contributor. So, yeah, I'm going to let that one go. Yep.

00:47:03Tony O'Connell: Yep. Righty-o, Mel. We're going to head across to South Australia, which is unusual for this lady to be in South Australia, but we've heard from Blee Cabarita. Yay, got to Kangaroo Island parkrun today. Had my first volunteer attempt at first-timers briefing and Tail Walker. Was great as there was only a handful of people, mostly supportive regulars, so it wasn't too daunting and they were kind and encouraging. A beautiful coastal course and one I'd definitely recommend to venture to. Had coffee at Cactus before and after, which was so welcome on a cold morning. And there was a little butterfly emoji.

00:47:40Melissa Ellis: Aww. Oh, Lee's a couple of weeks behind in the pod.

00:47:46Tony O'Connell: And Lee is at the event core looking very rugged up with her adventurer's buff helping to keep warm too.

00:47:53Melissa Ellis: Very good. Oh, I was glad to see that Lee got there because a couple of weeks we read out in Dazza's that she had to go to Plan C, remember? She didn't get to... Yeah, anyway, good old... Floods and so forth. Next we heard from Helen Rutter coming to us from the UK and she said... So when the ladder cancelled and so did all other NENDYs, we had to repeat Bower Park is closest, but was already in my top 10 due to friendliness and the 100% amazing park faff. Well, yet again, it did not disappoint, poured it down and there was rain cloud emojis but who cares shrug emoji we had buddies and tea from the big teapot that's all in capitals and there's love heart eye emojis and kiss face emojis and then she says I am well made up and yes I got 70 plus age grade and a venue PB to top it all off now it is in my top three and there was a photo that showed someone pouring from a very large teapot Teapot, teapot. And this confused me a bit because when Helen said she got 70 plus age grade, I'm thinking, Helen's not 70. I got all confused thinking that she meant... Yeah, but then I realised it's the age grade, not the age category.

00:49:15Tony O'Connell: It's actually your age grade percentage.

00:49:18Sarah Jefferson: Yes.

00:49:18Tony O'Connell: And now I've got to admit, when I saw that in the show notes, I thought, oh my God, there's no way that Helen's seven. And I actually went and looked at some results to make sure of that, so...

00:49:29Melissa Ellis: I tried to look at her photo again. I'm like, no, she's not 70. You're looking good for 70, Helen. No, no, no. Anyway, that was the previous week, the 14th of the 6th. Now we move on to last week. And as I said, today is the winter solstice in the southern hemisphere. From today, the days should get longer and warmer, but that doesn't help us for this chilly Saturday. Did you freeze through your 5Ks? Did your parkrun feel polar? Or maybe yours wasn't too bad. However the weather, come on into Dazza's where it's always warm and tell us all about it.

00:50:04Tony O'Connell: And Mel, it was very interesting when we're talking to all the Australians and they're all talking about it being fairly cold at parkrun this week. And because we've got so many friends coming into Dazza's from overseas as well, we see people coming in from Italy and the luxury is probably very warm.

00:50:20Melissa Ellis: Isn't the world wonderful?

00:50:23Tony O'Connell: They're in their summer solstice and we're in our winter solstice. Yeah, so it was timely. Everybody was talking about the solstice. Yep. Anyway, we started off, we heard from Dave and Chloe Bravos from WA. Chloe said, Hi Dazza, we celebrated our solstice baby's fifth birthday today at Aveley. It was freezing and wet, but Lucy enjoyed everyone wishing her a happy birthday as we park walked in the rain. Latte and a birthday chino, please. And there was a pick from each parent. One was of the three of them with Lucy poking her tongue out. And the other was Lucy in a parkwalker vest wearing a birthday girl badge and balancing a token on her nose.

00:50:26[crosstalk]

00:51:05Melissa Ellis: Happy birthday, Lucy. Special shout out for Lucy. We also heard from Andy Airey coming to us from the UK. I assume if that's where Rothay Park is. And Andy said, parkwalker at Rothay Park parkrun in the Lake District to finally get my V-index to 12. And the photo shared showed Andy and a couple of mates with the Rothay pop-up. And one of those men may have been James Avery as he also appeared in the Consolidated Club report. Assuming Andy knows. James Avery and I can't I can't confirm or deny uh but a v index of 12 I am very impressed good job that is a uh a fair effort to get to 12. especially for a tourist it's fairly difficult yes so well done Andy

00:51:54Tony O'Connell: Then we're going across to Italy and we heard from Annabelle Johnson. Summer solstice here in the Northern Hemisphere and another hot had a little fire emoji one in Italy. Visited Uditore parkrun in Palermo, Sicily with 42 other parkrunners. Unique and very friendly. This was the first parkrun to start in Italy and it was their event number 425 today. And Annabelle shared a selfie in the Uditore pub with the parkrun crowd.

00:52:24Melissa Ellis: oh that was supposed to be pop-up I apologise fat fingers and it was actually like a true selfie style selfie that one there so that was very good now we also heard from old mate Monty Slade coming to us from UK of course and he said scorchio timer at the summer solstice at Ross-on-Wye parkrun and there was a timer emoji and a thumbs up and the sun and monty's signature thumbs up was in the photo with his adventurers buff and of course the Ross-on-Wye pop-up and flags and while the UK is sweltering, down at the bottom of Australia, TOC, some crazies was celebrating the winter solstice they were mel but before we go across to them do you know the origin of the scorchio reference No, I just thought it was hot, so he was being clever with his words.

00:53:17Tony O'Connell: No, no, I've actually done a quick little Google on it, and Scorchow actually comes out of an old TV show from, I'm guessing, back in the 90s, and it's actually funny. It's called The Fast Show. It's out of that, and it's a lady doing the weather, and she's putting up weather things, and it's just like 45 degrees, and all she's saying is, Scotchio. That's funny. It's worth having a look at. Small things entertain my mind.

00:53:44[crosstalk]

00:53:46Melissa Ellis: It's a visual joke, Tony.

00:53:48Tony O'Connell: Yes. Speaking of small things entertaining my mind, the people that were doing nudie swims in Tasmania. We had Andrew Yeatman down in Tassie. Pre-parkrun, icy solstice, and in brackets, nudie swim was just lovely. And a smiley face. Hashtag West is best. And I don't know whether we want to go to the photo on this, but I'm sure they were clothed. But the photo showed Matthew Stevens, Andrew, Ryan Stoddart, and Sarah Maas all ready for their solstice dip. There was also a group photo in the comments showing seven adventurers in their clothes, which was... Much better idea for a family-friendly PG-rated or G-rated podcast. And they're in adventurer's Tops in the Pembroke selfie frame, which also included Rana Williams, Amanda Lake and Charles Gregory.

00:54:41Melissa Ellis: I think it's Charles Gregory. I was taken a stab because there was a bloke I didn't recognise and he was also at the event. So you've met Charles, haven't you, George? Yes.

00:54:50Tony O'Connell: So you can confirm. Charles actually came up to O'Connor's Beach, drove up. That's right. Camped out and, yeah, it was great to have a catch up.

00:54:57Melissa Ellis: Very good. So there's been lots of talk about this bromance with Matthew Stevens and Andrew Yeatman and travelling together. while their solstice run. But anyway, we'll leave that to Sarah to discuss further. Yeah, crazies, crazies they are. A lot of people do that thing early in the morning on the solstice, run into the ocean nude.

00:55:22Tony O'Connell: Yeah, look, I was at a function on Saturday night at Cape Patterson and so many people at the function were talking about their swim in the morning that they'd had right on dawn. I mean, it was like minus one degrees right on dawn. Like...

00:55:37Melissa Ellis: The water would be warmer than that, wouldn't it? Because the ocean is at a warmer temperature than the air.

00:55:40[crosstalk]

00:55:43Tony O'Connell: The water's currently about 12 degrees down here, so it's like positively boiling.

00:55:48Melissa Ellis: Okay, so I suppose we have to give them kudos for that, kahunas.

00:55:53Tony O'Connell: Ah, no, still not as cold as Queenstown. I'm claiming Queenstown. It'll always be Queenstown.

00:56:00Melissa Ellis: Oh, dear. All righty. Now, as we wrap up Dazza's, I just also want to do a quick congratulations to Kev Green on his 250th out at Wyndham Vale. Sorry I didn't get there, Kev. And well done. I think he also had 150th milestone volunteer. And the Office Lady, special kudos to the Office Lady for her two-week-in-a-row PB, all-time PB. She is smashing it at the moment. I think she is running faster than me.

00:56:30Tony O'Connell: The Office Lady's on fire at the moment, Mel. She's doing really well. And she outran her coach this week.

00:56:36Melissa Ellis: She did. She did. Oh, my goodness. That's so good.

the Obi Award — Sheree and Jason Cotterill

00:56:39Melissa Ellis: It's really, really good to see.

00:56:40Tony O'Connell: Now, Obi, Tony, have you got the Obilope? I do, Mel. I'm so happy to have it this week. Hang on, let me just open up this envelope. Oh, someone's put a bit of sticky tape on it. It's really stuck here, Mel. Oh. Oh, yeah, I'll just rip it open.

00:57:02Melissa Ellis: God, you're dragging it out.

00:57:05Tony O'Connell: Our Obi this week goes to... Sheree and Jason Cotterill.

00:57:19Melissa Ellis: Well done, guys. The Waratah Wanderers.

00:57:22Tony O'Connell: And congrats on achieving statesmanship in New South Wales, one of those states. It's quite large to get around all the events, so well done. That's huge.

00:57:30Melissa Ellis: Yeah, and I know you can probably pull up the stats really quickly, but how many do you think there is in New South Wales, Tony? Would there be as many?

00:57:40Tony O'Connell: Just off the top of my head. Just off the top of my head, Mel, in New South Wales, I've got to count them individually because it's really difficult. I'm scrolling down. This is a challenge, Mel. I'm going to say there's 115. Really? Which, ironically, is the same number of events that there is in Victoria.

00:58:03Melissa Ellis: Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. Is there 115 people who are statesmen in New South Wales?

00:58:10Tony O'Connell: No, no, sorry, there's 115 events in New South Wales.

00:58:13Melissa Ellis: Oh, radio, radio.

00:58:15Tony O'Connell: No, no, no, that wasn't what I was asking. Okay, so currently the total number of statesmen in New South Wales is nine. Ah, right. Yeah.

00:58:24Melissa Ellis: Excellent. Good job. I didn't think there was a lot, so that's what I was curious about.

00:58:29Tony O'Connell: That's with a couple of extra ones from this week. Last week, however, when Jason and Cherie achieved it, they made seven.

00:58:38Melissa Ellis: Oh, right. Okay, there you go. Yeah, so it's quite a task, isn't it, to achieve?

00:58:43Alice: It is, yeah. Yeah.

Club Corner

00:58:45Melissa Ellis: Alrighty, well, on the basis of there being no emails to report, I think it's time that we throw to Club Corner and see what Reginald's got to say.

00:59:00[background music]

00:59:04Reginald 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. South Africa is our focus today. It shall be known as SA, the other SA, not our SA. Did you know that SA has the same land area Vic plus our SA? Wow! South Africa parkrun began in November 2011 at Delta parkrun, which is in Victory Park, Johannesburg, with a modest 26 participants. Delta has since hosted over 640 events, and recorded as many as 2,130 participants at a single event. SA is host to the third highest number of parkrun events, only behind the UK and Aus, with well over 200 active events. They have also had more than 50 events close and or not yet return. Some never will be back, but others have returned after long absences. Root 44 came back in March 2025. After a gap of 4 years and 11 months, and Odendaal Stadium came back after a gap of 3 years 9 months...so never say never. The special day for parkrun in SA is Freedom Day, which is annually on the 27th of April, and is the commemoration of the first democratic elections held in South Africa on the 27th of April 1994. So if you like your bonus events, make plans to tour in April, maybe on your way to Japan for Greenery Day each May. SA has a very strong walking tradition, which harks back to their relationship with their primary sponsor Discovery Vitality. Discovery Vitality are an insurance company and they offer reward points for participating in a parkrun event. They do not discriminate between walking versus running at parkrun, so three cheers for that sponsor's idea. Hip hip, hip hip, hip hip. It was reported in the US parkrun blog in January of 2025 that the percentage of walkers in SA is nearly 30%, the highest percentage of all the parkrun countries. Come on Aussies let us get walking. As you would anticipate with a country as large as SA, and with as many events as they have, there is a wide variety of course offerings. This includes Melkbosstrand which is entirely on sand, or courses with classic African wildlife in a reserve setting. You can read about some of the choices. Highlighted by parkrun South Africa on their blog, there is a nice read from April 2025 called The Big Five and Little Five parkruns. Their blog is very active, and feels like the classic parkrun spirit, with highlights of events and people, plus volunteers and volunteer roles. If you are a parkrun nerd, then check out their blog. They frequently do a South African photo roundup, similarly to what Japan does, it is nice to see different scenery. And remember, in parkrun life, all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun, so stay tuned for our future club corners.

01:02:02Tony O'Connell: And Mel, once again, Reginald has come to us and given us some great feedback on yet another parkrun country. This time we've chosen to go to South Africa. And it really has got me keen to visit South Africa. Saw the Airey Airways trip over there where they did the couple of countries for the extra day, and I really would have liked to have got on board with that. But South Africa is one of those places that, for me, I look at some of the parkrun names, and I love to go to some parkruns just because they've got really cool names. I still really want to do Piggly Wiggly.

01:02:37Melissa Ellis: Piggly Wiggly, I was going to say the same.

01:02:40Tony O'Connell: Everyone wants to do Piggly Wiggly, and it's not... I believe it's not the easiest one to get to in South Africa, so...

01:02:46Melissa Ellis: Should be in a club with scribbly gum, shouldn't it?

01:02:50Tony O'Connell: Yeah, pick up a few of those sort of ones. That Cannibal's Cave. I want to get Cannibal's Cave. Reading that on my parkrun profile, it just makes me giggle each time I see it.

01:03:00Melissa Ellis: They've got some good names over there in Sudafreak.

01:03:03Tony O'Connell: And a couple of notes that our real parkrun fairies have put into our notes. South Africa offers incredible scenery, wildlife and culture. Interestingly, it has three capitals. Pretoria for the administrative capital, Cape Town for the legislative and Bloemfontein for the judicial capital. So that's quite a diverse range of places to have as capital cities. A dollar Australian gets you about 11.6 rand and I'm very familiar with that because I buy all my running shorts from South Africa and I have to purchase them in rand. A dollar New Zealand is about 10.7 rand and one British pound is about 24 rand in rough figures. And roughly distance-wise, Melbourne to Johannesburg is about a 17-hour flight, Auckland's about 19 hours, and Heathrow's about 11 hours. So actually quite a bit closer for our friends in the UK to get across to it as well. Most travellers find South Africa less expensive than at home. And that'd be handy if you're planning a longer trip. And South Africans are known for their ethnic and cultural diversity. There's 11 official languages with a wide mixture of traditions, customs and religion. South Africa is safe. You just need to be cautious and follow the local advice.

Consolidated Club Report

01:04:22Melissa Ellis: thank you to the office fairies time for the consolidated club report for Saturday the 21st of june 2025 now we're only going to bring you the most recent consolidated club report because otherwise it's just going to be too much stats of a total of 799 members 540 took part on this date in 12 countries across 299 locations in the UK there are adventurers at 61 events There was 11 in South Africa, four in Italy, two in Finland, Ireland and the USA, and one in Austria, Germany, Malaysia and the Netherlands, locally we had adventurers at 55 events in Queensland 51 in the greater state 48 in New South Wales 22 in wa 12 in nearly said South Africa 12 in South Australia the act and the North Island each on seven Tasmania six, Northern Territory three, and the South Island two

the Frond

01:05:24Tony O'Connell: And now our largest international frond. We had two events this week with three adventurers. We had Alice Holt in the UK and there was William Boughton, Alexander Broughton-Lynn and Ian Broughton-Lynn. And in Thoulstone, also in the UK, we had Christopher Miles, Ellie Soper and Dan Horton.

01:05:45Melissa Ellis: Is Ellie Soper related to Natalie Soper?

01:05:48Tony O'Connell: I don't know. There's six degrees of separation throughout the parkrun world. So, yeah, I'm going to say yes quite clearly. Okay.

01:05:57Melissa Ellis: All righty. Now, the pilgrimage over the last two weeks. On the 14th of the 6th, we had Ian Brown and Cass Castleton. Ian Brown finished in position 1306 in a time of 34.12 seconds. It was Ian's first visit to Bushy. Cass Castleton finished in 1540th position in a time of 40 minutes 11. It was Cass' second visit to Bushy. And last week on the 21st of the 6th, there was nobody doing their pilgrimage. But on the Aussie largest fronds, Tony, we had a frond of eight at two events. One was Chermside in Kingsland, and there was Nicole Robinson, Lockie Miners, Simon Mackley, Belinda Cafe, Simone Edlund, Rhonda Whetton, Ellen and Rasheen Burrell. So I think that was an ambassador made up from memory.

01:07:00Tony O'Connell: There was a Queensland ambassador meet-up, and that looks very Queensland ambassador-ish.

01:07:06Melissa Ellis: And down in Pembroke, there was our before-mentioned streakers. There was Ryan Stoddart, Rhianna Williams, Matthew Stevens, Charles Gregory, Sarah Maas, Kaz Timbrell, Andrew Yeatman, and Amanda Lake. They're not all streakers, only a few silly streakers in that bunch. Now, remember, everybody, you can add the Adventurers Club as one of your five affiliations on your parkrun profile.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

01:07:32Tony O'Connell: Well, moving around the world, we're going to just quickly go through the range of launches that have been in the last two weeks. And we're going to start from the launches on the 14th of June. And the first one is Riverlution. This one's in New Zealand. It's only 3.8 kilometres as a stroll from Hagley parkrun in Christchurch on the South Island. Week 1 saw 443 finishers and 34 volunteers. Week 2 saw the number drop down to 216 finishers. Interestingly, Hagley has been a manageable 527 and 499 for those two weeks. So it'll be one to keep an eye on for a few weeks to see what the numbers do at those two parkruns. Because people quite often think, let's start another parkrun to try and ease the numbers. And traditionally, I don't think that works. I think all that does is bring in a whole new cohort of people into parkruns. But, yeah, Hagley has been down below the, you know, 600s and 700s that it was getting. That could be a function of the weather being a lot colder at the moment. But, as I said, it'll be interesting to keep an eye on it, you know, probably four or five weeks and just see how the numbers have balanced out and evened out.

01:08:42Melissa Ellis: I'm still watching the numbers at the Alice Springs Telegraph Station parkrun, so I can't be watching Riverlution as well. Not yet, anyway. Anyway, next we had Hays Farm in the USA. Welcome to the family, Huntsville, Alabama. This is the first parkrun in Alabama, home to Forrest Gump, if you didn't know. 90 finishes saluted the Timekeeper for the first week. Oh, that's very creatively written, Tony. Yeah, thank you, Mel.

01:09:12Tony O'Connell: And I actually went, stupid me brain, late typing show notes, I actually went to look where Forrest Gump came from. He came from Greenbow, Alabama, which is a completely fictional town, so it probably doesn't have a parkrun. Yeah.

01:09:29Melissa Ellis: Well, he would have been able to run it. He liked to run. Yep, apparently.

01:09:34Tony O'Connell: Now, moving on, we go to Riverside Park, Glenrothes in the UK. This is the sixth parkrun in the world whose name starts with Riverside. This one's located in Scotland. They had 189 finishes on week one and backed it up with 232 finishes on week two.

01:09:53Melissa Ellis: Now, moving over to last week, the 21st of June. Oh, Te Awa. Te Awa, is that how you say it, Toc, in New Zealand?

01:10:01Tony O'Connell: That's how I'm calling it, Mel. You said it well.

01:10:04Melissa Ellis: Just north of Hamilton on the North Island, Te Awa launched this week with 20 volunteers and 273 finishers. Not bad numbers.

01:10:12Tony O'Connell: Quite a reasonable-sized number, Mel, but as you said, it is just north of Hamilton, and Hamilton has a beautiful parkrun, and there's a couple in that area, so no doubt attracted a few people from the area. Then we had a string of parkruns in the UK all launched this week. We had Christchurch Park, which is located in the town of Ipswich in County Suffolk. A parkrun originally ran in the area named Ipswich in a different park. However, this was closed earlier this year, and I believe that might have been due to some damage with the amount of parkrunners running over the same area. so they put a hold on that. It's now been replaced by Christchurch Park, which is in a new park. I'm guessing the fact that there are other parkruns in the area and it was quite a reasonable size parkrun when it closed down, I believe back in January, probably helps explain 696 finishes this week and 46 volunteers. And if you look at the course description, it has a little one-liner in there that says, it's not flat.

01:11:13Melissa Ellis: All right. And we also had Jubilee Bedford in the UK. This is the third parkrun in the Bedford area and the fourth Jubilee parkrun globally. 286 finishes this week, along with 26 volunteers.

01:11:25Tony O'Connell: Well, still in the UK, we had Heritage Coastal Path, Easington. And wow, you've got to look at the pictures on this one on their Facebook page. It's very scenic. It's one of these ones that runs along part of the courses along the clifftop path along the eastern coast of the UK. It's in County Durham and it's in the northeast of England. The launch was attended by 344 finishers and 44 volunteers. And interestingly, when I dived a bit deep, According to the 2001 census, Easington had the UK's lowest population of Jedi Knights. Wow. And I'm not sure if those Jedi Knights are parkrunners.

01:12:07Melissa Ellis: All righty. And rounding us off, the Mount in the UK. The Mount is located in a closed facility in Bovingdon, Hertfordshire.

01:12:17Tony O'Connell: And that's all we've got to say about that. That's all we've got to say about that. That sounds like another Forrest Gump reference.

01:12:25Melissa Ellis: Oh, is it?

01:12:27Tony O'Connell: Well, I just found it very interesting that the speed of parkruns we were looking at, and we were talking about this back at the start of May, which doesn't seem like that far away ago, but it was seven or eight weeks, I guess now, six or seven weeks. And we're talking about how many parkruns that work in Australia. You know, we'd had a massive run of launches. At that stage, we'd had 17 launches, so more than one a week for the parkruns, first bit of the year and we haven't had a parkrun launch now in Australia for six weeks on the other side of things New Zealand's kicking goals over there they've had five launches so far which now we've had seven and you think there's a small number but they were coming off a base of about 55 parkruns to start with so that's that's about a 10% increase in parkruns in New Zealand this year alone so they're going great guns in New Zealand the last couple of weeks we've had a launch every week in New Zealand

01:13:22Melissa Ellis: They are having a lot of support, I believe, from parkrun Australasia or Oceania because aren't we, aren't they getting their park, their new launches funded? Wasn't it a deliberate push to increase in New Zealand?

01:13:38Tony O'Connell: They do have a deliberate push over there, Mel, to increase their numbers. And it's good to see them come on board. But, yeah, no, they definitely do have a bit of a, I guess, a little financial advantage over the Australian events.

01:13:51Melissa Ellis: Yeah, but that's good because we like to help our friends. Yep. Yeah.

Watching the numbers

01:13:56Melissa Ellis: Alrighty. Now, it's time for our ongoing segment that we call Watching the Numbers at Alice Springs Telegraph Station parkrun. And so we have two weeks to recap. So on the 14th, we had our second adventurer to Alice Springs Telegraph Station, and that was Margie Lewis. But on the 21st, there was no adventurers. Now, event eight had 79 finishers with 10 volunteers and event nine had 98 finishers with 11 volunteers. So there's been a little bit of a dip in the last couple of weeks that is possibly due to the prior weeks were boosted due to events in the town. Because as we told you in the last pod, we had those couple of big Larapinta Trail. One was a motor car and one was a foot race, I think. Anyway, things seem to have subsided. And we're up to event nine. So next time, that'll be the last report we have from Alice Springs Telegraph stations. So they've probably over the week, over the period now, we've maybe just over half of what they started with.

01:15:07Tony O'Connell: Yeah, and I guess if you look across the nine weeks, Mel, they're probably averaging somewhere around 120, 130 people. It'll be interesting to see how it settles down. And naturally, a lot of these events will have the bigger numbers as people get to... go out and see what the parkrun thing's all about I'm sort of hoping it'll follow a bit of the pattern where people go out they did their first parkrun that takes them a while to come back for the second then they come back a few weeks later do their third and then they're hooked and then they're back at parkrun all the time and they're buying all the merch and

01:15:44Melissa Ellis: And you know what? We're coming up to school holiday time, so there might be a lot of people escaping the cold on the eastern seaboard and heading inland for some warm weather. Assuming it's warm there. I don't know. I'm assuming it's warm there.

01:16:01Tony O'Connell: Not sure, Mel. Probably freezing cold and, yeah. Well, it is at night. The desert's cold at night, isn't it? I was actually talking to one of my friends today that did Alice Springs a couple of weeks ago. He's not an adventurer. He did Alice Springs parkrun and he's not even registered. So he was one of the unknowns. I had to explain to him about... he's done all these ones he's been on a trip so he's done Torrens and he's done Alice Springs and he's he's been on a trip up through the centre he's done all these different parkruns and he sort of hadn't really thought about registering oh my goodness he's going to regret that one day he will yeah now looking forward, TOC, what are you looking forward to Mel, I've just signed up for the parkrun Ambassadors Conference in South Australia. Each year, the ambassadors get a range of different conferences that we can choose to attend. You make your own way over and that, of course. But it's just a weekend. It's full of really like-minded people. And it's just great to catch up with people. So I'm going over there in July to Adelaide. And I'm really looking forward to catching up with Janet and drinking all the wine. Can you grab my puffer vest? We're actually not probably going to be far from there. I believe the event's probably going to be Belair, so it's pretty close.

01:17:21Melissa Ellis: Okay, all righty. Very good.

01:17:23Tony O'Connell: Mel, how about you?

01:17:26Melissa Ellis: Okay, so this isn't something I'm looking forward to, but this is my...

Podcast announcement — move to fortnightly episodes

01:17:29Melissa Ellis: I've got another monologue, Tony. So I've got a bit of an announcement about the pod, which involves a change to the frequency. Okay. It's hard to know how to start, so we'll begin with the reassurance that the pod is continuing. Hooray! Ripping off the band-aid, we are cutting back to a fortnightly episode. This may mean that over the next few months, we will need to play around with our established format. as we work out the best way for our favourite segments to still fit. Also, I want to explain that the changes come from my need to reduce my pod responsibilities and my fabulous co-hosts have been wonderfully supportive. Since I took over with Ollie from Mel Erbacher in January 2021, my life has gone through a series of changes. And I'm sure I've given you a small insight into those. They have included a marriage breakdown, losing two of my beautiful chihuahuas, my daughter's autism diagnosis, a move from part-time to full-time work, and more recently, a new relationship. As I've worked to keep the podcast engaging and relevant, I've lent heavily on those around me. Formerly, Ollie, Sam and the informant, and more recently, TOC, Simon, Sarah and Reginald, the equal opportunity employee and the office fairy. They have been beyond supportive and understanding, especially as my own neurodiversity means I am a control freak, perfectionist and a full on personality who likes everything to be done yesterday. Fortunately, I have had the blessing to find these beautiful humans who care for and understand me and I will say put up with me in the nicest possible way. They are dear friends. So although I've done my best to soldier on, more recent job searching and interviews has pushed me into a corner with my mental load. and forced me to this decision with the pod frequency. Because of all my before-mentioned traits, I need some quiet time for my brain, and this has felt like the perfect solution. This change could be temporary or permanent for as long as at least I am the sole editor of the pod. Oh, and I'm an oversharer. So we continue on for now on every two weeks with TOC and I rotating with Sarah and Simon, depending on the individual's availability. Thank you to you, all our amazing listeners who engage with us every week and share stories and photos and achievements. Without you, we honestly could not continue. And that's it, TOC. That's my monologue.

01:19:57Tony O'Connell: That's it, Mel. And I think it's going to be a good change. I think it has been a fair bit of... Work involved, I don't think people understand how much work goes on in the background, preparing for a pod, and particularly in the editing. And you've taken it upon yourself to do all that editing, and we're really grateful for that. But we understand that it is a fair load to do all that every week. And life has to fit around parkrun. And it's something that we say regularly, not just about the podcast, but about parkrun in general, is life fits around parkrun. I've stepped back from my original ambassador in the past because life wasn't working around it. And I think it's a good change. I'm really glad that you've recognised that You need to do this for you and for your life. And yeah, I'm looking forward to the change.

01:20:49Melissa Ellis: Thank you. But it's onwards and upwards. And yeah, we aren't going anywhere and we will continue. But anyway, that's enough of that. It's time now to talk about next parkrun Day, TOC. So let's just swap the order on that thingamajig and you tell me where you're going to be.

Sign-off

01:21:09Tony O'Connell: Now, I have a social commitment on Friday night that only popped up on the weekend that could go late into the night. And I have another one on Saturday night. And so I'm going to stay fairly close to home. I think it probably won't be in the lock. It'll be travelling somewhere onto a gravel surface to try and lighten the load on my legs so that it's not concrete for the whole five kilometres. But yeah, haven't decided at this point. Maybe have a look at the Friday post if you listen to the pod before Friday. How about you, Mel? What's your plans?

01:21:43Melissa Ellis: Well, Tony, surprise, surprise. I am going to get into my little Jiminy and I am going to drive about eight hours west to South Australia.

01:21:53Tony O'Connell: You're not taking Harriet with you, are you?

01:21:55Unidentified speaker: No.

01:21:57Melissa Ellis: He's welcome. I wouldn't mind a co-driver. No, I am heading to Myponga Reservoir with Sam Schroder. So I am very much looking forward to my catch-up.

01:22:08Tony O'Connell: That's going to be awesome, Mel. Yeah, good little... And Myponga, where exactly in South Australia is that?

01:22:14Melissa Ellis: I don't know.

01:22:16Tony O'Connell: Somewhere in South Australia, quite clearly.

01:22:17Melissa Ellis: That's a Friday problem, Mel.

01:22:21Tony O'Connell: I am not overly familiar with that one, and I've just quickly Googled it. It's south of Aldinga Beach, so it's down on the way to K.I. So it's one of the southern ones in the sort of metro area.

01:22:34Melissa Ellis: It's probably my NENDY, to be fair. It would be my NENDY. Yeah, there's nothing closer if I travel north, and as we both know, if I go south, I've got to cross the seas. So... That's it? Yep. Okay, so next fortnight, everybody, you are going to hear from Sarah and Simon. Thank you for joining me again, TOC.

01:22:58Tony O'Connell: It's my pleasure, Mel. Thank you once again. And I always enjoy our chats before we record.

01:23:04Melissa Ellis: I do too. And everybody, as always, you can contact us via the parkrun adventurers on Facebook or our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. That's it for another fortnight. We'll see you all next fortnight for more adventures.