Episode 429 - It's Question Time

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

Welcome

00:00:23Sarah Jefferson: Welcome to episode 429 of the parkrun adventurers podcast, a podcast about life if your life is all about parkrun. My name is Sarah Jefferson and I'm coming to you from Noongar Boodja, Noongar Country. [Noongar: "Noongar country / Noongar land"]

00:00:37Simon Mackley: And I'm on Quandamooka Country. I'm Simon Mackley. It's been six weeks since we last heard from you, Sarah. How are you doing?

00:00:45Sarah Jefferson: Six weeks. I can't believe it's been six weeks. That's ridiculous. Um, I have been very busy here. Time is going by and I have absolutely no concept of it at the moment. But we did successfully get away on our first family holiday or family of three holiday. Yay. Up to the Northern Territory. And I guess it's ridiculous as to how much stuff you need to take for a six kilo baby. Yeah. But our time up in the Northern Territory was amazing and I think it might be one of my new favourite places in Australia to visit, Simon. Big call, I know, but I think it's a hidden gem. So we did venture to Katherine, as you heard on the pod a few weeks ago, and there is so much to do in this area. I had absolutely no idea. I'd heard a lot about Kakadu. I guess being the UNESCO area. But I actually really rate Katherine and the surrounds almost higher than Kakadu, I think. So I guess there's always something to see in the Northern Territory. We saw lots of saltwater crocodiles, lots of freshwater crocodiles, lots of termite mounds and wildlife. But back to reality now. Winter's hit the West Side and we're finally getting some rains, which is nice because I guess we're in some desperate need of rain. But, yeah, what about you? How have you been?

00:02:17Simon Mackley: Doing really well, thank you. It's been a beautiful day here in Queensland. It's currently 21 degrees. And, yeah, Jasper and I have been out for a walk and taken full advantage of the beautiful day after we had a very windy start to last week on the east coast.

00:02:37Sarah Jefferson: Nice. Good to hear. Now full disclosure to the listeners this week that it is a little lighter outside than when we regularly record. And that isn't because we've switched hemispheres and we're recording from the Northern Hemisphere. But we are actually recording on Sunday in the middle of the day this week. So we're having a Sunday fun day here recording the pod. So I've been to Yin Yoga this morning. And you've opted for something a little bit more yang this morning, right, Simon?

00:03:10Simon Mackley: Yeah, I think so, yeah. I've done a couple of Ks. Yeah, I had a casual long run, dog walk. But yeah, I think we probably should jump into it. Where were you on the Saturday just gone?

00:03:25Sarah Jefferson: So on Saturday the 5th of July, I ventured approximately 45 minutes from home to Aveley parkrun. This was only my third visit to this parkrun, with the last time being on the 26th of February, 2019. So before COVID, which seems absolutely ridiculous, really. And that's right, it is the home of the Bravoses. So it was their 597th event and it was actually Aveley's 12th birthday. So we had some friends who live in the area, so took the opportunity to do a parkrun together. And then my friend's two young kids and her husband met us afterwards. I chose to walk the morning with Hadley in the carrier as Matt hasn't run for a few weeks but has let me do so. Full disclosure here again, we missed the briefing completely because we left the house a little bit later than planned. We are going through a sleep regression at the moment and he's not friendly. And then we had a nappy to change when we arrived. So welcome to the reality. But we did get there about 7.59, so we actually weren't late, right? As I mentioned, we walked, yeah, I walked the course, catching up with a friend and one third of the Bravos clan. Chloe joined for the walk and talk, which was lovely. There were 121 finishers on the day, supported by 10 volunteers. There was cake at the finish line, as well as plenty of happy birthday streamers. So I don't think this course has actually been described previously on the pod. I thought I'd just give a quick description. So it starts at Central Park right by the Adventure Park. You do a lap of the park around the large lake and then it goes into another park with a few left and right turns and you do that twice. So the Adventure Park there is actually epic. It's the kind of park you see and wish that you were a child again. I think I did actually go on the slide about five times, though. So I did have a little play on the park, I guess you could say. There's lots of slides, tunnels, and there's a big flying box. Then we headed for brunch. Chloe grabbed a coffee and headed home. But, yeah, it was a lovely morning. The sun was shining and it wasn't too cold at all.

00:05:53Simon Mackley: You certainly sound like you were overdue for a return visit to Aveley.

00:05:57Sarah Jefferson: I know, it's crazy that it's been so long. I don't know where time goes these days.

00:06:02Simon Mackley: It's post-COVID.

00:06:03Sarah Jefferson: Post-COVID, different world, yes. But anyway, what have you been up to since you've been on the pod, Simon?

00:06:10Simon Mackley: So since I was last on the pod, I've been to Central Lakes in Caboolture. I've been to Chermside with the Queensland Ambassador Conference, as was noted on the last pod, as we had a front. And I went to Logan River. Coincidentally, it was their birthday, plus Scribbly Gums and Sirromet. So those last three were strategically to increase my P index. I had planned to hit eight this year, but it looks like I might actually hit nine if I keep going back to Logan River.

00:06:42Sarah Jefferson: Wow, that's awesome. It's great when you accidentally overachieve, Simon, isn't it?

00:06:46Simon Mackley: It is.

00:06:48Sarah Jefferson: So let's see if you can get there. How many more times would you need to head to Logan River then?

00:06:54Simon Mackley: So for Logan River, I'd have to do four more. But I do have a couple that are a bit closer to achieving. So if I did three more at either Kirra or Yarrabilba, that would take me up to the nine. But neither of those are very close geographically to me. So I will probably just keep hitting Logan River because it's easy, especially with the soccer season still going on.

00:07:21Sarah Jefferson: Well, I guess you've got six months of the year left, so that's certainly achievable.

00:07:24[crosstalk]

00:07:25Simon Mackley: Yeah, you're right. Six months, I should be able to achieve it. You're right, yes. Definitely. But I'd like to do some adventuring as well once the soccer season's over. So if anyone was at Central Lakes yesterday in Caboolture, You might have seen me, you saw me trying to look my best after Jasper decided he was going to vomit in the car on the second last roundabout before we arrived. Luckily, I was there 30 minutes early as I could then spend 20 minutes trying to clean it up before the closing the car up for an hour to parkrun with him and then spending another 10 minutes after it was all done. He was totally fine on the run slash walk and slept all the way home. So he was obviously a little bit anxious in the car. So, yeah, that was my fun for the morning. But hopefully I put on my best face.

00:08:19Sarah Jefferson: So Jasper's your dog, right? Yes, Jasper.

00:08:22Simon Mackley: Jasper is my dog, correct.

00:08:25Sarah Jefferson: Yes. So were you running late or is this crazy driving gave your dog motion sickness? Is that what you're saying?

00:08:33Simon Mackley: It was neither. Like I said, I was there half an hour early, so it wasn't crazy driving. Admittedly, going into it, there were a few roundabouts, and I think that that was probably what set him over the top. He sat up the entire way there, which was like an hour and five minutes. So, yeah, that was a bit of fun. I just didn't like the signs, obviously.

00:08:58Sarah Jefferson: Oh, I've never heard of anyone making their dog car sick on the way to parkrun. Maybe he was so overexcited or, I don't know, nervous? Maybe. I haven't been a passenger in your car, so I can't really comment on the driving.

00:09:12Simon Mackley: I think he was probably nervous. He probably thought he was going to the pet hotel or something like that. Oh, poor Jasper. Because having to hop in the car in the darkness, he probably thought, this is a bit strange. Where's Dad taking me?

00:09:26Sarah Jefferson: Oh, well, I hope he's feeling better now.

00:09:28Simon Mackley: Oh, totally. As soon as that happened, he was fine. So, yeah, like I don't want any complaints about dog cruelty and that sort of thing because he was totally fine once he'd done that.

00:09:41Sarah Jefferson: Yeah. Oh, what a morning.

00:09:44Simon Mackley: Moving swiftly on. Let's have enough of that. So last episode, TOC read out some stats on South Africa from Reginald, and we've had a response from Johan who said, hello from Bloemfontein, the judicial capital of South Africa. Just a correction, South African now has 12 official languages. South African Sign Language, or SASL, was officially recognised as the 12th official language of South Africa on July 19, 2023. And I want to say thanks for picking that up, Johan. So I wrote those stats after Reginald has spoken. And even when I went back to my source, I found there was another three sources all saying that it was only 11. It wasn't until I specifically hit on a South African government website that I saw there was 12, and that SASL had been added to the constitution since the originals were added in 1996. I've since found out that even the unofficial languages, which I believe there's 35, are protected by the South African constitution. So that was very interesting. It made me dive down in the rabbit hole. So thanks for picking me up on that, Johan.

00:11:06Sarah Jefferson: Very interesting. Yeah, thanks, Johan. All right. So the park where that I was at on the weekend, Simon, there were some little card or boxes of cards floating around. And I did see this pop up in Dazza's as well. but there are other events. So the Medibank Family Roast Cards. Did you manage to see those on the weekend, Simon?

00:11:29Simon Mackley: I haven't seen them, no.

00:11:30Sarah Jefferson: So on Saturday, I got my hands on a set of the Family Roast Cards. As I mentioned, they are sponsored by Medibank. And on the back, it says, this little pack of cards is designed to do something big Get families connecting and talking full of questions you've always wanted to know the answer to. So get around the dinner table, Australia. It's question time. There's a QR code on there and it says best played with people aged 16 and over. So I had a little look. I scanned the QR code and family roast day supposedly is on in a fortnight's time, the 20th of July. And there's an online option to kind of play. But I was thinking, should I get out the cards and have a little bit of a read? See what's in the box?

00:12:19Simon Mackley: Yeah, open some up and let's have some questions. I hope they're not too curly.

00:12:24Sarah Jefferson: Let's hope. All right. So I can see they're actually split into sweet, hearty. And then there's a couple of action cards that just say, take a break and get some fresh air, have a stretch and grab a drink of water. Okay. So are you happy if I ask you a question?

00:12:45Simon Mackley: Yeah.

00:12:47Sarah Jefferson: Okay. So it says, tell me about a time when you were most proud of me. So let's say, tell me about a time when you were most proud of yourself, I guess.

00:12:56Simon Mackley: Gosh, this sounds like a job interview question.

00:12:59Sarah Jefferson: I feel like it should be like... online dating questions wow yes not that I'm online dating but me either so what was the question again a time when I'm most proud of myself when you're most proud of yourself and I guess this is why they're there right because we're we don't often I guess reflect look at positive things about ourselves um yeah we'll talk about some of these questions oh I don't know um

00:13:29Simon Mackley: Okay, so that's all right. Having a 13-year-old in the house, sometimes holding my tongue would be something I'm very proud of myself. I'm not very good at doing it, but when I do, yeah, I'm pretty proud of myself.

00:13:43Sarah Jefferson: I could imagine that would be very difficult.

00:13:46Simon Mackley: Yeah. What about you?

00:13:49Sarah Jefferson: When have I been most proud of myself? You're right, it is tricky. It's easier asking the questions.

00:13:54Simon Mackley: Yeah.

00:13:55Sarah Jefferson: I guess parenthood. Like, I knew... Like, being a parent, I've heard it's hard. I could imagine it's hard. It's so, so hard. So sometimes just leaving the house and, you know, getting things together, getting to park ride, you know, is really tricky some mornings. But, yeah, I guess the whole parent thing has been, yeah, huge for me.

00:14:23Simon Mackley: Yeah, no, you should be proud of yourself for that.

00:14:25Sarah Jefferson: Yeah, thank you. Yeah. The sweet cards, how did someone in your family bring you joy recently?

00:14:33Simon Mackley: Okay.

00:14:35Sarah Jefferson: Not cleaning up vomit.

00:14:37Simon Mackley: Yeah, that was not joyful.

00:14:42Unidentified speaker: Gosh.

00:14:43Sarah Jefferson: I guess everyone can be thinking at home while we buy Simon some time about something. Yeah, someone that brought him joy.

00:14:52Simon Mackley: That doesn't buy me any time. Oh, I know. I know. Yeah. So we set Jackson a little bit of a challenge before school started at the beginning of the year. He wanted to stretch himself and so we set him a target for his first semester results and he hit the target and he actually went one better than he thought he was going to. So That, yeah, that was a big joy for us as a family because we know that he'd put in so much more work this year than he had last year. So, yeah, that would be it. Fantastic. What about you? Throw it back at you.

00:15:36Sarah Jefferson: Okay. I guess at the moment, as I said, we're waking kind of five or six times a night. It's pretty rough going at the moment. But one thing when I do get up and Hadley sees me with my little light, she's like, oh, my goodness, and starts getting so excited. So it's like, yay, mummy's coming to get me. So that's kind of nice because as much as I really want to keep sleeping, it is really nice to be, yay, the life source is coming. Yeah, so that's something that brings me joy, makes me smile when I'm really tired.

00:16:05Simon Mackley: That is awesome.

00:16:07Sarah Jefferson: All right. So I might leave the light category, but, yeah, I guess, yeah, that's a great initiative, yeah, that the Medibank, I guess, are getting involved in. getting people to open up and chat. As we've discovered, it's not that easy, is it?

00:16:24Simon Mackley: No, it's not that easy. Yeah, like I've actually opened it up on my phone as well. So as you said, there's a website. It does ask a few questions to set it up. It's probably easier with the cards. But, yeah, if anyone doesn't get their hands on the cards, go and give Family Roast a try on the website. We might jump into New Zealand stats. What do you think? Sounds good. So... As the New Zealand stats actually don't drop until Monday normally, I'm going to give you the New Zealand stats from the 28th of June. So in New Zealand, there were 56 parkruns with 6,374 parkrunners and almost 1,000 volunteers, plus any pending results. Heavy rain and other wild weather led to a number of cancellations and low attendances across New Zealand. It's also the first weekend of school holidays. The biggest New Zealand parkrun, no surprise, was Hagley, but it was only 431. And the smallest was South End Reserve parkrun with only 11.

00:17:27Sarah Jefferson: Okay, so as Aussie stats from this week, there were 501 events in Australia. There were 59,690 runners and or walkers supported by 5,941 volunteers. The smallest parkrun yet again was Mount Beauty with six parkrunners. And you guessed it, the largest was yet again Albert Melbourne with 710 participants.

00:17:55[background music]

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:17:57Sarah Jefferson: Okay, this week we have three roving reports for you to enjoy. So we'll throw to those now.

Roving report Lyndell Murray — Hamilton Island parkrun

00:18:10Lyndell Murray: G'day parkrun adventurers, it's Lyndell and today I have ventured a little bit further from home. I'm up in far north Queensland or central Queensland or somewhere, I don't know, off the coast of Queensland at Hamilton Island parkrun. I've just done it. It's a bit of a wet morning here but I've managed to track down the original Event Director here and also the Event Director of some of the other events that happen on this island. Steve, how are you today?

00:18:36Steve: yeah you like you say it's a bit of a damp start today but it's supposed to be nice tomorrow for our Great Whitehaven Beach Run but yeah it's always nice to tick off another parkrun on Hamilton Island for sure now Hamilton Island has been running for a little while how long has it been going for how did you go about getting it set up yeah I moved to the island in 2007 and I was a runner and I was just you know aware of parkrun. I had not long been in Australia, but I reached out to Tim from parkrun Australia at the time and we touched base and we were able to bring Hamilton Island parkrun to fruition, which was really exciting. So yeah, we've been going, I think probably since 2009.

00:19:16Lyndell Murray: Yep, it's a little while.

00:19:17Steve: Yeah, a little while. So we've had a few changes in the course over that time just because of building works and cyclones. We actually used to run in the marina and then one of the cyclones washed away part of our course. So we relocated over to the resort side and now we use beautiful Cats Eye Beach as part of the run.

00:19:34Lyndell Murray: Yeah, and it is a beautiful location here. Along the beach, a bit of beach running, a bit on the paths through the resort. So a bit of varied terrain and some beautiful views.

00:19:43Steve: Yeah, I mean, I think that's the one thing about Hamilton Island. You want to showcase all of its beauty. So we get to run through the resort. So you get to appreciate all the resort facilities. There's a little bit of a grass oval. And so it's a little bit of cross-country skills. And then we're on the beach, which is obviously quintessential Hamilton Island.

00:20:00Lyndell Murray: As are the cockatoos, which you might be able to hear in the background, listeners. Lots of bird life and lots of native wildlife here. There's lots of wallabies, all sorts of things here on Hamilton Island.

00:20:10Steve: Yeah, I mean, again, especially for a lot of our international guests, so if you are listening and you're thinking of adventuring to Australia, yeah, you'll see some of the wildlife literally just lazing around on the course. And, yes, as you can hear, lots of friendly cockatoos.

00:20:24Lyndell Murray: Now, a lot of the parkrunners today are here for the Whitehaven Beach Run tomorrow. So, again, adventurers, if there's one to put in your calendar to have a look, if you're coming to Hamilton Island, there's a few events up here that run, isn't there, for running events?

00:20:40Steve: Yeah, so Hamilton Island has a series called the Endurance Series. So they actually have a trail run here in early May, which is 24 kilometres, but also there's the three-person relay. So you can make a weekend of running and come here, do parkrun on Saturday, do the race on Sunday, and then just enjoy the rest of what's a long weekend in Queensland. We've got a great Whitehaven beach run. And then in November, we actually have an ocean swim and triathlon weekend. So we've got a sprint distance triathlon, which actually rides on the airport runway. So that's something totally unique as well.

00:21:09Lyndell Murray: That is very unique. Just a warning. I hear that that 24K event is slated as the hilly half. So hilly, true. Half marathon, not so true. It's a bit longer.

00:21:20Steve: That's right. So, well, to be honest, when I first started the event many years ago, we called it the Hamilton Island hilly half. And there is truth in the advertising. It's definitely hilly. And it actually was under distance for many years. And then over time, we've developed the trail network in here. And so rather than miss out on some of the amazing views, we've just made the hilly half with an asterisk and it's now out to 24 Ks.

00:21:42Lyndell Murray: I have to say, riding your bike on the airway, that sounds pretty cool. I might have to dust off the old treadle.

00:21:48Steve: Yeah, and again, it's just one of those things that you don't get an opportunity to do very often, and we're very privileged to do that. It's actually quite a fun bike course. We've got a technical section with lots of twists and turns through the resort, and there's a couple of hills, of course, on Hamilton Island, and then obviously to ride on the airport runway is just really special. Brilliant, brilliant.

00:22:07Lyndell Murray: Alrighty, now I'm going to switch to you, Steve. You're a bit of a parkrun adventurer too, I hear. Tell us about your journey with parkrun. Where has it taken you? What are some of the highlights? Have you got a top three parkruns that you'd like to share with us?

00:22:22Steve: Yeah, I mean, I think for me, actually when I was a teenager, I grew up on the central coast of New South Wales and there was an event every Wednesday night called 6Ks at 6 o'clock every Wednesday night. And when I saw parkrun come to Australia, I was kind of like, oh, it's no big deal. It's just kind of like 6 at 6, um but obviously it's uh it's like a cult um and you do get sucked in and so I was very supportive of the concept uh and so that's why I was so keen to bring it here to Hamilton Island uh and then obviously um with my work um I travel a lot um so I get opportunities to go so the first thing I do whenever I'm going somewhere is look up if there's a parkrun And then I got caught up in, like, the 5K app, and then obviously I was trying to get Alphabeteer and all those sorts of different clubs. So chipping away at different challenges. And, again, I'm just sort of an active person. And at parkrun, you get to meet some amazing people, and everybody has a story. So if you just get caught running with somebody, it's always nice to meet somebody new and share your running passion. And, yeah, I think I'm up to... 56 different locations. I'm over 300 parkruns. Um, I've run, um, parkruns in Germany, in Canada, um, and, um, New Zealand and obviously what's in Australia. So yeah, it's definitely something I would like to continue to add to the list with for sure. Uh, top three, uh, I would, uh, have to say Queenstown in New Zealand. It's just such a beautiful part of the world, um, running through the Botanic Gardens there. Um, so that's really nice. Um, I ran in Whistler in Canada, which is not on all the time because of the season and because of the bears. So I think that's probably just like that was really cool because I know that's not something that everybody can do all the time. And then, oh, I can't go past Hamilton Island. You know, it's always just my baby, you know, like there's that connection here. And it's just a wonderful part of the world, North Queensland. So, yeah, come along.

00:24:11Lyndell Murray: Brilliant. Bears. And here I am worried about the birds swooping in on Hamilton Island. Gee, Lyndell.

00:24:18Steve: Yeah, well, they actually had like a core flute cutout. That's what we do with our photo frames of a bear with some cubs at its feet. And it just had a warning and what to do if you did see them. And it was kind of like one of those things you kind of want to see it, but you don't want to see it. But so I did see bears in the distance while I was in that area, but not on parkrun Morning. And part of me was relieved, but it would have been kind of cool to take that off. But I got a photo with the core flute cutout.

00:24:46Lyndell Murray: Yes. Brilliant. Well, thank you, Steve. Thank you for talking to me today and sharing some of your story. Thank you for everything that you've done for parkrun, especially here on Hamilton Island. Before we wrap up, can you just remind me, we talked about it before we jumped on, I'd like to just acknowledge the traditional owners here on Hamilton Island. Can you remind me who that is?

00:25:07Steve: Yeah, so the traditional owners are the Ngaro tribe. And so for those that don't know, the Whitsundays were formed when the sea level rose. So these are essentially mountaintops. So the Ngaro people used to live in the area and they had to adapt to life changing when the sea level rose. And so there are evidence of Aboriginal life on Whitsunday Island. There's some rock paintings and there's some fish traps on Hamilton Island as well. So it is a place where you can come and experience the Indigenous culture.

00:25:35Lyndell Murray: Fantastic. Thank you so much, Steve. See you tomorrow for the Whitehaven Run. Yeah, let's get it on.

Roving report Johan Duvenhage — Windhoek parkrun

00:25:42Johan Duvenhage: Good morning, adventurers. It's Johan, and I'm reporting today from Windhoek in the beautiful Namibia. Strange as it may seem, I've bumped into three Australians today, and I've managed to catch two of them here. The other lady from Canberra escaped us, but I've got Linda Coffey and Darren Young with me all the way from Tasmania. Good morning.

00:26:05Darren Young: How are you, Johan? Good morning.

00:26:07Johan Duvenhage: Thanks a lot. You guys have been doing Namibian safari?

00:26:13Darren Young: No, we've just been touring around, having a look at the place, sort of based around the parkruns, of course. As we met you last week at Walvis Bay. Oh, no. Swakopmund. Swakopmund. That's right. We were supposed to do Walvis Bay, and they cancelled on us, so we had to... travel up to Swakopmund. I hope I said that right. That's good.

00:26:25[crosstalk]

00:26:37Unidentified speaker: What a lovely lady.

00:26:39Darren Young: Isabe gave us a lift. She was awesome, so I was really happy with that. Yeah, but just finding it very nice. You know, weather's nice. Courses are a bit hard, but weather's the night.

00:26:40[crosstalk]

00:26:53Johan Duvenhage: Okay, the courses are a bit hard. I think the one big difference, of course, from today in Windhoek to Swakopmund last week is the altitude may be a little bit higher.

00:27:02Darren Young: But that's what everyone's been basically saying here. And I just asked the guy how high it is. It's, I think, 1,600, which is as high as our highest mountain back home.

00:27:13Johan Duvenhage: Yeah, so Windhoek is actually the fifth highest parkrun in the world.

00:27:17Unidentified speaker: Oh, really? Wow. No wonder I was short of breath at the finish.

00:27:18[crosstalk]

00:27:21Johan Duvenhage: No wonder we were struggling. So you've had a good spread of parkruns doing Swakopmund and Windhoek. So if you had the coast and the bushveld sort of. So how did you find the two parkruns compared to each other?

00:27:36Unidentified speaker: Totally different. Swakopmund was more on a paved course, wasn't it?

00:27:42Darren Young: And this one... Breezy, windy, very windy.

00:27:46Unidentified speaker: This one was a little bit cooler in the morning. But yeah, around the golf course it was a bit of sand. I don't like running in the sand very much.

00:27:56Darren Young: We had to get the compass out on the way back just to try and find where the arrows were going.

00:28:02Johan Duvenhage: I made a little booboo right at the end as well and I ended up on the wrong side of the fairway, but I managed to recover that. So, yeah, the other interesting thing of this course is, of course, we're running next to one of the airports and aircraft taking off. You didn't even see the aircraft, Darren.

00:28:16[crosstalk]

00:28:18Unidentified speaker: I did. I had a plane go over.

00:28:20Darren Young: Head down, looking for the holes and the rocks and... Whatever else, we're going to run over.

00:28:26Johan Duvenhage: So Darren was quite quick today. He came first, I think.

00:28:30Darren Young: I think I snuck in there. As you said earlier, the Canberra lady, she was actually chasing me. And I'm thinking, oh, no. I was hoping to just cruise back after turning. But she was happy to try to chase. So it was certainly on on the way back.

00:28:48Johan Duvenhage: So let's get back to your holiday in Namibia. What was your two highlights in Namibia so far?

00:28:53Darren Young: Highlights everywhere.

00:28:54Unidentified speaker: I think kayaking with the seals.

00:28:56[crosstalk]

00:28:57Darren Young: That was really awesome in Walvis Bay.

00:29:03Unidentified speaker: And June yesterday or a couple of days ago. Climbing Big Daddy a couple of days ago in the Dead Sea. Dead splay, is it?

00:29:09[crosstalk]

00:29:10Darren Young: Dead splay. Struggle with all the words here, sorry.

00:29:13Unidentified speaker: Oh, the words are hard for us.

00:29:15Darren Young: We really struggle with the words, but we try.

00:29:18Unidentified speaker: That'd probably be the two highlights, but there's so, so, so many more. Compton, Namibia, it's a lovely country, lovely people. Yeah.

00:29:26Darren Young: Basically, people are nice. People are friendly all the time. Oh, my God. Food is crazy. Oh, my God, I've had so much food. I reckon I'm about five or ten kilos over normal weight. But anyway, we'll get it off.

00:29:30[crosstalk]

00:29:38Johan Duvenhage: So how long are you still here for?

00:29:41Darren Young: In Windhoek. In Windhoek for another three days, I think. And then we're off to Eswatini.

00:29:48Unidentified speaker: We'll do another parkrun over there.

00:29:48[crosstalk]

00:29:50Darren Young: Fantastic. Which one are you planning to do? Oh, here we go. Is it Mbabane? Mbabane. Mbabane. There you go. We love these words here. Or Manzini is the other one. Yeah, we're going to Mbabane. Mbabane.

00:30:02Johan Duvenhage: Okay, right. Thank you very much for talking to me. All the best with the rest of your holiday. And it was very nice meeting you. Thank you.

00:30:08[crosstalk]

00:30:08Darren Young: And we hope to see you again in Namibia. Hope so.

00:30:12Johan Duvenhage: Windhoek parkrun is one of three parkruns currently operating in Namibia and is located at the Country Club Golf Course. Windhoek is the largest city in the country with about half a million inhabitants and lies in the geographic centre of the country on the Khomas Highlands with an altitude of about 1700 metres. Apart from having a parkrun, the city is the commercial, political and cultural hub of the country. The out-and-back course traverses between the greens on largely sand paths between natural landscaping that gives you a real feel of the bushveld. An interesting feature is that part of the course follows along the landing strips of the Eros local airport and aircraft come and go above your head. Until next time, happy adventuring.

Roving report Calum Burrell — Dolgellau parkrun

00:30:54Calum Burrell: Okay, so we're in the middle of June, it's slightly overcast. We're in the middle of Wales at Dolgellau. It is golden. Dolgellau parkrun, and sorry, I haven't even asked your name, sorry. My name's Neil. Neil, we've got Neil, the Run Director for today's parkrun, and just describe the route at Dolgellau for us, please.

00:31:14Neil: It's a nice flat course that goes along the side of the estuary towards Barmouth. It's along an old railway track line called the Mawddach Trail. And it's an out and back twice over a small footbridge, turn around point, back and then do it all again.

00:31:31Calum Burrell: Yeah, we were last here nine years ago in your early days. So, but yeah, I'm not as fast as I was back then. But still, it was nice to be able to do that. We're here for the Barmouth 10K. So we had a lot of visitors here for that today, I think.

00:31:45Neil: We have, yes. There's a few people who are doing both and some people are going from here to support other runners who are doing the Barmouth.

00:31:50Calum Burrell: Yeah. And literally, as soon as I started recording, the rain's actually literally started. So I seem to have cursed things by doing a recording just as the rain has started. But we have actually, the Tail Walkers are literally just coming in and just as it started to rain. So tell us about your parkrun story. How long have you been run directing and how long have you been parkrunning? This is my second day as Run Director. Really? Wow. I did my first one last week.

00:32:11Neil: Oh, wow. Well done. And how long have you been a parkrunner? Well, I did my first ever parkrun in Iraq in a military station out there back in 2008.

00:32:24Calum Burrell: All right, you did Camp Bastion. Wow. Oh, okay. How many of those did you do? 20-odd. Oh, wow. Okay. Fab. Okay. And then are you a local? I take it you live in the area, do you?

00:32:35Neil: I moved here two and a half years ago. Right, okay. From Lincolnshire.

00:32:39Calum Burrell: Yeah, I think, wow, okay. So you've done some in, yeah, let's move to, just getting some shelter because literally the heavens have literally just opened as we've tried to record. So you've done some in Lincolnshire as well, have you? Yes, I used to do them in three different locations around Lincolnshire. I think we're going to have to abort this recording because literally heavens have opened. Just a quick one. What are your top three parkruns? I thoroughly enjoyed Sydney in Australia. Oh, which one? Oh, good question. Can't remember.

00:33:07Neil: I also volunteered at five different ones in New Zealand as well. Oh, fantastic. On that side. But I really enjoyed Camp Bastion. because it's just something completely different.

00:33:15[crosstalk]

00:33:16Calum Burrell: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely, yeah, brilliant. Well, thank you, Richard. It's Richard, isn't it? Sorry, Neil, where have I got Richard from? I don't know, you're making it up. Thank you, Neil. Thank you for doing a report on the fly, and good luck with the rest of the day. Thank you today. No problem. Okay, so we've now done the Barmouth 10k. Barmouth is on the west coast of Wales and is 10 miles west of Dalgethly. Today's parkrun was event 406 at Dalgethly. and there was 91 participants. For those that were interested, I did look up Neil's results, and it was Pirrama parkrun that he did at Sydney. Also, in terms of the parkruns that he volunteered at in New Zealand, those that were interested, Owairaka, Paranga, Western Springs and Whangarei. So yeah he did four different volunteers at each of those events so a well-travelled parkrunner. So yeah again many thanks to Neil and apologies for getting his name wrong during that and yeah thank you for all the volunteers at Dol Gheffi parkrun today. Calum over and out.

00:34:35[background music]

00:34:50Simon Mackley: Okay, we're back from the roving reports. We actually had seven different roving reports coming to our emails over the last fortnight, but we've shared three of them and we'll keep the others for when we can share them at a later time. So first of all, we heard from Lyndell, who was coming to us from Hamilton Island. We heard from Johan from Windhoek. And we heard from Calum in Wales and very interesting discussion about the Camp Bastion parkrun in Iraq, which no longer exists.

00:35:21Sarah Jefferson: Very interesting.

Dazza's

00:35:23Sarah Jefferson: Okay, shall we move into Dazza's?

00:35:26Simon Mackley: We should.

00:35:27Sarah Jefferson: We have two weeks of Dazza's that we have looked at. We've decided to choose five comments from each of the last two weeks' Dazza's posts. So two weeks ago, Dazza said, June is Pet Working Month. It's a time to celebrate how our pets bring us together. Maybe we were chased by a dog this morning. Maybe we were dragged around by a dog. Or maybe you thought of your pet still cozy in bed as you got up for parkrun. However you went this morning, come on into Dazza's and tell us about it. Pets welcome. I think Jasper certainly got this memo, even though it was a week ahead. Yeah, exactly. Maybe he got the inspiration.

00:36:12Simon Mackley: First of all, we heard from Leanne Evans, who was at Kate Reed parkrun. 2C, which I'm guessing was two degrees, at Kate Reed, where we were greeted by fog and misty rain. Disco sought out all the pats pre and post run, his warmth appreciated by many as he leaned on cold legs. And there was a lovely photo through the bush. It certainly looked fresh down there. We love this photo. And we had to share Disco as he loves his weekly parkruns.

00:36:41Sarah Jefferson: We heard from Felicity Castellan at Koonwarra parkrun. Koonwarra parkrun often has parkrunners try to get a smile from Eggie. There was a photo of gorgeous Eggie showing his bottom teeth, definitely smiling, even closing his eyes in delight.

00:37:01Simon Mackley: Lovely. We heard from Sue Keane from North Sydney parkrun. Plenty of pets for me to pet of the four-legged kind, but did encounter a bush turkey at North Sydney parkrun today. Met many Run the World people and even saw boomerang number five being handed over to a lady from Victoria. And there was a photo of the bush turkey as evidence.

00:37:25Sarah Jefferson: Lovely. We heard from Brett Bailey at Riverlution parkrun. Hi Dazza, walked with Tanya and Brunner at our NENDY Riverlution parkrun. Got a number three and an R. Brunner was very pleased to get a treat from the RD. Cool loop course in the east side over the bridge and through the red zone, which was all housing pre-earthquake. Back past the remains of the twisted bridge and here we are waiting for coffee and scones. One of the Baileys certainly needed to be included this week as their doggo Brunner regularly shows up in Dazza's. So there's a photo of Brett and Brunner patiently awaiting the coffee and scones. I do wonder if Brunner gets a little sneaky scone treat too.

00:38:12Simon Mackley: He deserves it. And the last one we're going to do from two weeks ago was Dan Baldwin at West Coast Park parkrun in Singapore. I was a sweaty mess at West Coast Park parkrun, Singapore flag emoji. Some could say a wet dog. And there was a photo of a sweaty Dan in his blue 500 shirt with Sandy and someone else. I'm assuming this is Dan on his way home from Europe, on his way to another country or on another adventure. This man certainly has the life at 280 locations and 13 different country flags.

00:38:50Sarah Jefferson: Wow. Quite impressive. All right. So we're jumping ahead a week. So this week, as I said, Today is Hopper Park Day. Whilst it's more about visiting parks and hopping between them, we don't mind if you ran, walked, volunteered or hopped this morning. Whatever you did and whatever park it was in, come on into Dazza's and tell us all about it. Hop to it.

00:39:16Simon Mackley: First from a collection of five, we have Ingrid Botha at Kamay parkrun. Kamay, this morning where I had this conversation, me, Oh, you're from Tasmania. Do you know Val and Stephen Warwick? Tasmanians. Everyone knows Stephen Val. We were in Namibia and someone knew them. A guy called Johan. Me. Oh, that would be Johan Duvenhage. I know him. Another selfie of Ingrid in her 100 parkrun shirt. It's lovely to read about the power of parkrun community and the adventurous community as well. Now, I did check out the results at Kamay parkrun, and it appears that Ingrid was the only adventurer there. This could have been the perfect recruiting opportunity, just saying. But it sounds like some nice people to run into, especially if they know the Warwick's and Johan. We believe that Steve Warwick completed his Cowell this week at Kununurra parkrun, so congratulations on that, Steve.

00:40:13Sarah Jefferson: Congrats, Steve, and some more love for Kununurra parkrun.

00:40:17Simon Mackley: Yeah.

00:40:19Sarah Jefferson: Okay, we also heard from Katie Guthrie at Devonport parkrun in Tasmania. Husband and I, along with our girls, Miss Bunny and Miss Molly, celebrated Devonport parkrun's 500th parkrun by being volley Timekeepers. There is a photo of Miss Bunny and Miss Molly, two gorgeous red heelers by the look of it, in the parkrun selfie frame wearing blue shirts. We love that you can bring your dogs along to parkrun. And they're looking straight at the camera. So they look like two very well-behaved dogs indeed.

00:40:55Simon Mackley: Sounds like it. Hopefully they wet their son's vomit. That's probably why they're happy. Just saying. Next we heard from Lee Cabarita. And supposedly this is her porn name at Jake's Point parkrun in WA. I hopped out of the caravan and into the troopie to get to Jakes Point at Kalbarri Red Bluff in Western Australia. Another stunning beach course. The West Side certainly doesn't disappoint. Eggs Florentine and a mocha while whale watching at the Pelican Cafe will do me just fine today, thanks, Dazza. What a fabulous morning. And there is a photo of Lee in the event selfie frame. And there was a sneaky comment under that asking, would you say West is best? Wondering who wrote that. Lee did reply with a heart emoji. So we're assuming this means she agrees with the question.

00:41:53Sarah Jefferson: I did not write that comment, by the way. So I'm not sure who that was. That was not me. But. Further to Lee's comment about whales, there are so many whales up there. I've never seen so many whales in my life. We went up there last year and the amount of whales we saw was truly incredible. They were almost jumping out left, right and centre. You could always see a whale whenever you went to have a look at the coast, but it is quite spectacular and the best coast, as I might add, up there. I did also note that Lee has been to Esperance and Jake's Point. So I wonder if she's headed for the Western Compass Point.

00:42:34Simon Mackley: Okay.

00:42:35Sarah Jefferson: We also heard from Heather Hunter back at Taree parkrun, which is exciting. Good to hear that's up and running. After reading the Friday post, I had a last minute change of plan and hopped in my car to catch up with Fiona Mullen at Taree for a walk and second breakfast. There was a photo of Fiona and Heather in their adventurers shirts with the Taree parkrun sign. So great to see that Adventurers are using the Friday post to connect with their friends. And as I mentioned, great to see that Taree parkrun is up and running after the floods. Heather did say that there is some washout under the grass strip between the water and the path, so it's fenced off, but the path is clear and undamaged. Fantastic.

00:43:23Simon Mackley: work tarry parkrun that is awesome youth and lastly we heard from Monty Slade coming to us from Ross-on-Wye parkrun, so no hopping at Ross-on-Wye parkrun but and there was a thumbs up with the event pop-up and spotto the adventurous buff so I believe that you have the Obilope Sarah would you like to open it and tell us who won

the Obi Award — Katie Guthrie, Miss Bunny and Miss Molly

00:43:51Sarah Jefferson: I do have it. I don't normally get the honours, so thank you for allowing me to do this this week, Simon. This week, the Obi goes to... Katie Guthrie, Miss Bunny and Miss Molly.

00:44:12Simon Mackley: Well done.

Emails

00:44:14Simon Mackley: And moving on to emails. So we had two emails this week. The first one we have... said this. Hi, I'm just wanting to let you know about Phil. He set a new world record for backyard ultramarathons. He was at Dead Cow Gully in Nanango, Queensland. Phil was one of 293 runners that started on Saturday morning, and this had dwindled down to two runners, Sam Harvey from New Zealand and Phil, as we entered Thursday. Sam pulled out after completing a massive 118 yards and And Phil carried on to set a new world record with 119 yards, which was 798.5 kilometres at 5.33 a.m. on Thursday, passing the previous record of 116 yards. And then it goes on to say, today, just two days after finishing that run, he ran a New Farm parkrun with a finishing time of 17 minutes and 48 seconds. Cheers, Chris. So this is from Chris Gore, Phil's dad.

00:45:25Sarah Jefferson: Very proud dad.

00:45:27Simon Mackley: Very proud, and as he should be.

00:45:28Sarah Jefferson: Yeah, wow. That's absolutely incredible. Congratulations, Phil, on a huge achievement and a world record holder.

00:45:40Simon Mackley: Yes, again.

00:45:41Sarah Jefferson: Again, that's right. So the second email that we received, we did receive from a listener. in response to something that was mentioned on the pod two weeks ago. So stating that there are currently three directors on the parkrun board, Scott Watkins, Renee Gimbert and Glenn Turner. So just a little bit of extra information.

00:46:06Simon Mackley: Thank you, Lisa.

00:46:07Sarah Jefferson: Thank you.

Club Corner

00:46:08Sarah Jefferson: And we might throw to Reginald.

00:46:15[background music]

00:46:19Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III: This is Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III, with Club Corner, where we talk about the what and why of parkrun clubs, and I am coming to you from Arrernte Country. Some weeks the content flows from me like butter, and other weeks, flows not like butter... I will let you be the judge of what each week feels like, some might call it earfeel. Today I am continuing our journey around the parkrun world and we are staying in the southern hemisphere and coming to Aotearoa aka New Zealand. What is Aotearoa known for? Sheep, hiking, whale watching, sheep, sorry, one could not resist. Pavlova, they are fighting words on some sides of the ditch. Bird watching, Maori culture, sheep, but seriously, that joke is now old, as the sheep-related industries are no longer number one in NZ. jet boating and bungee jumping round out some of their highlights. Okay dot dot dot, I will say the word hobbits here also sigh. Moving on to parkrun, there are more than 50 events in Aotearoa, and who knows, perhaps they will have hit 60 between this being scripted and broadcast. Their first parkrun event was Lower Hutt parkrun in May of 2012, but with much less calamity than the movie of the same name from Roland Emmerich. As recently as March of 2025 Lower Hutt reached a peak attendance of 451 those are strong numbers. Something in Aotearoa that is special for parkrun is their relationship team at Apuna Matatahi Children's University. This is a program which supports and encourages Tamariki aged 7 to 14 to participate in exciting and engaging learning experiences outside the classroom. This program aims to create a community of lifelong learners and help Tamariki achieve their full potential. You can Google for more if you are interested. We have heard about the variety of events in Aotearoa from our various correspondents over the ditch, but one course of particular note is the North Island Puarenga parkrun in Rotorua which is a geothermal course on Sulphur Flats, or Pegasus parkrun on the South Island which has a suspension bridge on the course. There are way too many beautifully described courses to list them all, so maybe it would be better to simply head over and enjoy some of their offerings. New Zealand shares the same special day as Australia and a few other countries, namely Christmas Day. And remember, in parkrun life, all non-Milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun, so stay tuned for our future club corners. [Te Reo Maori: "New Zealand"] [Te Reo Maori: "children"]

00:48:47Simon Mackley: And we are back from Reginald who was talking about New Zealand in that segment. So just a bit of info on New Zealand, if you don't know, obviously our New Zealanders will know this, but so the capital of New Zealand is Wellington. Their currency is the New Zealand dollar. Currently, well, as of a couple of days ago, one Australian dollar was buying $1.08 New Zealand. One British pound gets you around $2.26 New Zealand. And one South African rand gets you about 9 cents in New Zealand, how to get there so from Melbourne it's about three and a half hours Sydney it's three hours Brisbane it's three hours as well from Perth it's about six and a half from johannesburg it's about 18 hours and from London it is approximately 25 hours question is is it expensive well it doesn't have to be as so there's so many free things to do in New Zealand so there's lots of nature obviously There's activities, car rentals, accommodation and food, but that can all add up pretty quickly. Prices are slightly higher than Australia. Top places to go in New Zealand. Well, New Zealand has endless activities from the adrenaline field to the relaxing and has awe-inspiring scenery. What the people are known for. Well, they were, well, so Edmund Hillary was the first person to climb Mount Everest and he was a New Zealander along with Tenzing Norgay. They invented jet boating. They invented bungee jumping, the electric fence, the disposable syringe and the egg beater. And top tips, go and explore New Zealand. Whether it's the scenery, the food, the world-class wine or the adventure sports, you are going to have a great time.

00:50:36Sarah Jefferson: Very interesting. Thank you, Simon. I didn't know that they were responsible for all of those inventions.

00:50:41Simon Mackley: Yes, and there was many more. I just added a few.

00:50:45Sarah Jefferson: And on your advice there, I will. I'm actually headed over at the end of October and November, but you've just prompted me. I probably need to actually start planning because at this stage, I have flights and a hire car. That's all we have. So, thank you. And it is a good time for Aussies to head over as well with, well, I guess, and the pound, et cetera, being so strong against the New Zealand dollar.

Consolidated Club Report

00:51:10Sarah Jefferson: All right. So, the adventurers... Consolidated Club Report for Saturday, the 5th of July, 2025. Of a total of 808 members. Wait, we are now at 808 members. Woohoo, we made it. 546 took part on this date in 11 countries across 284 locations. Locally, their adventure is at... We had 49 events in Queensland, 46 events in New South Wales, 42 events in Victoria, Western Australia had 21 events, South Australia 14, the ACT 6, Tasmania 6, Northern Territory 2, North Island 3 and the South Island 1. Internationally, their adventurers at, we had 68 events in the UK, 10 events in South Africa, four events in Canada, the USA, four events. We had two events in Germany, two events in Ireland, two in Sweden, and one in both Italy and Malaysia.

00:52:25Simon Mackley: I've just realised that we were going to put the stats in for Canada Day, which was on the 1st of July, which we have not done. So apologies to that, our Canuck friends.

00:52:36Sarah Jefferson: I'll quickly look it up.

the Frond — Rhianna, Rosie, Leo and George Williams — Evesham parkrun

00:52:38Simon Mackley: Okay, I might move on to the largest international Frond then. So we had a Frond of four at Evesham parkrun and there were Rhianna, Rosie, Leo and George Williams.

00:52:53Sarah Jefferson: So jumping back to Canada Day. So on the 1st of July, there was a special day called Canada Day. So there were 14 members took part on this date at six events in Canada. We had Richmond Olympic parkrun, Beach Strip parkrun, River Oaks parkrun, Kiwanis parkrun, Campbellside parkrun and Okanagan parkrun. Okay, pilgrimage from the 28th of June. We had two members taking part. We had Paul Hyde. This was Paul's second visit to Bushy. He was finished in position 717, the time of 28 minutes and 32 seconds. And Joe Kite was Joe's first visit to Bushy, finished in position 1,449 in a time of 56 minutes exactly. We had another member participate at Bushy, but this time for their 23rd visit. This was Adrian Luscombe, finished in 27 minutes and 2 seconds in position 609 out of 1,667. So something to note, Bushy had over 100 octogenarians and nonagenarians meeting for their annual gatherings.

00:54:19Simon Mackley: Amazing. It's a lot of octogenarians and nonagenarians. Definitely. Our largest Aussie Frond for the 5th of July was a Frond of 16 at one event. It was Belvedere in Victoria. We had Garth Dowling, Bill Lodwick Jr., Lee Sucuzo, Terri-Ann Dowling, Chris Roos, Nathan Roos, Cindy Robins, Deborah Jessup, Scott Trickett, Michael Burke, Dawn Branton, Andrew Reynolds, Mark Ronald Kant, Wendy Backhouse, Chantelle Hosking and Cheryl Smit. And remember, Adventurers, that you can add the Adventurers Club as one of your five affiliations on your parkrun profile.

00:55:08Sarah Jefferson: Okay.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

00:55:09Sarah Jefferson: There have been some launches, Simon, since we last recorded. In fact, there have been six launches. And they are not all easy to pronounce. So I am going to do my very best. So the first launch was in Japan. Fugan unga kansui parkrun launched in Japan on the 28th of June with 76 participants cheering on 21 volunteers. So 57 of those participants were first-timers to parkrun. And it's located in Toyama City, which is five hours west of Tokyo.

00:55:53Simon Mackley: And next we hear from Belvedere parkrun that launched in Victoria with 220 participants, 18 volunteers and 17 very first-timers. It's located in Seaford, north of Frankston on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria.

00:56:12Sarah Jefferson: So they're not all in the Northern Hemisphere.

00:56:14Simon Mackley: No. No.

00:56:15Sarah Jefferson: This one is in the Northern Hemisphere, though. Werdersee parkrun is in Germany. So there are 128 participants, 13 volunteers, 33 first-timers, and this is located on the southern side of Bremen in Germany.

00:56:32Simon Mackley: This one to launch on the 28th of June was Oroua River Walkway parkrun, where they launched with 183 participants, 29 volunteers. 15 were very first timers, and it's located in Feilding, just north of Palmerston North in New Zealand. And the Maori name, which is Oroua, in Maori means place of dredging for shellfish. [Te Reo Maori: "place of dredging for shellfish"]

00:57:01Sarah Jefferson: Interesting. Thanks for sharing that. There was another launch, Woodlands parkrun Scarborough. There were 319 participants, 31 volunteers. 17 first-timers, and this was, no guess, located in Scarborough, the UK, northeast of York.

00:57:19Simon Mackley: Yeah, that launched yesterday. Launching yesterday as well was one in Australia again. So we have Lake Mary Ann Tingkkarli parkrun, where they had 20 participants, six volunteers and 10 first-timers. So that's located in Tennant Creek, Northern Territory. So this year we've had two launches, in the Northern Territory.

00:57:43Sarah Jefferson: Yeah, wow. That one was obviously kept quiet with 20 participants, but I guess it's quite remote, isn't it? It's about, would it be five, five and a half hours from Alice Springs, I believe.

00:57:53Simon Mackley: I'm leaving that to you. I don't know the answer to that question.

00:57:55Sarah Jefferson: Let's hope my geography is better than TOC's, but I'm quite certain that's about five or five and a half hours from Alice. All right.

Watching the numbers

00:58:04Sarah Jefferson: Simon, are you doing the honours of singing or is it mine?

00:58:06Simon Mackley: No, I think you should sing it. Okay.

00:58:09Sarah Jefferson: Okay. And this will be the last time in our ongoing segment that we are calling Watching the Numbers at Alice Springs Telegraph Station parkrun. So the last stats we are bringing you are actually from the 28th of June, and that was their 10th week. So there were 97 participants. So they have slowly decreased, but I think still held pretty strong.

00:58:37Simon Mackley: Yeah, I mean, Seeing that the previous week was 98, so to go to 97 is probably where they're going to find the equilibrium.

00:58:45[background music]

Rapid Fire

00:58:45Sarah Jefferson: All right, Simon. Alert, alert. We have a new segment. In this segment, the parkrun hosts will be presented with a range of questions that they have not seen previously, and as this segment suggests, by the name of rapid fire, they need to respond in a quick way. This week we have a set of would you rather questions. So strap in. Feel free to play along at home and let's see if your responses would match the hosts or differ. Let's get this new segment underway. Okay, Simon, shall I go first?

00:59:22Simon Mackley: Yes, please.

00:59:23Sarah Jefferson: I will ask you a set of questions and you need to offer your answer as quick as possible. Sand or hills?

00:59:32Simon Mackley: Hills.

00:59:32Sarah Jefferson: Poached, fried or scrambled?

00:59:34Simon Mackley: Poached.

00:59:34Sarah Jefferson: Coffee or tea?

00:59:35Simon Mackley: Coffee.

00:59:36Sarah Jefferson: Podcast or music?

00:59:38Simon Mackley: Podcast.

00:59:38Sarah Jefferson: Queensland or New South Wales?

00:59:40Simon Mackley: Queensland.

00:59:42Sarah Jefferson: Well done.

00:59:43Simon Mackley: Okay. And now I'm going to turn the gun back at you. Rapid fire, sunrise over the Pacific Ocean or sunset over the Indian Ocean? Sunset over the Indian Ocean. Night in with Hadley being minded or night out with Hadley? Night in. Running with friends or running alone?

01:00:01Sarah Jefferson: Definitely running with friends.

01:00:03Simon Mackley: Pizza or pasta? Pasta.

01:00:08Sarah Jefferson: I want to sit on the fence, but I know sitting on the fence hurts your bottom. I'm going to say pasta, especially if it's barbed wire.

01:00:16Simon Mackley: Okay. And iPhone or Android?

01:00:19Sarah Jefferson: Definitely iPhone.

01:00:20Simon Mackley: Excellent. There we go.

01:00:23Sarah Jefferson: Be interested to hear how you went at home with those. Thank you again to everybody for your patience with the new format of the pod as we continue to figure out what this looks like into the future. This is obviously Simon and my first time recording in a fortnightly episode format. So thank you for your patience with that. Simon, where are you headed next parkrun day?

Sign-off

01:00:50Simon Mackley: I will be headed to the greatest state, shall we say. I am heading to Studley parkrun in Melbourne on the recommendation of Mel and quite a few others. And I'm looking forward to seeing the famed bridge at Studley. And hopefully I see some adventurers there. I'll be wearing my adventurer's shirt. Come up and say hello if you see me.

01:01:12Sarah Jefferson: Let's hope it's warm enough that you'll take your jumper off so they can see your shirt. I fear it's been pretty cold down there. Sounds fabulous. I actually went there under Mel's recommendation with Mel, but I think I talked to Mel the entire time and didn't really look around. So enjoy and my advice is don't forget to look around because it is quite stunning.

01:01:34Simon Mackley: Okay. Where are you heading on your next parkrun day?

01:01:38Sarah Jefferson: So I actually don't have any plans and it's very, very rare that I don't have anything in my planner. I'm not really sure, but it is only Sunday and parkrun was yesterday. So I will come up with that, I'm sure, in the next few days.

01:01:52Simon Mackley: I'm sure you will. Okay, next fortnight, it's back to Mel and TOC. I believe that it's going to be Mel's birthday in between. So happy birthday, Mel, when you hear this, when you're editing. Hope you have a good day. I think I know where you're heading.

01:02:08Sarah Jefferson: Happy, happy birthday, Mel. As always, you can contact us via parkrun adventurers on Facebook or our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. That's it for another episode. We'll see you all next time for more adventures.

01:02:15[outro theme playing]

01:02:37Unidentified speaker: Bye. Bye. Bye.