Episode 432 - Amazing Grace

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

Welcome

00:00:23Simon Mackley: Welcome to episode 432 of the parkrun adventurers podcast, a podcast about life if your life is all about parkrun. I'm Simon Mackley and coming to you from the spectacular Quandamooka Country.

00:00:38Sarah Jefferson: My name is Sarah Jefferson, joining you from beautiful Noongar Boodja, Noongar Country. [Noongar: "Noongar country (boodja = country/land)"]

00:00:43Simon Mackley: Sarah, great to be back on the pod and talking to you about parkrun.

00:00:47Sarah Jefferson: You too, Simon. Winter's nearly done in Australia, which is super exciting. Yes.

00:00:53Simon Mackley: Yeah. We had a cracking day today. Yeah. How was it in Perth, weather-wise?

00:01:00Sarah Jefferson: Yeah, not too bad. Yesterday was stunning. I went for a hike yesterday looking for some wildflowers, but today was quite nice as well. So it's warming up, which is good.

00:01:11Simon Mackley: Yay. Yeah.

00:01:14Sarah Jefferson: Simon, I think we need to start though by acknowledging Mel's achievements and congratulating her on her incredible work, lining up her 250 events, her frame and combining it with her 500 parkruns. You did it Mel, well done.

00:01:33Simon Mackley: Yeah, amazing.

00:01:35Sarah Jefferson: Looks like a great morning that was filled with lots of blue, not people feeling blue though, just lots of blue, 500 blue everywhere. And I did see a sneaky wine glass or few in a couple of the photos.

00:01:51Simon Mackley: So did I. But, yeah, 100%, that is a huge achievement to reach both milestones, but to do it on the same day is just so special. It's very well done, Mel. I know it took a lot of planning.

00:02:04Sarah Jefferson: Definitely. Can't wait to see Mel in her blue shirt, rocking that blue shirt. Yes. And a thank you to Mel and TOC for stepping in. It has been six weeks since we've actually spoken, Simon. So, yeah, thank you to both of you for stepping in two weeks in a row. I had already planned an overseas trip. I had avoided when we were supposed to be recording, but then we changed to a fortnightly format. And as much as I love recording, I did head across to Asia and I was actually on the island of Langkawi in Malaysia. So I wasn't quite sure how reliable the Wi-Fi would be. Didn't want to take the risk. And I also didn't take my laptop. And guess what, Simon?

00:02:55Simon Mackley: What?

00:02:56Sarah Jefferson: We actually challenged ourselves to travel with hand luggage only with a six-month-old for nine days, and we did it.

00:03:05Simon Mackley: You are nuts.

00:03:05[crosstalk]

00:03:07Sarah Jefferson: Nuts. So much easier to go through an airport, particularly Singapore Airport, when you just have hand luggage. Yeah. Yeah, cool. So it can be done, but I certainly didn't have any extra space for a laptop. That's for sure. But Simon, tell me, which parkruns have you ventured to since we last spoke?

00:03:33Simon Mackley: Well, because it has been so many weeks, there's a bit to recap. But I had a little adventure myself after the last time we spoke, which was in mid-July. I had the opportunity to go and run at Studley in Melbourne. The course wasn't exactly what I'd expected, but it was even better than expected. Sorry, but what was even better than expected was the much-famed Canes Bridge. You hit it about a kilometre into the course and then again with only a few hundred metres to finish. So it's the white wood suspension bridge that crosses the Yarra to get to most of the undulating course. Um, it's a whole lot of bouncy fun. I didn't realise how much fun it was going to be until I was going over it with, uh, I don't know how many people were on the bridge and on the way over, but yeah, there was a lot of, yeah, it was a different feeling. That's for sure. Um, but at the end, someone came up to me and asked me if I knew Mel. Um, that was because I was wearing my adventurer shirt and it turns out that he knows Mel very well as well. Uh, it was none other than, David's son, Dermot. And I believe this weekend that he ran his 50th parkrun and he's already up to his 30th location. So yeah, big achievement there already. He was very proudly showing me his 5k app and how much of Melbourne he'd already done.

00:04:59[crosstalk]

00:05:00Sarah Jefferson: That's awesome. I can't believe you met Dermot. That's awesome. I know.

00:05:04Simon Mackley: I had no idea he was going to be there. He obviously didn't know who I was until he spoke to me. And, yeah, it was like he was looking at me in the first time as brief, first time as welcome. And I was thinking, why is this guy looking at me? And then it was only until afterwards that, yeah, he told me who he was. I was like, oh, which is so cool.

00:05:24Sarah Jefferson: Yeah, amazing that he came up to you as well because we do hear people saying, oh, I saw you, I didn't want to come up or, you know, it's a good on him for, yeah, going and saying hello.

00:05:34Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:05:34Simon Mackley: Well, Mel and his dad were both down at Belvedere parkrun, so I wasn't able to get down there and be able to get back for the appointment that I had in Melbourne. Anyway, so in the following few parkrun days, I've been to Logan River twice and working towards that P9. So still three to go. But yeah, with the soccer season about to end, I should be able to knock that over by the end of the year. I also went to Fodder Forest to catch up with one of my fanatical parkrun friends from Sydney. And then last weekend, I returned to Rocks Riverside. So that's one of the events I look after as an ambassador. And I spoke briefly to both Danny, the longstanding AD, who's been there since the start. And this is one of Brisbane's first events, first few events. And I spoke to Matt, who was the RD on the day as well. I don't know what it was about Matt's pre-run brief, but it just, it was great. It made me feel really, really good in their community. It could have been that he was standing on top of a part of their playground near the start. It could have been his confidence or probably just dawned on me because I didn't hear people talking behind me. Everyone was actually listening to him or I just couldn't hear those people. He was commanding the brief while also being really calm. Friday morning, the council decided they were going to dig a trench right next to the start finish line with absolutely no notice. So the course had to be slightly amended to stay away from it. But, yeah, BAP handled it brilliantly. Awesome. Even with this thing that they've obviously had happen the day before.

00:07:20Sarah Jefferson: Yeah, wow. So, yeah. Great. Sounds like a great morning. And I think what you're saying about in terms of everyone listening, as you say, whether or not you couldn't hear it, but it is rare, I think, that everyone actually listens to the brief. Like, I know that's one thing that really does irritate me. Me too. I feel like I eyeball people. And I know when I'm run directing, I will kind of give my attention their way to, you know, be like, you need to listen to this. So that's great to hear. Yeah.

00:07:50Simon Mackley: I mean, it could have been that because of this works, people were actually listening because they were like, oh, what are we actually going to do here? Because the regulars would know that there had to be something different because they'd moved the start line away. They probably didn't know what was going to happen at the other end of the course or that sort of thing. So it could have been that. But whatever it was, I don't care. Like it was an experience to not hear people talking behind me.

00:08:16Sarah Jefferson: He clearly had you hook line and sink it in and you were focused. He did. That's great.

00:08:21Simon Mackley: 100% he did, yeah.

00:08:22Sarah Jefferson: Awesome. Nice. And it was very good to hear that you actually adventured, Simon, finally.

00:08:31Simon Mackley: I was down there for my stepbrother's 50th birthday. So that was to Studley. Yeah, that's where I went to Melbourne.

00:08:38Sarah Jefferson: That's okay. You got an adventure in. So that was really nice to hear on the adventurers podcast.

00:08:43Simon Mackley: Yes, exactly. I don't want to turn into Ollie, right?

00:08:47Sarah Jefferson: That's right. That's right. You're not sacked yet. However, let's not forget that you actually skipped park riding one of those weeks. And I believe that Mel was actually in your neck of the woods having a big party, yet you weren't actually present at the party. Would you like to let the listeners know what you got up to instead?

00:09:10Simon Mackley: Yeah. Yeah. So I can see in the show notes you said, what brutal punishment did I pay money for? And my response is, brutal punishment? Yes, I would agree. So I returned to Clint Eastwood Backyard Ultra, which I did last year as well, to push myself further. So I ended up completing nine yards and rounded out my longest ever run to 65 kilometres. And in that, I didn't finish yard 10, which was fine. My brother did an amazing job crewing for me, and I think he learned a lot in the process just as much as I did. And I'm pretty sure that he's going to be doing this same role again, if not for me, maybe for my sister-in-law, who seems to have caught the bug of the Backyard Ultra after doing some amazing events herself this year on the trails. Yeah, so I learned a lot myself on the day. And while I haven't signed up yet, I probably will go back and do it again next year.

00:10:14Sarah Jefferson: Oh, wow. Well, firstly, congratulations. That's great to hear. Longest run ever. Amazing. Yeah, what an achievement. So, yeah, how many more laps, even though you've said that was your longest run, how many more laps or distance did you do this time?

00:10:31Simon Mackley: I only did one more lap, but I actually did 10 more kilometres. So. Yeah. Okay. So even though a yard is 6.7 Ks, last time I only need to do like 400 metres or something to take me to 55 Ks. But by doing the extra yard, got me another 6.7. And then I went another three. Amazing. To get to 65 k's.

00:10:56Sarah Jefferson: I noticed when you were describing it, you said, I only did an extra lap. Not only, you get rid of that word only. That's amazing that you managed to do that. Yeah, well done.

00:11:01[crosstalk]

00:11:06Simon Mackley: I did have to laugh because there was, so one of the guys that's won it a few times, Ryan Crawford, he was out there and he was doing really speedy laps. And I was like, this doesn't seem like the Ryan that I saw last year or the individual backyard ultra championships in Tennessee later in the year, he was using as a training run. So he only did a hundred Ks. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Only. Only, exactly.

00:11:38Sarah Jefferson: Only a speedy, speedy hundred Ks.

00:11:41Simon Mackley: I know exactly. Like, because I remember last year he was, I was walking behind him at one stage and I heard him say to someone, oh, I have to slow down and walk for the next 200 metres or whatever it was. And he was breaking everything up. And I was like, okay, if a guy that can win this is doing this, I should be learning this. So, in my training this year, I did a lot of walk breaks to see if I could get that extra distance. Like, it was definitely something I took on board just by hearing him talking to someone else about it. So, yeah.

00:12:14Sarah Jefferson: Awesome. And that obviously worked because, you know, you did gain some distance.

00:12:18Simon Mackley: I did, yes.

00:12:19Sarah Jefferson: Fantastic, um so I always like hearing about how people prime themselves for these events so in terms of your your preparation compared to last year apart from as you just mentioned then taking on board from the the pros or the yeah you know the elite um yes yeah how did you go in terms of your prep for whether it's food or whether it's I don't know rest or Yeah. Can you share a little bit about that? Yeah.

00:12:48Simon Mackley: Yeah. So what I did different in the lead up was I got shingles. I got sinusitis and I shelved most of my long lines in those last few weeks. So, yeah, I was a bit sick in that in those last few weeks beforehand. But, yeah, I'm not going to blame my like not getting further on that because I'd done a lot of the work prior to it. Yeah. I mean, it is what it is. What I did was, from the start of the year, I trained to a base level as well. So I was just trying to keep fitness up, more time on feet than trying to go fast, that sort of thing. Obviously, when I was at parkrun, I was using that as my fastest run of the week, but I knew that was only going to be 5Ks. I was, yeah, I was at least thinking that I had better nutrition this time as well, which was actually, like, I have my brother to thank for that in a big way, because a week out, and I know this was stupid, and it could have gone catastrophic, but he said to me, your hydration plan is way lacking here. You can't just have water because you're flushing everything out of your system. And then he gave me a tip of what he and my sister-in-law have been using when they've been running. And I've got to say, it sat on my stomach really well. I don't do very well with hydration stuff at the best of times. But this one that I was using was phenomenal. I was extremely happy with that because nothing flared up. Everything went sort of to plan. But like I said, it could have gone catastrophically wrong doing something with no training on it, that sort of thing. But yeah. Yeah, so that's pretty much what I did in the lead up to it.

00:14:34Laura - Co-Event Director, Coronation Park parkrun: Yeah.

00:14:35Simon Mackley: But anyway, enough about me. What have you been doing parkrunning since we last spoke?

00:14:41Sarah Jefferson: So as I mentioned earlier, I have been away to Singapore and Malaysia. So it's really, really nice to escape winter and head to somewhere like I really do not cope well with winter at all if you haven't figured that out. So we had two parkruns left to tick off in Singapore to complete the country. So we first headed to Bay East Garden parkrun and it was their event 61. It was about a 40-minute stroll from our hotel down to the event start line in the morning. So for anyone visiting the parkruns in Singapore, the start time is at 7.30am and I would advise to be incredibly mindful of the humidity. Supposedly a few people have actually come unstuck as they've landed from a flight, I guess a little dehydrated and not sort of used to the humidity. Apparently it really took it out of them. So just to be mindful of that. I personally struggle with the humidity and I really do not like it. I think most people probably do anyway, but I don't know. I really do not cope well. And we really should have got a photo and I should learn this to get a photo before running because I was like a beetroot after and I really do not like that photo. As much as I love going somewhere and getting a photo in the selfie frame, it was not a great photo at all. Anyway. All the heat and humidity considered, first place still managed to come in at a cracking time of 19 minutes and 16 seconds. So this course is a two-lap course and they are currently constructing the Founders Memorial to the left-hand side of the course. So it will be an integrated gallery and garden space that will commemorate Singapore's founding leaders and their values. It's expected to open in 2028. So I do believe that once this opens, it will be a much nicer area. I mean, running back towards the start line, you get views of Marina Bay, the Singapore Flyer and the bay. But on one side at the moment, there is just completely tall walls without kind of anything to see.

00:16:54Simon Mackley: Fair enough. That doesn't sound fantastic on one side of the course. But yeah, and great tip about the humidity. I hadn't even thought about... coming to Singapore already dehydrated because yeah it would be so good to fly into Singapore Saturday morning do a parkrun and then leave Saturday night but yeah that's that's a good tip um yeah so where else have you been apart from uh yeah Bay East Garden parkrun in Singapore

00:17:20Sarah Jefferson: So we spent a couple of days in Singapore, then we headed across to Langkawi for the week. Of course, there's no parkrun there, so we had to duck back for the following weekend. We flew back in for the Singapore National Day on the 9th of August and headed to Bedok Reservoir parkrun for their 39th event. So it was a much smaller event with only 42 finishes, with the quickest time being 20 minutes and 5 seconds. So the event takes place around the reservoir itself, which was converted from a former sand quarry. It collects runoff rainwater from the eastern parts of Singapore. And when we were getting the first-timers briefing, funnily enough, someone came up behind me and said, no way, of course you're here. And my partner and I were both wearing our adventurer's tops, so I thought, oh, it's got to be another adventurer. Nori, it was a fellow Run Director from my home event back in Perth at Cottesloe, so nice. Very small, yeah, parkrun community. He was back, he was, sorry, on his way home from a business trip in Shanghai. As I mentioned, parkrun starts at 7.30. He actually had a 9.30am flight back to Perth. So he brought along his hand luggage suitcase and his business jacket and he was confident that he does this regularly and that he wouldn't miss his flight regularly. So, yeah, apparently, yeah, he did make his flight just, he told me. I saw him on the Saturday just gone and he did make his flight. So, that was good. But what I did find and I didn't actually realise was at this parkrun, actually on the course, there is Singapore's only forest canopy park, which includes 44 obstacles and three giant zip lines, with one of the zip lines going out quite a fair way over the water. And I do love a good ropes course, and I actually had no idea that this was here. So if and when I head back, this is definitely on my list to check out. It looked awesome. So it's a really great location and I really enjoyed the parkrun there. A hot tip for anyone wanting to check out this parkrun, and I guess if you're coming in just to do the parkrun and then kind of go, we stayed near Chinatown and it was just one bus. We caught a bus from the airport to the hotel and then it was an easy bus ride to the event on the morning. So it was a really great place to visit. I really enjoyed it.

00:20:02Simon Mackley: Okay, and how far was that bus from Chinatown to Bedok Reservoir?

00:20:06Sarah Jefferson: Probably, I want to say like 15 minutes in the morning. My partner kind of plans the, he's, I'm kind of the person when we travel to look around and read signs, whereas he likes to read Google Maps religiously. So he sort of had planned it. And I guess he'd planned it maybe on the afternoon before when there was a stack load of traffic. So we were there very early, better than being late. But yeah, there was no one on the road. So yes. Super easy trip in the morning.

00:20:38Simon Mackley: Okay. Okay. So, I believe this is all of the events in Singapore that you've done. So, how would you rate the five events there in order?

00:20:48Sarah Jefferson: Yes. So, apparently, it's a thing of Paul when you've done all of the events in Singapore. So, yes, I have now done them all. Okay. So, if I was to rate them, I guess... Okay. So... I'm going to put five as in my least favourite currently would be the Bay East Garden for the reasons that I've described. Four, West Coast Park. Okay. Three, East Coast. Two, Bedok Reservoir. I'm going to say Bishan was probably, yeah, the highest rating. It's probably the least likely for someone to actually visit as a tourist. Okay. But I feel like it just had a really good vibe of local people using the park. There were lots of people out with their animals, their pets. We saw people even with big kind of exotic birds doing some Tai Chi. I just feel like there's a lot to look at. But, yeah, as I say, like, you know, Bay East, you've got the east, west coast, you've got west, you've got, you know, the compass points, etc., But, yeah, I don't know if anyone else out there, any listeners have completed all of the five parkruns in Singapore. But if you have, yeah, write in. Let us know whether you agree, disagree. Yeah, love to hear from you.

00:22:15Simon Mackley: Yeah, I've still got a west to go on my compass challenge. But if you've put west coasters fourth, maybe I need to go into a west somewhere else.

00:22:24Sarah Jefferson: In saying that, like they are all great. It was a hard question.

00:22:27[crosstalk]

00:22:29Simon Mackley: um sorry yeah it's it's not a horrible course but yes wouldn't be my top rated I guess okay so yeah I think I think you've just changed my go-to Singapore event if I ever actually get there so yeah okay okay so where else have you been

00:22:48Sarah Jefferson: So aside from that, this week I was back at home, which was really nice. Matt was away with Army Reserves over the weekend, so I was carrying a seven-kilo baby in the carrier, so I walked. But I am very happy to head home occasionally. I'm slowly working towards the singleton and ticking off, well, aiming to tick off the 100. I'm now at 78 at Cottesloe. So I was happy with that.

00:23:19Simon Mackley: Fair enough. So going back to the last episode, I did a little bit of research on the 5K Your Way. What Ali was talking about, it doesn't seem that we have that here in Australia. It exists in a little bit of a different format. So I know here in Brisbane, the Mater uses it as their slogan for their International Women's Day Fun Run, which Brisbane people will know as the Pink Run. We see a lot of the pink shirts around parkrun before and after because, yeah, there's a lot of people wearing these very, very pink shirts. So, yeah, not the same format as what Ali was talking about, but there would be some recognition there because it is the Women's Day Fun Run and the support that the Mater Hospital gives to women.

00:24:09Sarah Jefferson: So Mater Hospital being a private hospital in select regions of Australia, is that right? Yeah.

00:24:14Simon Mackley: So I know there's a big one here in Brisbane. I know that there's one in North Sydney. I'm sure there's other Mater hospitals around Australia, but yeah. But yeah, I know that this run seems to only be in Brisbane. Thanks, Simon.

00:24:28Sarah Jefferson: All right.

Adventurer greetings

00:24:29Sarah Jefferson: So a little bit of an update on our adventurer greetings. I've... Been seeing a little bit on, I guess, some comments in Dazza's Cooee. Seems to be getting quite a bit of air time. Okay. I had a little think about a few, so I'm not sure if there's any others out there, but Venturo, Wondaloo, Trekkahoy, Dashtory. They're just a few that I've kind of had a little think about, but... I know that there's some super creative people out there, so let us know if there's something else. I'm not sure, Simon, if you've got any.

00:25:13Simon Mackley: Yeah, I actually haven't given it any thought at all. I didn't mind the suggestion of Zoomy last pod. I think that came from Simon Nash. Yeah, I don't know. I honestly haven't given it a lot of thought. This creativity is not up my strassa, unfortunately.

00:25:35Sarah Jefferson: That's right. We can just keep prompting all of those creatives out there to try and come up with something.

00:25:41Simon Mackley: Exactly. Okay, kicking on. We have some more 500th celebrations here in Australia. So congratulations to some of our adventurers on their 500th events. This past weekend, I believe we had Nathan Tarsal and Roger Luther both doing the 500th. So Nathan is a local at Inverloch. It's a parkrun which I believe has a stump and apparently, yeah, we never really hear anything about that event anyway on this podcast. So Nathan has completed 500 parkruns at 246 locations. So very similar to Mel. He's volunteered 106 times across 42 locations with his PB being 2027 at Mount Beauty parkrun in Victoria. He has a Wilson index of 129, which is huge. Wow. On the other hand, here in the Sunshine State, there was another celebration, as I said, for Roger Luther. Roger has completed Toowoomba parkrun 185 times, even completing his stopwatch bingo three times. He's completed parkruns in Canada and New Zealand as well. And it looks like he had a great morning celebrating at Gatton parkrun. So congratulations and great achievements to you both.

00:27:03Sarah Jefferson: Well done. So flowing on with some more feel-good stories all the way from the Europe. We have a lady by the name of Grace Chambers with a young age of 97 that has made history. She has become Europe's oldest parkrunner to reach her 250th milestone. And I'm going to call this woman Amazing Grace. It really seems like this lady is 97 years young. She completed her milestone at Ormeau parkrun in Belfast. The Saturday just gone, Grace completed the event in 51 minutes exactly. So as I walked Cottesloe parkrun, Grace actually completed it faster than me. So shh, don't tell anyone that, Simon. It really seems like she's part of the community with so many people getting behind her each week to see her complete this event. So some fun facts about Amazing Grace. Her quickest time was in 2016. being 38 minutes and 9 seconds. So she was in her late 80s. Wow. She has completed 98% of stopwatch bingo with 24 seconds to go and has parkrun at five different locations as well as volunteered at Chelmsford Juniors. How's that for a story?

00:28:29Simon Mackley: That is amazing, Grace. Definitely. Wow. Yeah, okay. Okay. All right.

Watching the numbers

00:28:38Simon Mackley: With those stats, we better kick on to our own stats. So on the last parkrun day, the 16th of August, across the ditch we had 63 parkruns. There was 8,840 finishers who were supported by 998 volunteers, just short of 1,000. Hagley parkrun took the crown for the largest event with 474 finishers, followed by Waitangi on 406 and Cornwall Park came in third with 265. The three smallest, going from smallest upwards, was East Otago High School, South End Reserve and Hamilton Park.

00:29:21Sarah Jefferson: So heading back home, back to Australia, last weekend across Australia, we held 515 events. 61,745 finishes were recorded with 6,077 volunteers. Interestingly, we had 2,288 first-time-ever parkrunners. At Junior parkrun, there were five events that hosted 382 finishes, supported by exactly 100 volunteers.

00:29:35[17 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:29:51Sarah Jefferson: Now, on the 9th of August, the smallest event in Australia was COBAR with only two participants.

00:29:59Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III: Wow.

00:30:01Sarah Jefferson: Great that it still went ahead.

00:30:02Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III: Yeah.

00:30:04Sarah Jefferson: And the largest was Albert Melbourne with 631. This past weekend, just gone on the 16th of August, the smallest parkrun was Mount Beauty with five participants. We've heard that Mount Beauty is often quite small. And the largest again was Albert Melbourne with one more participant, 632 participants. However, The Ponds and Rhodes weren't too far behind with 612 and 601 respectively.

00:30:34Simon Mackley: There you go.

00:30:35[background music]

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:30:36Simon Mackley: Well, Sarah, I think it's time that we throw to our roving reports.

00:30:41Sarah Jefferson: Yes, I think that's enough from us.

Roving report Yvette Turner — Central Burnaby parkrun

00:30:49Yvette Turner: Hi everyone, it's Yvette Turner here. I am currently touristing in Canada and this morning we've been to the beautiful Central Burnaby parkrun in Vancouver. It's really easy to get to on the train. The start of the parkrun is right opposite the train station, so it's perfect. And this morning I am here with Debbie. She was the Run Director today and she actually set up this parkrun. So welcome, Debbie. Thank you for joining us today. Can you tell us how this parkrun came to be and how you actually came to be in Vancouver?

00:31:24Debbie - founder and Run Director, Central Burnaby parkrun: Yeah, thanks, Yvette. Again, lovely meeting you this morning and thank you for volunteering last minutes. We're... Always grateful to have volunteers, but especially those visitors from overseas. So, back story, I think how I got this one up and running. I started my parkrun journey back in South Africa. So that was back in, I think I started parkrunning in 2014. Um, just a friend had brought me along and she said, oh, by the way, this is a 5k something happening. And, you know, I lived in Johannesburg back in the day. I was never a runner. I never ran. I was not fit. Um, but I just thought, okay, it's 5k. It's probably doable. Uh, that happened to be Delta. So Delta parkrun in Johannesburg. And that was my first, first parkrun in 2014. Um, um, Fun story, I fell. I fell on my first parkrun, scraped my knee, blood dripping down. My friend luckily had a water bottle, so she washed off my wound and off I go. And I think my first parkrun was, I don't know, 46 minutes. Um, fast forward to the next 10 years, on and off, um, you know, parkruns slowly started becoming a routine for me, um, back in my hometown Johannesburg and volunteered a couple of times as well. And, uh, Eventually immigrated to Canada back in 2017. Thought, you know, I had this routine going back in South Africa, so let me see if parkrun exists. So looked it up and saw that there was a parkrun only around a good 45 minute commute from where I was staying. So a little bit far. You need to take a bus and a train. I was itching, you know, I was really itching to see, okay, well, how do we actually start? Why don't we do something closer? Reached out to, at that time, the North American territory manager, Ewan Bowman, and I said, Hey Ewan, let's go for coffee. How does this thing work? Little did I know how much commitment it was going to be. I think for a lot of us that have started a park ride or are heavily involved in park rides, it's a lot of commitment. So it probably took about a year and a half. It was about a year and a half in the works trying to negotiate with the city of Burnaby to get a permit there's a lot of red tape as we all know with the parks and rec departments so a lot of elbow grease but we got there we got there we started Central Burnaby back in 2019 started slow you know we started getting on average maybe 60 people COVID then happened. Less than a year later, COVID happened and we were shut down for about a year. A lot of the other local park rides got back a little bit quicker than we did. We again struggled with the city in terms of getting our permit reissued. So again, it took another probably a year and a half since the COVID shutdown for us to return. But since then, so we returned I think in 2021. But since then, it's just really grown, especially in the last 12 months, 18 months. You know, we're seeing an average of 120 people a week, which is pretty big for sort of Canadian standards, I guess. Not the 500 that you see overseas, but I think for a local parkrun, that's a pretty good number. We've got a great bunch of regulars that come out. One of our parkrunners have now done their 250th, and, you know, sort of... hoping for the next 250, but just a great community overall. I've made great friends here and this has now become my routine on Saturday mornings, as it does for a lot of folks. It's always fun to see visitors, because I'm a visitor myself, right, to Vancouver. I'm from South Africa. When we get South Africans, they'll come and say hi, and, you know, we get to chatting. And, yeah, just a very open community. A lot of folks live in the area, and they say, oh, I didn't even know this was a thing. And they would just jog by and see us, and that's how they get started, right? So, yeah. That's really good.

00:35:31[crosstalk]

00:35:33Yvette Turner: And so we've all come for coffee, as you can hear. We're all having a great time. Yeah, a little bit noisy. We're having a lovely time at coffee after parkrun. And I was very excited to see squirrels today on the path. So what other animals do you see? Do you routinely see other animals in your park, right?

00:35:51Debbie - founder and Run Director, Central Burnaby parkrun: Yeah, so, I mean, we do have a sign that warns people about wild animals. Funnily enough, the warning sign has cougars, coyotes, bears and bobcats I've personally seen a coyote when I was doing set up it was dawn probably in winter so still a little bit dark coyote just casually trotted in front of me we get a lot of squirrels we have a lot of ducks every now and then we get the oddies or gosling we got two ponds that are pretty filled with I think it's carp or koi fish, one of the two. We've got, every now and then we see, I don't know if I've seen raccoons, but yeah, coyotes, squirrels, ducks, geese, fish, and the odd bear every now and then. There have been bears in Central Park. I know of two occasions. One, there was a bear during the parkrun, but somebody else saw it. It wasn't luckily anywhere near the course. It was on the golf course, but just plenty of wildlife, you know, in the middle of otherwise a bustling city. So we're very fortunate to be able to use the course, of course.

00:37:13Yvette Turner: yeah yeah and the course is um so it's it's a beautiful course it's run through a forest like huge trees like I was really surprised by the trees um and it's two laps so this particular parkrun does a smaller lap followed by a larger lap or the other way around sorry a larger lap followed by a smaller lap but lots of enthusiastic volunteers um It's really beautiful, so I definitely would recommend you to come. So thank you for talking to me today, Debbie. It's been fantastic. And I encourage everyone, if you're in Vancouver, to come to Central Burnaby. It's a beautiful parkrun.

00:37:15[background music]

00:37:50Debbie - founder and Run Director, Central Burnaby parkrun: Thank you.

Roving report Calum Burrell — Coronation Park parkrun

00:37:53Calum Burrell: Good morning parkrun adventurers, it's Calum and I'm in Swadlincote at Coronation Park and it's event number 11 and I'm with father and daughter team Mark and Laura. So welcome to the parkrun adventurers and can I just say I love you lovely little parkrun. First time I've ever been through a golf course as part of a parkrun route so that's novel. So tell us about how Coronation Park parkrun came about.

00:38:20Mark - Co-Event Director, Coronation Park parkrun: Well it started many years ago let's go back to the beginning when Laura was doing her Duke of Edinburgh bronze award scheme and she needed to find an activity so she chose parkrun and as I say the history goes that's all history from now on it all started from there many many years ago back in December 2015. Whereabouts was that? That was at a parkrun called Darley Park which is now moved to Markeaton many years ago but it all started from there Laura went through a bronze a silver and a gold D of E She had a summer job, a Saturday job, so she dipped out for a while, but I carried her to go to parkrun and it became a habit on a Saturday morning. Totally obsessed by it. Tourist and alphabet challenges and all that good stuff. And then we wanted to set up another parkrun here to give some back to the community. So we started planning this about a year ago, 18 months ago. Went through all the planning process and found the owners of the land, the Harworth Group. And it took quite a while, but we got there in the end. So we launched on the 24th of May. That was event number one, our inaugural. We had 295, I think it was, runners, joggers and walkers that day. It's tailed off a bit since then. It's a bit quieter now. Obviously, it's a holiday season and, you know, the novelty factor has gone and all the tourists are starting to find other places to go. But yeah, it's all about giving something back to the community, the running community and the local community in Swadlincote.

00:39:35Calum Burrell: And how did you find out about this park? You were already aware of it, were you?

00:39:38Laura - Co-Event Director, Coronation Park parkrun: We were members of a local running group and there's some housing developments around here. So this land they wanted to use positively and they wanted the like residents of the houses to be able to use it as like a park. So they were asking local running groups if there would be anybody that would want to sort of help them set up an e-parkrun. And yeah, because of our history with parkrun, we thought, why not? Let's give it a go.

00:40:09Calum Burrell: So do you live locally, do you?

00:40:10Mark - Co-Event Director, Coronation Park parkrun: We live the other side of town. I live in Ralston, Laura lives in Anslow. This is the local town, Swadlincote. We used to be in a running club called Swad Joggers. I used to be a leader. Laura was a co-leader. That's how we got sort of asked the question, would you like to be the EDs for this new parkrun and set it all up. And we said, yeah, definitely.

00:40:19[crosstalk]

00:40:28Calum Burrell: Yeah, because it's a site of an old colliery.

00:40:32Mark - Co-Event Director, Coronation Park parkrun: It's an old colliery. I think it's the last deep-cast colliery to close in the UK.

00:40:36Calum Burrell: Right, wow.

00:40:37Mark - Co-Event Director, Coronation Park parkrun: I can't remember the date now, but it's all on the history board over there. It tells you all about it. It was the last one to close. The Harworth Group bought the land and remediated it. This is a green space.

00:40:39[crosstalk]

00:40:46Calum Burrell: It all looks fairly new, doesn't it?

00:40:46[crosstalk]

00:40:47Mark - Co-Event Director, Coronation Park parkrun: For the house and the state over there. It's all about the community.

00:40:50Laura - Co-Event Director, Coronation Park parkrun: Hopefully, in a few years' time, when all the trees have grown, it will be really, really nice.

00:40:53[crosstalk]

00:40:55Calum Burrell: Yeah, superb. So on the parkrun adventurers, they like to have a little bit of a discussion about what's kind of your parkrun moments, whether it's a top three or what would be in your parkrun history, what would be your standout moments in parkrun?

00:41:12Mark - Co-Event Director, Coronation Park parkrun: Well, if I go first, mine was going to... do the park to do the zed for the alphabet challenge a couple years ago and that was a standout moment for me yeah um probably the other one for me was getting the PB at Conkers many many years ago yeah which I haven't managed to repeat since but yeah they're two probably notable uh things for me apart from of course our inaugural event which went really well brilliant yeah so any standout locations for you other than um I like um what's it called the one with the pancakes

00:41:28[crosstalk]

00:41:38Laura - Co-Event Director, Coronation Park parkrun: Babbs Mill.

00:41:39[crosstalk]

00:41:39Calum Burrell: Babbs Mill. Renowned for the pancakes. Yeah, we've not been there yet, but I think Lindsay wants to go.

00:41:44Mark - Co-Event Director, Coronation Park parkrun: Babbs Mill for the pancakes. It's a little church across the road. We shouldn't tell you this, but a little church across the road. They do a pancake and a coffee for about £5. And the pancakes and lots of other things they make.

00:41:54Laura - Co-Event Director, Coronation Park parkrun: Waffles are absolutely to die for. I've got to tell you that. I'm not going to hide that from you. If you haven't been there yet, that's the place to go to. Really, really nice.

00:41:55[crosstalk]

00:42:01Mark - Co-Event Director, Coronation Park parkrun: Go there after you've been to Coronation Park. Yes, go and see us.

00:42:06Laura - Co-Event Director, Coronation Park parkrun: No, I'd say Babbs Mill. I've not done that many, so I've not been, you know, many places as many as you have. But I'd say Babbs Mill...

00:42:12[crosstalk]

00:42:17Mark - Co-Event Director, Coronation Park parkrun: what about Beacon Hill Country Park yes that's one of my favourites actually I always forget the name of them but that's really nice it's hard because the first mile is uphill yeah but it's really scenic so that's really nice um

00:42:19[crosstalk]

00:42:35Laura - Co-Event Director, Coronation Park parkrun: I'm here.

00:42:36Calum Burrell: Yeah, of course.

00:42:36[crosstalk]

00:42:37Laura - Co-Event Director, Coronation Park parkrun: We've got to stay here. Yes.

00:42:39Calum Burrell: Well, yeah, other than this one, yeah. Is there a third one? What about yourself, Mark?

00:42:44Mark - Co-Event Director, Coronation Park parkrun: For me, it'll probably have to be Lucca in Italy.

00:42:47Calum Burrell: Oh, the one on the walls. The one on the walls, yes.

00:42:47[crosstalk]

00:42:49Mark - Co-Event Director, Coronation Park parkrun: So many people say that. You imagine something like Chester.

00:42:52Sarah Jefferson: Thank you, Robert.

00:42:53Mark - Co-Event Director, Coronation Park parkrun: Thank you, Robert. You imagine something like... chester with a walled city but it's not it's a huge great big wide wall where cars and vehicles can drive around but it's it's only one one just one way around you do two laps of it it's a lovely view from the city and the old city and stuff yeah really special place brilliant okay well thank you for the parkrun today and uh as I say it was a lovely morning for it and you got a lovely park and uh yeah Thanks for coming, we hope you enjoyed it all. Yeah, thank you. And in a few years time when we've got finished, we might have a coffee shop and a better parking and some change of facilities and stuff. Yeah, it's all growing, it's all getting on.

00:43:16[crosstalk]

00:43:26Calum Burrell: It's really, really good. Brilliant. So everyone, come to Coronation Park parkrun. Thank you. Thank you. Bye-bye.

Roving report Tracey Wood — Workman's Beach parkrun

00:43:34Tracey Wood: Good morning parkrunners, it's Tracey in a Tutu and I've headed up north up the Queensland coast to the Discovery Coast. Where am I? I'm in Agnes Waters. I'm on the lands of the Gurungurung people. I acknowledge the Elders past, present and emerging and I'd like to respectfully acknowledge my ancestors on my mother's side who originated from here. This is Workman's Beach. I've arrived here and it's a little bit cold, but that's okay. We're trying to find a warm spot and let's get going. Course looks a bit interesting. Alrighty, listeners, I have now finished Workman's Beach parkrun and to say it's interesting is, yes, a bit of an understatement. So I have actually pinned down the Run Director of the day. I've got Lauren here. Hi, Lauren. Hi, how are you going? I am well. Lauren, for the listeners at home, would you like to describe this really interesting course?

00:44:33Lauren - Run Director, Workman's Beach parkrun: Yeah, so it's a beautiful trail run that we have. We've got lots of scenery and different terrain. So there definitely is some areas to be wary of. We've got some loose gravel, got a bit of a nice little hill that you've got to run up to our lookout there. And then there's the quicksand, we kind of call it as well. You get to a little bit of a sandy section, it slows you right down. But yeah, it's nice. It's beautiful scenery here and a nice little lookout.

00:45:01Tracey Wood: Yeah, so it's two laps up a hill, up around a hill, which is, yeah, fun. And then you go out and back along the sand. So yeah, great views. All very good. Now, Lauren, can you tell me how did you get into parkrun? How did you get into run directing? Yeah.

00:45:18Lauren - Run Director, Workman's Beach parkrun: Yeah, so I actually started parkrun probably about 11 years ago, so back on the Sunshine Coast where I'm originally from, and got into it with some friends. I'd heard about it and sort of thought, what a great idea, and then moved up here three years ago to beautiful Agnes Water, thought that you know this was something that was missing from in this area and a couple of the wonderful community sort of got this in got it started got it um all set up and running and what a great idea and what a great way to meet meet everybody and I just sort of came and began you know part of the team and and got involved with Run Director got involved in Event Director and just yeah was happy to be part of this wonderful community awesome

00:46:05Tracey Wood: I did hear that they had a bit of a delay in setting up as it wasn't just a straightforward, it took a while to get through the paperwork and Lauren's nodding and going, yep, yep, yep.

00:46:17Lauren - Run Director, Workman's Beach parkrun: Is three years what I heard correct? There has been, yeah, it's been quite a few years. There was a couple of people in the community that had tried to get it up and running in the past and... yeah council and sort of making sure that we had the right course it just it just wasn't being approved and um yeah we finally found found the course here at workman's beach and you know with all the regulations it was it was able to go ahead so we we also did have a course prior to this that we were looking into um that one was even more so of a challenge than this one and and you know, to be able to accommodate more for the community, we settled on Workman's Beach. So it's a beautiful course and a lot of people love it. When they finish, they all say what a great challenge it was. So, yeah, that's exciting. Awesome.

00:47:05Tracey Wood: Excellent. All right, kids, it's Tracey in a Tutu signing off from Agnes Beach, Workman's Beach parkrun. I'm heading off to check out and then find coffee. You all have a good weekend and see you another time. Bye.

00:47:10[background music]

00:47:26Sarah Jefferson: We are back from our roving reports where we heard from Yvette Turner speaking to Debbie. It was good to hear that, I guess, Debbie's misadventure in her first parkrun didn't put her off the whole experience, as I am sure that many people participating in the future, they may not sort of, I guess, be as keen to do that. And it was great to hear that the event numbers are continuing to rise as well. But OMG, warnings for coyotes, cougars, bobcats at bears. It's a bit scary.

00:48:08Simon Mackley: Yeah.

00:48:09Sarah Jefferson: But kind of exciting at the same time. We heard from Calum at event number 11, which was great, interviewing the co-EDs, Mark and Laura. Yeah. And we also heard from Tracey speaking to the Run Director, Lauren, about the course and how it came about after quite a bit of planning and set up. Not knowing the area too well. I do wonder if people are keen to head for a dip after this event. I know that Tracey mentioned it was a little bit cold up there, though, so maybe no big kahunas up there. I don't know, Simon. But I actually don't think I've ever asked you, Simon, you want to swim after parkrun if there is an opportunity not really no yeah you really haven't been um dragged into this big kahuna's chat have you no I have not luckily

00:49:04Simon Mackley: No, I'm not normally keen to go for a swim after a parkrun. I mean, Mossman parkrun was right on the water. Never felt like jumping in there. My friends at Main Beach always go for a swim after they've been there. When they were at Paradise Point, same sort of thing, runs along the water, they went for a swim. Yeah, I'm not a huge person for the swimming after the running.

00:49:28Sarah Jefferson: Have you ever swum after a parkrun?

00:49:30Simon Mackley: I don't think so. Oh.

00:49:33Sarah Jefferson: Simon.

00:49:34Simon Mackley: Yeah. Maybe during summer I need to do it.

00:49:38Sarah Jefferson: I was going to say, you know that here's the challenge. It's been set.

00:49:43Simon Mackley: Yeah. So I know you're coming up here in a couple of months or coming here in a couple of months' time. So maybe... Maybe we need to go to a parkrun that has somewhere to swim. I think that has just cemented where we're going.

00:49:57Sarah Jefferson: Oh, okay. I was going to say, I know like Moreton Bay, that is really not attractive to swim in. Nope. It's like mangroves and disgusting.

00:50:05Simon Mackley: No, I'm not suggesting that. I know where you're staying and I'm not suggesting a parkrun there. And I know when we went to New Farm, there was no chance of jumping in the water there because it's been a river or they call it the brown snake. No, not enticing. Yeah.

00:50:17[crosstalk]

00:50:22Sarah Jefferson: So, you know, for me, it's often not normally too hard of a challenge to jump in the water. So that's, yep. Are you committing to going for a swim after a park ride? I will.

00:50:34[crosstalk]

00:50:34Simon Mackley: I will now, yes. I will, yes. Okay. There we go.

00:50:37Sarah Jefferson: He says with confidence. Can't wait to hear back. Fantastic. Bring that on.

00:50:43Simon Mackley: Yeah, fair enough.

Dazza's

00:50:45Sarah Jefferson: All right. On the 9th of August, we heard from Dazza and we are going to share five comments from each of the last two weeks of Dazza's posts. So on the 9th of August, Dazza said, August is dedicated to something that very much reminds me of parkrun. It's about keeping track of numbers, usually just missing out on what you want and trudging through the bush. That's right. It's International Golf Month. Were you wearing an adventurer's tee? Did you pass along nicely? Whatever happened, Dazza is glad to have you in this club. Come on into Dazza's and let us know how your morning went. Since we have moved to a fortnightly pod, we haven't had a listener challenge. However, there was one on the set for the 9th of August, and that was to wear a tutu to celebrate for Mel. So that was an exception.

00:51:42Simon Mackley: Okay, the first of the five that we're doing from that date is Carmel Roll, who is at Brisbane Valley Rail Trail Blackbutt parkrun in sunny Queensland. She wrote... All about the numbers for me today. Not official parkrun milestones, but I consider every Saturday I cross the finish line is a milestone. Today was run number 350 and Volley 90 at Brisbane Valley Rail Trail parkrun. And there was a photo of Carmel in the event selfie frame with the Tail Walker vest on. So congratulations, Carmel, on your achievements. It won't be long until you obtain that red Volley 100 shirt.

00:52:21Sarah Jefferson: Congrats, Carmel. In New South Wales, we heard from Ivan Neville at Curl Curl parkrun, parkrun, Simon and myself are very familiar with. Yes. Ivan said, bloody wet at Curl Curl. And he posted a photo of himself with his raincoat and hood on and in his own words, looking bloody wet indeed. Yes. Well done for still getting out there and getting it done, Ivan. I'm sure many people, not adventurers, of course, would have skipped out on parkrun.

00:52:51Simon Mackley: I've got to say one of my favourite parkruns ever was a wet one at Curl Curl. The puddles that they get there, I just, yeah, I had so much fun jumping in those puddles. It was not a fast parkrun, but I had so much fun on that day. I can't remember how long ago that was, but it was quite a while ago. Anyway, moving on to the UK, we heard from Mitzi Middleton, who was at Ingrebourne Hill parkrun in the UK. So Mitzi stated, a true parkrun adventure with two trains and a bus to leave London for Essex and Ingrebourne Hill parkrun. Though only on run number 30, they claimed two of the boomerangs had visited, which we believe is two and eight. And they were full of welcoming cheer. The course description says one hilly small loop followed by two flat loops, but there's a surprise for the uninitiated. Went with new friends for breakfast and chats afterwards. Great fun. And Mitzi didn't tell us what that surprise was, but moving on, there was a photo of Mitzi with her five friends, mostly wearing their purple Ladies Who Run shirts with the Ingrebourne Hill pop-up.

00:54:04Sarah Jefferson: Oh, maybe Mitzi will have to write in and let us know what the surprise was.

00:54:08Lauren - Run Director, Workman's Beach parkrun: That'd be nice. Nice to know.

00:54:11Sarah Jefferson: In Western Australia, we heard from Val Warwick, who was up at Hampton Oval parkrun. Val mentioned, after a brilliant sunrise, these two Tasmanian adventurers ran and walked around the three laps at Hampton Oval parkrun. My tutu came out of its hidey hole in a caravan to celebrate with Mel in completely different weather on opposite sides of the continent. And I was asked why, as predicted by TOC in the Pod. Val also posted a photo of the sunrise in the comments, which was an absolute stunner. There was a photo of the lovely couple, Val and Steve, in the selfie frame with Val wearing her red tutu. Very impressive that you brought along your tutu Val and had it tucked away in your caravan just in case. Great dedication on the tutu front and fabulous to see you both ticking off some of those really hard to get to remote Western Australian parkruns.

00:55:08Simon Mackley: On that, we have another one from a very remote parkrun. So we heard from Lee Cabarita, that's her porn name, from Alice Springs Telegraph Station parkrun in the Northern Territory. Lee shared, good morning Dazza. Wow, wow, wow, wow. This morning I tail walked at Alice Springs Telegraph Station parkrun. It was such a beautiful sunrise as I walked along. I felt like I was in an Albert Namatjira painting as the sun rose amongst the white gums, lighting the surrounding rocks and gently changing their colour from cold morning grey to warm glowing red. Absolutely stunning. I had coffee at the Trail Station Cafe and continued on to the Telegraph Station exhibition, which was very interesting. I had no expectations prior and found this parkrun to be beautiful. Totally worth a visit. I'll definitely come back and run it next time. And Leigh posted a photo of herself in the parkrun selfie frame wearing the Tail Walkers vest, as well as quite a few layers of jackets and a beanie. It looks like Lee, for continuing to share your journey out to the many areas of Australia that people don't venture to.

00:56:21Sarah Jefferson: Yes, I second that. I really want to get to this parkrun, Simon. And Lee, you have made me want to get there even more. It is on my parkrun bucket list.

00:56:31Simon Mackley: She definitely painted a picture there like Albert Namatjira for sure.

00:56:35Sarah Jefferson: She certainly did. I can see this visual of the rocks. Sounds beautiful. All right. And this week on the 16th of August, as I said, It's National Science Week. Many studies focused on parkrun have found that those who participate are happier and have improved mental and social health, regardless of whether they run, walk or volunteer. But I don't think we needed scientists to tell us that. Wherever you went to improve your health that little bit, come on into Dazza's and tell us all about it.

00:57:06Simon Mackley: Okay, first from a selection of five from last weekend, we had Janet Reid, who was at Shiraz Trail parkrun. Janet shared, hello Dazza, I had so much fun at the inaugural inflatable event at Shiraz Trail parkrun today. What did I learn? That being a giant inflatable unicorn with a pump sucking in three degree air to keep me inflated was very cold, but I had heaps of fun. And there was a photo of 10 inflatables, including a large puppy, a chicken, two unicorns, a frog, a duck, a dinosaur, a zebra, a pumpkin and a squirrel. What a great idea and it looks like a stack of fun.

00:57:47Sarah Jefferson: Very interesting indeed. And it's not every day that you see these animals at a parkrun, is it? Or a pumpkin. That's right. That's right. In Victoria at Belvedere parkrun, we heard from Karen McKeon. Karen said, Two seconds off my course PB at Belvedere due to picking up my running dog near the finish. And there was a photo of Karen and her dog in the selfie frame. I love that Karen had the energy and the ability to swiftly manoeuvre the dog to get that PB. Two seconds. Amazing and very impressive.

00:58:28Simon Mackley: Impressive indeed. We also heard from Charles Gregory from Windsor Precinct parkrun in Tasmania. So Charles wrote, vaguely sciency, I completed a few numerical achievements. Today, I was at Windsor Precinct parkrun and brought my P index to nine. Well, very jealous there, Charles. A couple of weeks ago, I completed stopwatch bingo at my 159th event. Can someone please calculate the stats on the odds of doing it that early? So Charles shared a screenshot of his P-index and we, the parkrun adventurers, also reply. Impressive, Charles. Without looking at the parkrun specific stats, randomly collecting 60 unique items from a set would take around 281 goes. So you're well ahead of that on that front. We've also checked to see, and Mel is still awaiting that elusive 0-0 to complete her bingo with seven times she's done one second and finishing 13 times on 59 seconds. So it really just does come down to luck sometimes.

00:59:40Sarah Jefferson: Wow. Wow. And 13 times for 59 seconds. Sorry, Mel. I'm not going to mention it. We're moving on. We heard from Carolyn McRae in the Northern Territory at the new event, Lake Mary Ann Tingkkarli parkrun. Carolyn stated... Hi Dazza, we improved our sense of adventure by attending Lake Mary Ann Tingkkarli parkrun this morning. Hubby Follied with finish tokens and I tail walked. The Outback experience is truly amazing. A lovely welcoming team and they are excited to share this beautiful space with future tourists and adventurers. There was a photo of Carolyn with her adventurous top on in the selfie frame. So it's so great to hear from someone who has actually visited this parkrun. I'm super keen to get to this event as well. I feel like I picked the events that are really hard to get to, but I guess it's all about the adventure, isn't it? It is. So this parkrun is approximately five hours from Alice Springs, which has an airport. However, it would be 10 hours drive otherwise from Darwin. And Alice Springs is not a super busy airport, right? Darwin is a busy international airport. Yeah. Yeah, just for some context.

01:00:32[crosstalk]

01:00:55Simon Mackley: Yeah. And lastly, we heard it from Tricia Brown from Portobello parkrun in Edinburgh. Tricia shared 80th time volunteering at Portobello parkrun Edinburgh today. It was a struggle to get there, but as always, I loved every minute. And there was a photo of Tricia with a big smile wearing her yellow parkrun puffer. So well done, Tricia, on taking the hard option and showing up. It sounds like you were definitely rewarded for it. And thank you for all your volunteers. You'll be wearing that red volunteer shirt in no time. In fact, if you don't skip a parkrun and you volunteer on Christmas Day, there's exactly 20 parkruns left in 2025. So you could qualify for it this year just fine. Oh, fingers crossed that Tricia will get there.

the Obi Award — Karen McKeon

01:01:43Simon Mackley: Yeah.

01:01:44Sarah Jefferson: Do you have the Obilope, Sarah? I do have the Obi this week. Thanks for trusting me with it, Simon.

01:01:52Simon Mackley: No problem at all.

01:01:54Sarah Jefferson: All right. This week, the Obi goes to... ..Karen McKeon. That was some swift thinking and swift action to ensure that you got your PB this week. Congratulations, Karen.

01:02:16Simon Mackley: Well done, Karen.

Emails

01:02:18Sarah Jefferson: Okay, we have one email this week.

01:02:20Simon Mackley: Oh, and it's actually you that's saying it.

01:02:24Sarah Jefferson: That's right. I am saying it, Simon. We have one email this week. And it does come to us from Linda Black. It says, congratulations, Mel. So thrilled and excited for you as you celebrate this momentous double milestone. What a fantastic journey like no other it has been. Just so many wonderful experiences, courses and people that have touched you and enhanced your life. Lovely too to celebrate your birthday with you a couple of weeks ago. Big thanks for the huge contribution you have made to the parkrun adventurers community and podcast. Here's to the next 500 as you travel towards the yellow shirt. But in the meantime, wear that beautiful blue shirt with pride as you have certainly earned it. Looking forward to spotting you on a course with it soon. Have the best weekend. Cheers, Lynn and Pete. How nice was that?

01:03:18Simon Mackley: That was really nice, yeah.

01:03:21Sarah Jefferson: Yeah, beautiful. Beautiful to read that and celebrate Mel even more. And I agree, Mel deserves to be celebrated.

01:03:25[background music]

01:03:28Simon Mackley: Exactly right.

Club Corner

01:03:31Simon Mackley: Okay, it looks like it's time for us to throw to Reginald.

01:03:41Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III: This is Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III with a Who Am I Club Corner where we try to guess the parkrun name and I am coming to you from Arrernte Country. Who am I? The rules are simple. I will ask questions and you will shout out the name of the event when you think you are correct. Our beloved hosts may interject when they think they have it, but you will hear all the clues. And of course, the answer, winky face. Who am I? Clue 1. I am an event from a state not used in this series to date. Clue 2. My name includes a mixture of waters. Clue 3. My name includes alliteration. Clue 4. I was in the first dozen or so parkruns in my state. Clue 5. In fact, I was in the first dozen or so parkruns in Australia. Clue 6. I do not finish where I start. Clue 7. My closest neighbour is less than one kilometre away. Who am I? I am Claisebrook Cove in WA. And remember, in parkrun life, all non-Milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun, so stay tuned for our future club corners, where we return to our series on countries. Next up, Russia and Singapore.

01:05:15Sarah Jefferson: We are back from Reginald. So, it took me, Simon, until clue eight to get the Who Am I? However, when it mentioned that its neighbour was less than one kilometre away, that sort of gave me a hint. Okay. But Reginald got me again. How long did it take you?

01:05:38Simon Mackley: I didn't get it. I had no idea that that was going to be Claisebrook Cove. But, yeah, Reginald totally got me on this one. Well done. Well played. Reginald is very clever.

01:05:50Laura - Co-Event Director, Coronation Park parkrun: Mm-hmm.

Consolidated Club Report

01:05:52Sarah Jefferson: Okay, so the Consolidated Club report for Saturday the 16th of August of a total of 831 members, 575 took part on this date in 14 countries across 312 locations. So internationally, there are adventurers at 67 events in the UK, 11 in South Africa, 5 in Ireland,

01:06:07[15 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

01:06:22Sarah Jefferson: two in the USA, Austria, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, and Sweden each had one event. Locally, there were adventurers at 53 events in Queensland and New South Wales, 50 events in Victoria, 21 in Western Australia, 15 in South Australia, 9 in Tassie, 6 on the North Island, 5 in the ACT, 4 in the Northern Territory and 3 on the South Island.

01:06:56Simon Mackley: 4 in the Northern Territory. Sometimes we even miss Northern Territory. That's phenomenal. Huge. It is. At least we knew two of them were in Waller Springs and Tassie.

01:07:08Sarah Jefferson: the new one in Tennant Creek.

01:07:10Simon Mackley: Tennant Creek, yeah, I was thinking it was Tennant Creek.

the Frond

01:07:13Simon Mackley: Okay, so our largest international fronds. On the 9th of August, we had a frond of five at two events, which was Quakers Walk, where there was Helen Rutter, Andy Rutter, Darren Pead, Lucille Pead, and Cass Castleton, as well as there was five at Ross-on-Wye, and that was Chris Davis, David Irwin, Kat Lane, Xavier Sanchez, and Nigel Lane. And then the weekend just gone, there was a front of nine at one event, and that was Jubilee in Bedford, UK. And there was Ian Thompson, Matt Lovelock, James Avery, Mark Penny, Ellie Soper, Christopher Miles, Colin Hare, Andy and Debbie Airey.

01:07:58Sarah Jefferson: So a point of note, Simon, on the 2nd of August, there were 71 events that adventurers had attended in the UK. And that was actually the highest that we've ever seen. So however, on the 9th of August, there were 76 events attended. So I'm going to put it out there. How high can you go? Given that we've seen the member numbers grow incredibly in the past few months with members in the UK, I wonder if we can get the numbers even higher.

01:08:35Simon Mackley: Watch this space. Yeah. I mean, if we were to get adventurers at 100 events, that would be close to 5% of all UK parkruns, which would be pretty cool. It's pretty high.

01:08:49Sarah Jefferson: Got to set the bar high.

01:08:50Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III: Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

01:08:52Sarah Jefferson: All right. In terms of our pilgrimage on the 9th of August, we had Rosemary Knight, who finished in position 1,418 out of 1,516. This was her second visit to Bushy. We didn't have anyone there on the 16th of August. However, there was an adventurer at Bushy in Dublin on the 16th of August. It was Pete Johns. And I believe he is a Victorian regional ambassador. And this was his first visit to Bushy in Dublin.

01:09:31Simon Mackley: Lovely. Yes, I know Pete. Okay, our largest frond in Australia. It seems that Queensland's the party state. So, no surprise, on the 9th of August, there was a frond of 26 at Surabay. So, I'm going to quickly go through who was there. It was Eman, Ryan, Mark, Michael, Christine, Irene, Andrew, Sarah, Ian, Jackie, Barbara, Sam, Tracy, Lydia, Russell, Irene... Kelly, Belinda, Tracy, Tracy Leiper, obviously Mel, Cassie, Parth, Sarah Jantscher, Martine, Jolie and TOC. And then on the 16th of August, there was a frond in Queensland again of 13 at Gatton, which was Tim, Roger, Lockie, Delise, Barbara, Ian, another Denise, Sorry, the first one was Delise. This one's Denise. Michaela, Gemma, Catherine, Sue, Russell and Michael. So obviously the ninth was for Mel's 500 and the 16th was for Roger's 500.

01:10:49Sarah Jefferson: Just remember, you can add the Adventurers Club as one of your five affiliations on your parkrun profile.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

01:10:56Simon Mackley: Okay, launches on the 9th of August. Well, guess what? There was none again on that date. But wait, there was five in the week just gone. Over to you, Sarah.

01:11:08Sarah Jefferson: Okay, so the first one, Boulevard Lake in Canada, located in Thunder Bay, Ontario. We welcomed 14 finishers along with eight volunteers this week to this out-and-back course. Only 14 finishers.

01:11:24Simon Mackley: Yeah. There you go. And almost as many volunteers. Next, we had Black Swan Lake, Australia, which is in WA. So south of Perth, near the town of Mandurah, this two-lapper was visited by 127 finishers for week one. They were supported by 11 volunteers. So I guess that means that you are not a statesman again, Sarah. No.

01:11:48Sarah Jefferson: I'm not a statesman already anyway because of the Merredin Peak parkrun. I haven't been out there. So, no, now I have two, but that's okay.

01:11:57Simon Mackley: Oh, no.

01:11:58Sarah Jefferson: It's going to get away from you. It's expensive chasing this, I tell you.

01:12:01Simon Mackley: Yeah. Well, this one should be easier for you.

01:12:04Sarah Jefferson: This one we can do in a morning, and now we're up to 60 events in WA, which is great.

01:12:11Simon Mackley: Yes.

01:12:13Sarah Jefferson: Okay, our third launch, another parkrun starting with the letter B. It seems to be a bit of a theme. Bon Game Reserve in South Africa. So this course in Western Cape is well worth going to the map to have a look at. Described as a circular route, we will allow you to be the judge. 115 finishers and 12 volunteers for the launch.

01:12:42Simon Mackley: Okay, and the next one was Tourmakeady Wood in Ireland. So located in County Mayo on the western side of Ireland, a two-lapper that hosted 145 finishers for week one and 19 volunteers.

01:12:55Sarah Jefferson: And another one back in South Africa, Mentors Country Estate. Another reason to visit Jay Bay. Jeffreys Bay welcomes parkrun with a massive 509 finishers for their inaugural. There were 17 volunteers making this happen. That's quite impressive. 17 volunteers on a first event for over 500 finishes. Well done to the volunteers.

01:13:20Simon Mackley: They obviously couldn't keep that under their hat. And what I've noticed is that there was no events here that TOC would have slipped up on the name. This would have been the week that TOC would have been in his element with the names of all these ones.

01:13:34Sarah Jefferson: Yeah, he wasn't very happy with us doing it, I'm sure, because it's not funny to laugh. You know, there's nothing to laugh at.

01:13:41Simon Mackley: Yeah, true.

01:13:43Sarah Jefferson: Sorry, Toc.

Streaky September

01:13:44Sarah Jefferson: All right, Simon, looking forward, can you believe it is nearly September? It's nearly spring in the Southern Hemisphere. So streaky September. So is nearly approaching. This year, with our change format of Fortnightly Podcasts, we'll be including less content on streaky September. All the streaky fun can still be enjoyed over at the Streaky September Facebook page. You will find the Bingoe card there too. If you haven't already, make sure you join the group and start the Southern Hemisphere Spring on the right foot with a minimum of 2K of activity every day in any of your preferred ways.

01:14:26Simon Mackley: Excellent. I can't believe it's already Streaky September. Like, yeah, craziness.

Rapid Firewould you rather questions

01:14:32Simon Mackley: Okay, so we're bringing back the segment that we started last time we recorded. So this is where the background hosts, you and I, are presented with a range of questions that we haven't seen before. And as the segment suggests, as rapid fire, we have to respond in a quick way. 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. Now let's get this segment underway. Okay, shall I go first? Sure.

01:15:06Sarah Jefferson: Rain or sunshine?

01:15:08Simon Mackley: Sunshine.

01:15:10Sarah Jefferson: Runners or flip-flops?

01:15:12Simon Mackley: Runners.

01:15:14Sarah Jefferson: Trail or pavement?

01:15:15Simon Mackley: Oh... That is a hard one. I enjoy both. I'm going to say trail. Singlet or t-shirt? T-shirt. Coastal or bush? Coastal or bush? Coastal. Sorry, I thought you said postal. I'm like, what? Sorry. No, that's all right. All righty. And my one's for you. Would you rather travel to space or explore the deepest part of the ocean? The ocean. Would you rather have the ability to read minds or the power to become invisible? Invisible. Would you rather live in a city without internet or a countryside without electricity? All countryside for sure. Would you rather have unlimited free flights to anywhere in the world or never have to pay for meals again at restaurants?

01:16:14Sarah Jefferson: Definitely free flights. Yeah. Definitely.

01:16:19Simon Mackley: Would you rather be able to speak all languages fluently or be the master of every musical instrument?

01:16:26Sarah Jefferson: Oh, that's a tricky one because I cannot actually play any musical instrument, but I'm going to say languages because that would be quite an incredible skill to have. It would. To communicate with everybody on the planet. Exactly.

Sign-off

01:16:42Simon Mackley: Thanks, Simon. Alrighty. So where are you going next parkrun day, Sarah?

01:16:48Sarah Jefferson: So next parkrun day, I will be staying close to home. I'm planning to head to Lake Claremont parkrun for their 177th event as I am off to the theatre to see the matinee performance of Beauty and the Beast. So it'll be a quick, quick escape from parkrun on Saturday. What about you? Where are you headed?

01:17:11Simon Mackley: I am not sure. I'm going to have to stay local because it's our last soccer game for the season for Jackson and I need to be there because I'm manager. So I don't know if I can go to Logan River again so soon. I've done it quite a few times in the last couple of months. So maybe I will go. You know what, I might go to Scribbly Gums, get amongst the trees again and, yeah, get in the bush. Sounds lovely. Great. Alrighty, so that brings us to the end. So next fortnight we will have Mel and TOC back in the comfy chairs.

01:17:48Sarah Jefferson: And thanks, Simon. It has been fun as always. It has. But as always, listeners, 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. Bye. Bye.