Episode 439 - Legendary Intern

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

Welcome

00:00:21Tony O'Connell: And welcome to episode 439 of the parkrun adventurers podcast. A podcast about life. If your life is all about parkrun. My name is TOC from Inverloch and I'm coming to you from Bunurong Country. Cooee to our mystery host.

00:00:36Lyndell Murray: G'day parkrun adventurers and Cooee TOC.

00:00:41Tony O'Connell: I think our listeners might have worked out just from those couple of words who our guest host is this week. Welcome, Lyndell the Legendary. And I hope you got through the storms up in Brisbane all right tonight.

00:00:53Lyndell Murray: Yeah, all okay here, although I'm sure I'll hear about some damage further afield.

00:00:57Tony O'Connell: Yep, seeing some posts out there. But parkrun, Lyndell, I had a look today and I looked at our stats. And did you know that we've done six parkruns together? Even though you're based up in Queensland and we're in Victoria and we're probably 1,500 k's apart, we've done six parkruns together. Fair to say, though, five of those are at palm.

00:01:18Lyndell Murray: Yeah, I thought that might be the case. It's still a pretty good talkie, Dex.

00:01:23Tony O'Connell: It is a good one. And while I was diving into the stats, I looked at your tourist streak. As an adventurer, I was blown away. What are you sitting on at the moment, Lyndell?

00:01:36Lyndell Murray: I believe it is 97 at the moment. Yeah, so I've been working on that for a little while.

00:01:44Tony O'Connell: Wowzers, that's huge. That's amazing. Yeah, well done on that. And obviously the 100 coming up soon. I did see something floating around on the socials the other day about the 100th event.

00:01:56Lyndell Murray: Yes, I'm booking in a 100th event during December. I'm hoping that I might be able to get my streak a little bit higher than 100, but 100 seems like a good number to get a few people together and have a bit of park faff and talk about all the silly things that we do with our unofficial touristing milestones. I shouldn't call them milestones, should I?

00:02:18Tony O'Connell: Oh, that's a milestone. A hundred different events in a row, not repeating one. That's an epic milestone.

00:02:25Lyndell Murray: Yeah. So needless to say, while I'm coming to you this evening from Meanjin on Yuggera and Turrbal Country, I've spent a lot of time away. [Yuggera / Turrbal (Australian Aboriginal place and nation names): "Coming to you this evening from Brisbane, on the country of the Yuggera and Turrbal peoples."]

00:02:36Tony O'Connell: Very good. Very good. It's great to talk to you again. It's always great to have a catch up. I can remember we appeared in a photo together at Mount Barker all in purple hats and purple. I think that might have been about the first time I met you. I think the first time we really caught up.

00:02:53Lyndell Murray: Yeah, maybe, maybe. I do remember that. We ran quite a bit of the way together that day. So you slowed down your pace quite a bit, I would imagine, to run at my pace. And it was really lovely to just have that chat with you and get to know you.

00:03:07Tony O'Connell: And I would imagine.

00:03:09Lyndell Murray: I was at the Beaches as well, yeah.

00:03:11Tony O'Connell: I'd imagine that you had to suffer that day listening to my voice going on and on for 5Ks because I do tend to start talking and enjoy a chat.

00:03:20Lyndell Murray: I was probably puffing to keep up, so I was probably happy to listen.

00:03:25Tony O'Connell: Well, I'm going to give you a bit of a history of where I've been in the last month. We normally do this with ourselves and Mel. We catch up on the last month. And my last month, I started off the month at The Phar Lap Track. And I'm not going to name all the adventurers there because we did have the frond for the day and it was a huge number of people and I don't want to miss anyone. But it was great just to catch up with so many people there. And it's always great to see the parkrun adventurers T-shirt when you get to an event because you just home in on them and introduce yourself. Even you've got no idea who they are. It's always great just to have that little common bond. Definitely, definitely. The week after, I was back at Inverloch and I had a casual walk with the Tail Walkers. One of my friends was tail walking and, I don't know, it just seemed like a cool idea to hang out at the back of the pack, party at the back, as they say. Following that, we went to Lake Fyans, which is in the Grampians. And I am super thrilled that Lake Fyans is up. It's a bit of a spiritual place for the indigenous people. Lots of rock art in the mountains up there. But the whole Grampians area, it's one of those places that when I want to think about, I want to go for a trail run, the Grampians is one of those places. It's five hours away, but I'd love to be able to just duck over there and run. It's just such magical country. And so Lake Fyans is a new one. It's about 10K out of the Halls Gap area. And up there, there was, of course, Jacqui. Parth and Irene came up, and we caught up for breakfast afterwards. And I ran with Larry April for a little bit up there. And I'd caught up with Larry only a couple of weeks before, and I hadn't met Larry all that often. I'd met him at a couple of trail events and things, and I think I spoke about him last time. But twice in three weeks, we've caught up at really random country towns. And that's one of the magic of parkrun is you meet people and you keep bumping into them. Absolutely. This week, I went to Great Southern Rail Trail. It was one of the events I'm the ambassador for. And I caught up with Jo McCartney and had a chat to her. The really cool thing about Jo is Jo was the first person I interviewed as a roving reporter. And I think that was on episode two of the parkrun adventurers. So... There was a little bit of circle work there.

00:05:39Lyndell Murray: Sure is. What a great month that's been, catching up with old friends and new. It has been. Lyndell, how about you?

00:05:45Tony O'Connell: What have you been up to for the last month?

00:05:47Lyndell Murray: Well, I haven't repeated one in the last month, that's for sure. I started November at Coolum Eco parkrun. It was event number eight. So it's a pretty new parkrun that's launched up on the Sunshine Coast. And that's a new parkrun for me. And I was there with my friend Catherine and a couple of my other friends from Nambour parkrun. And Mossy from the Channel 5 News crew was also there. So it was really great to just catch up with friends afterwards and have a coffee at one of the local coffee shops up there. The following week, I re-indexed Maleny Trail parkrun, again up on the Sunshine Coast hinterland. This one was a solo trek up early and drove up to Maleny Trail. I had a few solo treks lately to just get to events all over the place. On the 15th, I headed to another new event for me. I'm going to say this wrong, I'm sure. Jeune parkrun out at Beaudesert in the, I guess, the Gold Coast hinterland area. And my friend Linda achieved her alphabet after 12 months of planning. Now, when I say 12 months of planning, not just for her alphabet, not to complete her, but literally to complete her alphabet. We've been trying to get to Jeune for months. for 12 months and just haven't been able to schedule it in. So it was so great to tick that off and see her become an alphabeteer. That was really special. And to top that off, another special event last weekend, I volunteered at Chermside parkrun on Tracey in a Tutu day. A lot of people know it as tutu day, but for me, it was Tracey in a Tutu day. She celebrated her 500th parkrun on Saturday.

00:07:25Tony O'Connell: I think that's a pretty amazing thing that at parkrun, we've actually named a whole day after one of our reporters, Tracey. Fantastic. She gets a whole day to herself. Yep. Great to see some of the pics of Tracey at Chermside with the 500. They're looking very happy with herself. And definitely Tracey was in a 2-2, as you would expect. So congrats, Tracey. Great milestone, great achievement. And yep, you're already in the blue top there. You'll be able to order one with 500 on the back of it now.

00:07:58Lyndell Murray: Yeah, she's already completed her 500 volunteers, so it's an incredible achievement for her.

00:08:02Tony O'Connell: It is, yeah. She puts in a hell of a lot for parkrun and particularly backing up with parkrun volunteering Saturday a lot of the time and then Sunday at Junior. So, well done Trace. Meanwhile, over in Kalgoorlie, a number of our regular people, Martine Barrot, Heather Morgan and Chris Fraser, all finished their Freyne at a Sam's Plans event. For those that don't know, a Freyne is 250 unique events, so 250 different events. That adds to a fair degree of travelling, trying to get out to 250 events. I'm still a fair way off, 250, and I can't say off for years. Yeah.

00:08:42Lyndell Murray: I'm only about halfway there.

00:08:45Tony O'Connell: Yeah, it's a big achievement. With the distances in Australia, when you knock off your local ones and you start to look further and further, I know we quite often say this, but my nearest event is probably 600 kilometres driving away to get to now. So it's not just something you can duck up to in the morning.

00:09:06Lyndell Murray: No, it takes a lot of planning.

00:09:08Tony O'Connell: Yes, it does. So well done on those three. And well done for playing and making it all occur at the same time for the three of you on the Big Sam's Plans weekends. And the photos from that weekend look really great. They look like they had a ball getting around Kalgoorlie. They went to the big pit and watched the big explosion. Yeah, it looked like a great time. Yeah, no, very good. So, Lyndell, tell us a little bit more about Tracey's big day. Yeah.

00:09:37Lyndell Murray: Oh, it was a terrific day. I was actually quite busy as photographer because there was a pretty big crowd there. A lot of people had come to celebrate Tracey, which was fantastic. Chermside's a good event in Brisbane. It's been going for quite a while, so it's got a really established team there that Tracey is a really big part of. The atmosphere was really great. There was a nice big cake and lots of people had bought other goodies as well. So there was plenty of sweet treats on hand and just a really nice celebration of Tracey and everything that she's done for parkrun. There was a guard of honour as she finished. She walked the course with some friends and I think she would say that she had a really terrific day.

00:10:16Tony O'Connell: Ah, cool. That, um, Would have been good to be at. I didn't know there was going to be cake there. I might have made the trip up. Yeah, cake. And for Tracey, of course.

00:10:26Lyndell Murray: Yeah.

parkrun news bulletin

00:10:27Tony O'Connell: What about our other news, Lyndell?

00:10:28Lyndell Murray: Well, the other big news, for the eagle-eyed, you might have spotted Mel and Dave on the Channel 9 News. Now, they stood out because they were wearing their adventurer's tops, of course, and they were doing zoomies, of course, at a fun run to celebrate the opening of a new road tunnel in Melbourne. Now, I don't know what tunnel that is, TOC, but you being from down that way, you might have a little bit more information about the event.

00:10:55Tony O'Connell: Yep, so it's a new road tunnel that goes under the Yarra to supplement the traffic going over the Westgate Bridge. And they had an open day where they had about 50,000 runners and walkers walk through it. The tunnel doesn't officially open for another week, but about a week ago they had an open day where you could register and walk and run through. They got about 20 seconds on the news for celebrating the tunnel and our very own Mel and Dave appeared within that 20 seconds zooming straight towards the camera.

00:11:24Lyndell Murray: Brilliant work, Mel and Dave.

00:11:27Tony O'Connell: No, great to see. And those blue tops, they just stand out so well. I got a message, watch the news, watch the news. And I thought, oh, yeah, I'll have a look. But it just stands out. It jumps out at you. Absolutely. That's the great thing at parkruns is they jump out at parkrun and you home in and those little fronds develop.

00:11:45Lyndell Murray: Absolutely. It's a really great little way to build a community, isn't it?

00:11:49Tony O'Connell: It is. And hopefully we'll have another run of t-shirts coming soon. So that's something to keep you... your ears out for. Definitely. In other news, Storm Claudia over in the UK, we've had a few cancellations for a few storms, but the UK seemed to love having cancellations on a big scale. They had 116 cancelled last week and then another 70 cancelled this week. And all I can think is winter's coming over there. That's just in the UK by the time you're out in Ireland and we'll hear about an event in Sweden later, right through that continental belt. cancellations we sort of think we're moving into summer it's getting warmer we start talking you know watch out for heat stroke and take some water to parkrun will be the messaging coming up soon and over there they're watching out for us absolutely it's a whole other level of safety to have to look out for on a parkrun course isn't it snow ice it's really slippery it's cold yeah And you've got to think about your Marshals. Your Marshals might stand out there for an hour just standing in one spot. That's not a lot of fun.

00:12:56Lyndell Murray: You'd need to start a new volunteer role for a hot chocolate provider.

00:13:00Tony O'Connell: Oh, I'd be in that.

00:13:05Lyndell Murray: More news coming as well. Lithuania. I've always loved the sound of Lithuania.

00:13:10Brittany - Co-Event Director, Dalby parkrun: I don't know anything about this country, but Lithuania sounds like a fabulous country.

00:13:14Lyndell Murray: They're relatively new to the parkrun world and they have announced their special day. They now have a few events running in that country. So have declared that Independence Restoration Day will be their special day. Next year, alert parkrun adventurers, next year their special day will be on the 11th of March, which is pretty close to when Palm is. So I'm not sure how many parkrun adventurers are going to get there this year.

00:13:41Tony O'Connell: Well, it's funny you should say that, Lyndell. Lithuania launched with Vilnius, at Vilnius, with Vingis parkrun. They've launched another one a week ago, and their third event launches, I believe, next week. And it's very early in a country's history for them to have a special day. You look at countries like Austria, and they don't actually have a special day yet. They've got probably six or seven events, and they don't have a special day yet. Lithuania have got theirs, so come on, Austria, lift your game. Absolutely. But you said there might not be many adventurers over there, but I happen to know that there's a group of UK people under the banner of the Aries Airway. Yeah. That are arranging a special trip on the 9th to Lithuania. And they were doing that as a little bit of a nod towards Palm to get a frond going for the UK listeners that can't get over to Aussie for our Palm. Yeah. And they've just had this massive bonus thrown at them where on the Monday, if they stay for a long weekend, they can do two parkruns out of the country. They can do two thirds of a country in three days.

00:14:50Lyndell Murray: That is too good of an opportunity to pass up, isn't it? That is brilliant. See, so if you can't get to Palm, organise a Not Palm and you'll be rewarded. This is what I'm hearing from that story talk.

00:15:02Tony O'Connell: That works for me.

Attendance and milestone stats

00:15:04Tony O'Connell: Rightio, moving along, we've got our stats section. Globally last week, there were roughly 336,000 finishers. I didn't personally count them, so I can't vouch for the number being accurate. And they were supported by about 47,000 volunteers. parkrun now has over 11.5 million registrations worldwide. That's a massive chunk of people. It's a lot of people. Let's do a deep dive in and see how many of those have actually run parkruns and how many have not just their first parkrun, but that all-important second one where it get back to it. 100%. It would be really interesting to know. And from our Kiwi correspondent, on the 22nd of November, New Zealand had 64 events. They recorded 11,792 finishers. Our New Zealand correspondents are a little bit more specific than we are over here. They were supported by 1,061 volunteers and they had 643 genuine first-timers. So the first time ever, not just first time to a new event. The largest was once again was Hagley with 733 finishers. And the best chance of a low position index occurred at East Otago High School with 17 finishers. Attendance records were set at Lower Hutt and Paringa, Alison's home turf. So well done, Lower Hutt and Paringa. Indeed.

00:16:28Lyndell Murray: All right. Back in Australia, we had 516 events with 6,366 volunteers helping out 72,514 finishers. 3,412 people registered for parkrun and 2,743 participated for the first time. So there's a bit of an insight into that stat. You've got 3,500 registering and under 3,000, 2.7 participating. So there is a bit of a discrepancy, isn't there?

00:16:59Tony O'Connell: I'd actually suggest that's a pretty high percentage compared to normal. I don't think we normally get that sort of percentage.

00:17:07Lyndell Murray: That's pretty high. That's nearly three quarters. That's actually 80%.

00:17:11Tony O'Connell: So I doubt that we generally get 80%. So we're coming into summer. People are registering to get that summer beach board going again. Yeah.

00:17:21Lyndell Murray: Well done. All the first timers. That's brilliant. And then moving over to the junior events. There were three junior events conducted and 131 of our little legends were guided by 73 volunteers. And in the junior world, we had a 50% ratio here with 26 new registrations and 13 first time ever finishers. In Australia, we only had one event with a new attendance record and that was Gawah in South Australia. Moving on to our field sizes. And on the 15th of the 11th, the smallest parkrun was Railway Park with four finishes. And our largest was Albert Melbourne in Victoria with 881. And on the 22nd of November, the smallest parkruns were Centenary in Queensland and Coober Pedy Oval in South Australia. They both had four. And the largest was again Albert Melbourne with 812 finishes. Unfortunately, in this last weekend, both of the two Queensland junior events were cancelled because we had some terrible storms again over the weekend and it was quite torrential rain on the Sunday mornings.

00:18:31Tony O'Connell: Lyndell, you seem to have had storms nearly every day for the last three or four days up there.

00:18:37Lyndell Murray: Yeah, it rained a lot over the weekend. Summer, I was just commenting to one of my work colleagues today that our traditional storm season is back over the last few summers. Our weather patterns have changed a little bit. But we're back to the way Queensland summers generally have been in the past, where it's stinking hot. And then we have this massive storm in the afternoon again. And then it clears and it's stinking hot and muggy again. So that pattern is back.

00:19:05[background music]

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:19:05Yvette Turner - roving reporter: All right, with our stats out of the way, perhaps we should listen to our roving reports.

Roving report Tracey Wood — Dalby parkrun

00:19:20Tracey Wood: good morning parkrunners it's Tracey in a Tutu and I've headed out west, Dalby. Dalby is about three hours drive from Brisbane uh we arrived yesterday stayed overnight I'm actually quite surprised at how big this town is it has a kfc mcdonald's all the important things just kidding um lovely little place anyway I've arrived at uh Dalby parkrun this morning. It's beside a little river type thing. I was speaking to Melinda, the Run Director of today, but she's a bit shy. So she's dobbed in Brittany this morning, who's also an RD. Good morning, Brittany. How are you?

00:20:01Brittany - Co-Event Director, Dalby parkrun: Good morning. I'm well, thank you.

00:20:03Tracey Wood: Now this is my first time here at Dalby. What should I expect?

00:20:07Brittany - Co-Event Director, Dalby parkrun: You should expect a very flat course and today we're going to do and every week we do three laps of the Myall Creek here.

00:20:16Tracey Wood: Right, and I'm hearing a lot of bird life out there. Should I expect to see some bird life and other native creatures?

00:20:24Brittany - Co-Event Director, Dalby parkrun: Yeah, you will see ducks on the course, water hens, some other, I'm not a birder, but yeah, there's certainly other bigger birds that habitat in the creek, so yeah.

00:20:37Tracey Wood: Excellent, and what's your parkrun history? How do you get involved in this gig? Colt, whatever. Hashtag not a cult, hashtag definitely is a cult.

00:20:45Brittany - Co-Event Director, Dalby parkrun: So I started running in 2017, not long after Dalby started. Participated as a runner, got involved in volunteering, thought I love this, then took on a role as Run Director. And then a few years ago, Melinda and I both stepped up as co-EDs for the event. So now I drag my husband and my kids along. So yeah, we're quite heavily involved here in Dalby and we love parkrun touristing.

00:21:13Tracey Wood: Ooh, parkrun touristing. Welcome to the parkrun adventurers.

00:21:17Brittany - Co-Event Director, Dalby parkrun: Tell me about your touristing. What have you got planned? We've literally just come back from four weeks in the UK. So we got to do a parkrun in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and one in England. The weekend we were there, Bushy was cancelled. So we were devastated about that, but we did this cute... little parkrun not far from where we were staying in the city in London and then we also got to do a junior parkrun on the Sunday so the kids participated in that my husband and I volunteered so we don't get the opportunity to do a lot of juniors out here but yeah it was nice so we got three flags for our 5k challenge so yeah so that was an amazing opportunity for our family.

00:22:02Tracey Wood: That's fabulous. Now we do have UK visitors so I have to ask which one in the UK? We did Highbury Fields I think it was called. Okay, Calum and other UK people, I assume you know where that is. Anyway, looks like we might be about to start soon. Thank you so much for talking with me. About how many should we expect today?

00:22:27Brittany - Co-Event Director, Dalby parkrun: We'll probably get around that 90 to 100 today. In the summertime, we do get somewhat higher numbers for us here in our small regional town. So lots of visitors to Dalby because we are the only letter D parkrun.

00:22:41Tracey Wood: in Queensland so lots of alphabet has come to us excellent well thanks again Brittany and you have a good day and I'm going to go enjoy Dalby cheers thanks all right, Tracey in a Tutu signing off from Dalby, also ticking off this one not yet finished so very exciting stuff already have a D so that doesn't bother me but anyway have a lovely day folks

Roving report Ruth Perkins — Moussette parkrun

00:23:05Ruth Perkins: Cooee parkrun adventurers, this is Ruth Perkins and today I am coming to you from Moussette parkrun, which I'm probably really badly pronouncing. And I'm just south of Ottawa at the moment and we're in Quebec now. Sorry, north of... oh dear I ran a bit hard today and I'm here with the Event Director Dominique and uh I understand so you helped set up this parkrun right from the beginning actually my wife and I are the instigators of uh of this parkrun brilliant and how long ago was that that this parkrun started just over four years oh brilliant and what what made you I'll start one in our backyard Yeah, the venue here for this parkrun is gorgeous. We're running along the Ottawa River, is that right? What should people know about your parkrun?

00:24:00Dominique - Event Director, Moussette parkrun: It's flat. People love the fact that it's flat. There's no hills, but it's also paved as well. It's well maintained, so people just love the view as well. The view of the trees, of the wildlife itself, because there's lots of wildlife on the course. Maybe not today, but there are wildlife.

00:24:20Ruth Perkins: What kind of wildlife have you seen? Have you ever seen a bear?

00:24:24Dominique - Event Director, Moussette parkrun: No, fortunately, we have not seen a bear. But we've seen, what do you call those? Deers, foxes. There's also woodpeckers and lots of birds as well.

00:24:41Ruth Perkins: Oh, that's wonderful. So when did you do your first parkrun, would you say? When was the first time you got involved with parkrun?

00:24:50Dominique - Event Director, Moussette parkrun: That would be in 2018 when my cousin, who at that time lived in BC, experienced the parkrun for the first time itself. That was the Clover Point. And he fell in love with the concept as well, with the view of the Pacific Ocean and Rockies. So when he came down to visit, he told me, well, there's parkrun here in Ottawa as well. So that's where he introduced us and the rest is history.

00:25:17Ruth Perkins: Yes, obviously you caught the bug, didn't you? Have you travelled internationally to parkrun yet? Or you think you will in the future?

00:25:26Dominique - Event Director, Moussette parkrun: Fortunately, no. Fortunately, we were in 2016. My wife and I were in Ireland and the UK as well, but we did not know the existence of parkrun so so it will be for next time for sure but yeah this is something that we would definitely love to do travel and see other parkruns in other countries so of the parkruns you've been to in Canada is there maybe one or two that really stand out you think are the best parkrun you've been to other than this one obviously well actually I I do have a soft spot for Saint-Paulin parkrun in the Mauricie area. It's a very, very little parkrun. It's in a municipal park. But it's like a European parkrun from what I'm told. Like the Tail Walkers, the coffee owners, so basically nobody gets to get coffee before the Tail Walker. So it's a nice little coin spot. Of course, I did the Frederic Back as well, the one in Montreal, which is very nice, very nice design. So a single loop and very athletic. A lot of a lot of athletes, but also lots of walkers. So it's so everybody can mingle afterwards with a nice coffee inside.

00:26:41Ruth Perkins: Oh, that's so wonderful. Well, thank you so much for today and for setting up this parkrun. I really, really enjoyed it. And thank you for introducing me to parkrun in Canada.

00:26:51Dominique - Event Director, Moussette parkrun: Oh, you're welcome. Thanks for coming out.

00:26:53Ruth Perkins: Yeah, merci beaucoup. [French: "thank you very much"]

00:26:56Yvette Turner - roving reporter: Good morning parkrun adventurers.

Roving report Yvette Turner — Lithgow parkrun

00:26:58Yvette Turner - roving reporter: It's Yvette Turner here and I have adventured from Canberra up to Lithgow parkrun in New South Wales. And today I'm talking to Paul, who is the Run Director. So welcome to the podcast.

00:27:09Tony O'Connell: Thank you.

00:27:10Yvette Turner - roving reporter: Nice to chat to you. Thanks for giving me your time. So today was event number 380. So you've been going for quite a few years.

00:27:15[crosstalk]

00:27:18Paul - Run Director and Event Director, Lithgow parkrun: We're in our eighth year this year.

00:27:19Yvette Turner - roving reporter: Yes. And so were you here from the beginning or can you tell me some information about how this parkrun started?

00:27:24Paul - Run Director and Event Director, Lithgow parkrun: I was here from the beginning. I was here on the inaugural parkrun. We had 133 participants on our first one. And the three people who got it done was Ross, Florentine and Catherine. They organised the original start and the original inaugural parkrun. And I took over as Event Director a while later after that. And I've been doing that for probably five or six years now.

00:27:44Yvette Turner - roving reporter: Oh, there you go. It's certainly one of the hardest parkruns I've done. It reminds me a little bit of Kate Reed in Launceston. Yeah. Lots of trails. So if there's somebody who's never been here and was thinking of coming, can you just describe what they're in for on this course?

00:28:00Paul - Run Director and Event Director, Lithgow parkrun: All right, what they're in for is a two lap course, the same lap twice. It does have a slight incline, but it's misleading. You might think it's a pretty high incline. The total elevation is really only about 69 metres.

00:28:10[crosstalk]

00:28:10Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III: Oh, it feels a lot higher.

00:28:12Paul - Run Director and Event Director, Lithgow parkrun: Yeah, a lot of people say that. But your watch should give you about 69 metres, but it's... It's flat. It's premium friendly. Well, the surface is flat. It is grass. It's generally easy for people.

00:28:25Yvette Turner - roving reporter: Yeah. It's very pretty. Very steep hills. Very pretty. I'd say it's in my top 10 prettiest parkruns. Oh, that's nice. Thank you. Very nice. And so do you get a lot of volunteers? Do you get a lot of visitors to this parkrun?

00:28:37Paul - Run Director and Event Director, Lithgow parkrun: We get a few. We get regular visitors through Easter and holidays. And generally through the year, we get a few just come to try it.

00:28:43Yvette Turner - roving reporter: Yeah, and what's the average number of people that you get out here?

00:28:46Paul - Run Director and Event Director, Lithgow parkrun: Currently, we're going pretty good. We're a small parkrun, so really 40 is an average. Today, we're over 50.

00:28:52Yvette Turner - roving reporter: Yeah.

00:28:53Paul - Run Director and Event Director, Lithgow parkrun: So that's not too bad.

00:28:54Yvette Turner - roving reporter: That's probably because of the Panorama Punish, which is on tomorrow.

00:28:57Paul - Run Director and Event Director, Lithgow parkrun: Yes.

00:28:59Yvette Turner - roving reporter: And so have you done any adventuring around the area?

00:29:04Paul - Run Director and Event Director, Lithgow parkrun: I have. Before becoming Event Director and a lot of run directing, I did venture. I got to about 36 or 37. other parkruns around the place. I've done three or four overseas. But that sort of stopped when I started where I'm currently event directing. I will get back to it.

00:29:20Yvette Turner - roving reporter: And do you have, out of all of the parkruns that you've done, could you pick your favourite or your top few or your prettiest or your hardest?

00:29:29Paul - Run Director and Event Director, Lithgow parkrun: That's a tough question. Probably the hardest, Blackbutt.

00:29:32Yvette Turner - roving reporter: You're right. Yeah, Blackbutt.

00:29:34Paul - Run Director and Event Director, Lithgow parkrun: I turned up at Blackbutt and spoke to another person there who was quite senior to my age. And I thought, oh, it can't be safe. But as of yet, he beat me home. So it's a pretty hilly course of Blackbutt, but very nice. It's in a very nice environment. Yeah, that's probably the hardest one.

00:29:42[crosstalk]

00:29:50Yvette Turner - roving reporter: And do you get to, are you often the Run Director here or do you get to do the parkrun as well?

00:29:55Paul - Run Director and Event Director, Lithgow parkrun: Oh, it's a bit of both. I'm injured at the moment. I've got a bit of an injury that's put me out. So I'm doing more volunteering in that role than I probably normally do. But yeah, I'm a Run Director with it a fair bit. Usually with Ross, who's not here at the moment. Yes. We sort of flicker between us. Okay.

00:30:02[crosstalk]

00:30:08Yvette Turner - roving reporter: And how many parkruns have you actually done?

00:30:11Paul - Run Director and Event Director, Lithgow parkrun: I've done 260 something.

00:30:14Yvette Turner - roving reporter: So close to 300.

00:30:15[crosstalk]

00:30:17Paul - Run Director and Event Director, Lithgow parkrun: Yeah, it's 260, it's thereabouts.

00:30:20Yvette Turner - roving reporter: And what's your favourite thing about parkrun, like when you first started doing it?

00:30:24Paul - Run Director and Event Director, Lithgow parkrun: people the people that come in everybody comes here friendly yeah so when we finish here at least go often we've got to send people home I sort of think they don't have a house to go to because they just hang around for so long talking after parkrun chatting um it's just a good environment and have a chat yeah people you don't see every every day

00:30:41Yvette Turner - roving reporter: Yeah, it's really good. Well, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it. And thank you for the interview. I have really enjoyed the parkrun, even though I thought it was very hilly, but very beautiful. And yeah, trail and grass, definitely worth a coming. So if you are in this general direction, come to Lithgow and come to Lithgow parkrun. Hope to see some people. Thank you so much. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Cooee adventurers, it's me again. Just before I send this report in, I wanted to amend my view that this was one of the hardest parkruns I've done. I think I was just feeling a little bit tired that day as it did feel quite tough. But on reflection, there are much harder parkruns out there. Lithgow does have a little bit of incline as it's all on trail and grass, but I still think it's one of the prettiest ones that I've done. Running through the bush and the trees reminded me of running at Kate Reed in Tassie, but Lithgow really is not that bad. So give it a go if you're in that neck of the woods. Happy parkrunning!

00:31:25[background music]

00:31:34[13 seconds of audio that could not be transcribed]

00:31:47Tony O'Connell: And it was great to hear those roving reports. We had Yvette at Lithgow. She was talking to the RD who is also the ED Paul. We had Ruth at Moussette in Canada talking to Dominique about his very flat parkrun and he was very excited that there were no bears and I reckon if I was a parkrunner there I'd be pretty happy with there being no bears as well. And then we had Tracey in her tutu at Dalby, and she was discussing some questionable food choices initially, and then she had a yarn with Brittany. So great to hear from you guys. We still have a couple of roving reports in backlog, but we're slowly catching up, so that's great news as well.

Dazza's

00:32:27Tony O'Connell: Rightio, we're going to go across to Dazza's. We pick five comments each week from the last two weeks of Dazza's posts. On the 15th to the 11th, Dazza said, Crikey, it's Steve Irwin day. Did you wrestle a croc or wrangle an emu this morning? Come on in and share your tales of adventure.

00:32:46Lyndell Murray: And we heard from Billo at Ovens River Trail parkrun in Victoria. And he says, no crocs or emus this morning, but plenty of bangs from the gas guns near this event. Hashtag, if you know, you know. A pleasant morning doing one of my locals. I'm really enjoying doing my locals again. Keeps it fresh. When I mean it, I mean parkrun adventuring. Went to Ovens River Trail parkrun for my fourth official visit with a PB. Then, on my way back home, I caught up with the team at my home parkrun, Yackandandah Rail Trail parkrun, for that cappuccino. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, legends. And he also commented with a photo of Billo in the funky pants with the Ovens River frame.

00:33:33Tony O'Connell: Yep, we're going to go across to South Australia next, and we had Val Warwick coming to us from Reynella East. Well, Dazza, no wrestling or wrangling, nor fortunately no sighting of a serpent as I park walk with a first-timer, answering questions and selling parkrun with an absolute commitment to returning next week. But not until after Janet Llewellyn Reid and I had a very big Val and Janet hug. After parkrun, of course, Steve and I, Rowan Stoddart, Jeff and Janet had a very long, long, long park there. Not sure that the three boys got all that much in. And a couple of laughy face emojis. Oh, what a fabulous morning we had. After brekkie, Steve went and did a freedom while I walked around. A little local lady who thought I was old but was shocked to find out my age. I tried to sell parkrun but unsuccessfully. And there was a photo of Val, Steve, Janet, Jeff and Ryan with the selfie frame. And we also heard from Janet Llewellyn Reid. Hi Dazza, we had a great morning at Reynella East parkrun, although we were very alert, knowing you're kangaroo wrestling for us. We met up with Steve and Val and Ryan for a beautiful event. I love meandering around the series of little lakes, a three-hour park path followed. It's been a while between park paths, and I don't know about you, Lyndell, but three hours, that's bordering on probably one of the longer ones that I've had, so great to see them catching up for that sort of time. Yep, it's a pretty long one, but sometimes it's worth it.

00:35:05Lyndell Murray: Next, we heard from our very well-travelled friend, Andy Airey, and he was in Yamba in New South Wales. And Andy said, Yamba was the second and final parkrun of our quick visit to Oz, flying back to UK on Sunday morning. I need a holiday now. And he sent in a picture on the banks of the Clarence River with Yamba selfie frame.

00:35:30Tony O'Connell: That's a lovely little parkrun too. I remember meeting M. Nick up there when I went to Yamba. She drove down and caught up with us, which was really cool. Righty-o, we're going to head back up to Queensland to Kewarra. And Tracey Wood sent us a message in. A little bit concerned about the sign saying crocodiles might be in this area at Kewarra Beach parkrun. Completed it safely though. And there was a group photo centred around the Kewarra selfie frame.

00:35:59Lyndell Murray: And lastly for that week, we heard from Ali Sheppard, who was at Morden in the UK. And Ali said, no wrestling and no wildlife was involved at Morden parkrun this morning. I was just very glad that Storm Claudia subsided in time for me to meet up with parkrunning friends and that it wasn't cancelled. I feel a connection to Steve Irwin though, as the one and only time I've been to Australia was last year. I was staying in a hotel in Sydney that had an inspirational women floor and I was allocated the Bindi Irwin room. And Ali sent in a group photo with the Morden pop-up.

00:36:38Tony O'Connell: And that was a great little photo. And for those that have seen it, that also appeared as our Consolidated Club Report photo. Rightio, the second week, the 22nd of November. And for the 22nd, Dazza said, it's 2-2 day. Did you 2-2-2? Welcome to Dazza's. Tell us your 2-2 cool stories from parkrun this morning.

00:37:01Lyndell Murray: And we heard from Andrew Blanda at Benalla Botanical Gardens parkrun in Victoria. Hello, Dazza. I had ventured down to Benalla Botanical Gardens parkrun, and yes, I did wear my tutu. Park Faf at The Merchant in Benalla, where I met Lou, Jen, and another couple of locals. And Dazza's minions made me a small hot chocolate and red velvet cake. And there's a very big smiley emoji underneath. probably at the mention of the cake and the cappuccino. The picture was Andrew in a very stunning looking red tutu in the event selfie frame.

00:37:40Tony O'Connell: Rightio, we're going to stay in Victoria and this one is a friend of mine and this is a sad tale. But Wendy Glen came to us from Churchill. My Tutu story is sad. I had a big car accident recently. I was shocked and in an ambulance as my car was towed and I got my handbag but nothing else out of my car. By the time I was well enough to inquire about getting my stuff from my car, it had been written off and was gone forever, along with my huge stash of tutus in the boot, including the one with my name printed, a gift from my friend for my 250th, my handmade green one with the fairy lights and a dozen others. I no longer own a single tutu. So today was kind of sad for me, made happy by finding another adventurer at Churchill parkrun. So happy tutu day all, but sad no tutu day for me. And I'm sorry to hear that, Wendy. I have seen the photo of the individual tutu with Wendy all over it. But the picture that you had was from Churchill and it's the back of an adventurer's shirt was the other person that was at Churchill. And I'm going to say that that was one of the friends of the pod, Natalie Sopper. Natalie, if you're out there, can you confirm that it was you? I'm pretty sure it was you. It was. And with respect to losing all your tutus in a car accident, all I can say is no.

00:39:03Lyndell Murray: Oh, indeed. Losing tutus, especially personalized ones and sparkly ones with fairy lights. That's a very, very sad story indeed, Wendy. Moving northward, we heard from Sarah Jefferson, who was at Lota in Queensland. And our very own Sarah said, Happy 2-2 day, Dazza. I ventured to Lota parkrun in sunny and humid Queensland. So lovely to see Belinda, Simon and to meet Mark Walls. Didn't get attacked or followed by a plover. Phew. Have a great weekend, parkrun adventurers. And in amongst that, she's got a little emoji of a bird next to the plover and a running emoji just for the sheer joy of parkrunning. And she included with her post a photo of all of those people in their adventurer's tops. There were Sarah, Matt, Belinda, Simon and Mark.

00:39:59Tony O'Connell: Right, yeah, we're going to stay in Queensland again. We have Kate Kremen-Rose. And Kate's comment was, only one wearing a tutu at Zillmere with a laughy, cryy face. And the photo was of Kate all tutued up in the selfie frame.

00:40:15Lyndell Murray: Only one tutu at Zillmere. They're very much about their Zs and not so much about 2s. So maybe that's what it is. But the Z is a kind of back to front 2. I don't know. They should get into tutus. Upside down something. All right. Moving on, we will head to Ginninderra in the ACT with Faye. And Faye simply said at Ginninderra. But the photo shows Faye and Anthony in a perfectly synced zoomie, complete with multicolour tutus. So it sounds like they let their picture do the talking and let the picture tell a thousand words.

00:40:53Tony O'Connell: Certainly did. It was a great photo, Faye. Well done. And the last one I've thrown in as a bonus one, and it was just an interest one. We heard from Tonya Gollard from Brisbane Valley Rail Trail in Queensland. And the comment was, holy guacamole. And there's a little emoji of an avocado. Ladies at the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail parkrun got into the tutu mood. So much fun and a little starry face emoji. The photo was eight people in guacamole tops and all in tutus. But, Lyndell, I went to our Consolidated Club report and it shows that there were no members at Brisbane Valley Rail Trail, so... Do you even listen, bro? Eight of you and not one person was a member of the adventurers. Come on, guys. Do you need a hand to change over?

00:41:44Lyndell Murray: Maybe they do. Maybe they listen, but they're just not very good at following directions.

the Obi Award — Faye Canberra

00:41:51Tony O'Connell: Lyndell, do we have an Obi? I believe you've got the envelope up there in Queensland today. I do have the envelope.

00:41:59Lyndell Murray: And the Obi goes to Faye for that fabulous photo, the perfectly synced zoomies and beautiful tutus. So well done, Faye. Yay, well done.

00:42:11Tony O'Connell: Righty-o.

Emails

00:42:13Tony O'Connell: Lyndell, we're going to move to emails, and we got an email this week. I'm always excited when we get an email because we actually don't get that many emails. People comment, people message, but we don't get that many emails. And I'm an old bloke, and emails are still new tech for me, so I'm happy to see an email come through. And this week's email said, Hello, parkrun adventurers pod team. What a great job you've done to select the Clare Valley for the location of palm26. A simply stunning place. Literally the day before you announced the location, I organised a trip to the Clare Valley. Rather than change our bookings, we decided to travel to Port Broughton parkrun from Clare. Clare Valley parkrun was cancelled last minute due to a shed and house fire backing onto the trail. So big thanks to you, as it would have been a no parkrun day for us if we had have stayed in Clare. Thank you so much, pod team, for all the hard work and the precious time you dedicate to produce a fabulously informative podcast. So looking forward to palm26. Happy parkrunning. Lynn and Pete Black. That's a great email. I love getting emails like that where someone's gone off on an adventure and they've gone somewhere else. Change of plans, not quite last minute, but I did see that Claire had a cancellation because of a fire and this has just worked out perfectly. They've gone somewhere else so they could come to Palm for a new event. This has worked out perfectly for them.

00:43:44Lyndell Murray: Absolutely brilliant. Fantastic, Lynn and Pete, and we can't wait to meet you at Palm in 2026. All right, that is it from Dazza's this week.

Club Corner

00:43:56Lyndell Murray: So now it's time to head over and hear from Reginald.

00:44:05[background music]

00:44:06Reginald 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. We are back in the Northern Hemisphere, and this time we are looking at another country to launch in this most popular of years, 2017. Can you guess which country comes next? Or do you know? It is Norge, aka Norway. Toyen parkrun in Oslo launched in August 2017, and in eight years since, Norway now totals a dozen open events. First the geography, Norway is on the outer bit of the hangy bit that sticks out from Europe above the UK, got it. Most of their landward side is shared with Sweden, but they do have a section in the northeast with Finland, and the top northeast borders Russia. For size and scope, Norway is about the same landmass as Victoria and Tasmania combined, but the shape is nothing like it lol. Norway features Festningen parkrun, currently the third most northerly event in the world. If you are curious, the second most northerly event is Broparken parkrun in Sweden and the most northerly will be revealed when we get to Finland. Festningen is a three-lapper around a fortress. Nice. Norway has many multi-lap events, and it is not uncommon to have three laps around, or within their community. An event that jumps off the page for Norway includes of course their inaugural event, Toyen (Tøyen) in Oslo. It is currently only three and a half laps. It was previously five laps, and you start near the sculpture Vindfruen, the Windlady. There is also Nansenparken or Ekebergsletta to choose from in Oslo. Two other newish events to launch in Norway have been Greveskogen and Berger Stadion. They both do so in 2025, and are on the eastern side of the country. That is the side that is full of wriggles on the map, aka the fjords. If you google Norway and reasons to visit, you will be knocked over by the many great options before you, especially if you like winter things. So it is not hard to see why many people love it there, and as a sidebar, this part of the world is considered very happy. Here are the rankings from the 2025 happiest countries. Finland 1, Denmark 2, Iceland 3, Sweden 4, Netherlands 5, just for something different, Costa Rica 6, then back to that region with Norway in 7th. Australia come in 11th and New Zealand 12th. We will spare some other listening countries with where they appeared on the rankings winky face. Next time we head west, leaping over Sweden and will land in Finland, the number 1 happiest country on earth. So remember, in parkrun life, all non-Milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun, so stay tuned for our future club corners.

00:46:55[background music]

00:46:59Tony O'Connell: Rightio, another fact-finding mission from our friend Reginald, and they were telling us all about Norway and Norway's history in the parkrun. And an interesting fact about Norway, Lyndell, and I'm sure you probably don't know what this is or what I'm talking about, but I'll find out at the end. The fjords in Norway were designed and built by Slartibartfast. So do you have any idea at all what I'm talking about?

00:47:25Lyndell Murray: Be careful how you say that word, that name. I have some idea. I do know that Slartibartfast is a character from Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. That is all I know. But apparently he designed the fjords in Norway.

00:47:44Tony O'Connell: You've done well to get to that point, Lyndell, because most people, if I said that to them, they'd either slap me or tell me I've got no idea what I'm talking about. But yes, in the movie Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, he certainly did design the fjords in Norway and he won an award for the said design. So obviously they are magnificent. Rightio, enough of my waffle about Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Consolidated Club Report

00:48:10Tony O'Connell: We're going to go across to the Consolidated Club Report and the Consolidated Club Report for Saturday the 22nd of November. Of a total of 850 members, 610 took part on this date in 11 countries across 310 locations. Internationally there were adventurers at 66 events in the UK, 8 events in South Africa, 5 events in USA, 3 in Ireland, 2 in Germany and 1 in events at Italy, Japan, Singapore and Sweden. Locally, there were adventurers at Atai. New South Wales and Queensland both had 54 events with adventurers. Victoria had 50 events. Western Australia had adventurers at 20 events. There were 16 events with adventurers in South Australia, 11 in Tassie, 7 in the ACT, in the North Island, three in the South Island and no people from the Northern Territory, although three of the events in the Northern Territory, those around the Darwin and Palmerston area, were cancelled due to a cyclone. It's a pretty good reason to cancel a parkrun, I would have thought. I would have thought the same.

the Frond

00:49:22Lyndell Murray: moving on to our fronds and on the 15th of the 11th there was a frond of seven at one event and that was queen elizabeth's grammar school in the UK and that was Helen and Andy rutter Darren and Lucille Pead Andy and wendella pool and Claire win the check I don't I'm sorry Claire Claire w you know who you are Then on the 22nd of November, there was a Fronde of Five at One event, and that was Ingrebourne Hill in the UK. And that Fronde was comprised of Phil Olson, Carolyn Tuck, Darren and Lucille Pead, and Cass Castleton, friend of the pod.

00:50:07Tony O'Connell: Certainly, and the Peds, they're certainly getting around a little bit too. The Australian explorers, I think we'll have to coin a phrase for them. The Australian explorers, they're getting around and yeah, doing quite well. We have. a couple of people doing pilgrimages. So on the 15th of November, Ian Thompson was back at Bushy for his third visit. And on the 22nd of November, Martin Waller was there for his first visit. He finished in position 877 out of 1324 in a time of 30 minutes and 24 seconds. Well done to the pilgrimages.

00:50:47Lyndell Murray: Moving back to the fronds, and on the 15th of the 11th, there was a Fronde of Seven at two events, Carine Glades in Western Australia. That was Kevin Murphy, Rihanna and Rosie Williams, Alan Raven, Alana Clifford, Franz Farrell, and Tanya Pearton. And the other Fronde of Seven was at Reddall Reserve in New South Wales, and that was David Bennett and Bernadette Bennett, Blake Wells, Mark Weber, Leanne Cox, Sue Keane, and Michelle Smith. I wonder if that's the Mark Webber of Formula One fame. Then on the 22nd of November, there was a Fronde of 13 at Kalgoorlie Boulder. Now, I wonder who they were, hey?

00:51:31Brittany - Co-Event Director, Dalby parkrun: Hmm. Hmm.

00:51:33Lyndell Murray: They were Chris and Karen Gore, Andrew Johnston, Heather Morgan, Yvette Turner, Sherry Brandtman, Jan Yates, Carolyn McCrae, Luke and Sam Schroder, Jan Manners, Martine Barrot and Roberta Winter. On the 22nd, there was also a Fronde of Eleven at Coolum Eco in Queensland, two Frondes of Nine at Chermside and The Phar Lap Track in Victoria.

00:52:00Tony O'Connell: And, Lyndell, I reckon if you went and had a look at some photos of Kalgoorlie Boulder, and particularly if you looked at the pictures of some of Sam's groups, Carolyn McRae that was over there. Carolyn is an extraordinary, I don't know whether you'd call it a yarner, or she makes things out of yarn.

00:52:19Alice - lead vocalist on the "parkrun Party" song: Yeah, I do.

00:52:20Tony O'Connell: Carolyn's represented Australia and gone to exhibitions globally with what she does. And she actually made a little parkrun duvet for everyone that went there. So it was really cool to see the picture of them all together. So nice little cool thing. brilliant right out we've heard all those numbers and all those fronds and that and we'd like to remind people you can add the parkrun adventurers as one of your five affiliations through your parkrun profile if you're stuck with that and particularly if you're one of those guacamole ladies that can't work out how to add the parkrun adventurers just drop us a message and we'd love to help you out and get you involved in the parkrun adventurers if you listen

00:53:04Lyndell Murray: Here's a challenge. Have a go, guacamole ladies, and get onto it.

00:53:11Tony O'Connell: Well done. Well done.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

00:53:14Tony O'Connell: Rightio, the growth in parkrun continues. In the last two weeks, there have been nine planned launches, and they are, on the 15th, we had a launch at Blades Hotel parkrun in South Africa. This one's just north of Pretoria, and it had 304 finishes.

00:53:35Lyndell Murray: And I've been stitched up here, TOC, with the launch of Lithuania's second event. It is Kultūros Ir Poilsio Parkas, which is right in the centre of the country. And for week one, there were 75 finishes. [Lithuanian: "Culture and Leisure Park"]

00:53:51Tony O'Connell: I think it's just important to know that Lithuania has a second parkrun there and well done on having a crack at that because I think the listeners know if that had been me, I'd still be trying to wrap my tongue around the first word and everyone would be laughing out loud by now. Rightio, we had Elemore Park parkrun in the UK. This is up in the north near Sunderland and 152 finishes on the day. And out of the 152, there's only one person that had never been to parkrun before.

00:54:23Lyndell Murray: Another launch was at Frank's Farm parkrun in the UK, and that's up in the Cambridge area. And there were 212 finishes on week one.

00:54:31Tony O'Connell: Rightio. We're going to move across to the 22nd of November. And there were four and a half launches on this weekend, Lyndell. Four and a half.

00:54:39Lyndell Murray: Wait, you're about that half? Four and a half?

00:54:42Tony O'Connell: Let's get down to that and we'll work out how you get half a launch. The first one was De Soza parkrun, and that's in the Greater State in Australia, down in Victoria, just south of Ballarat at Buninyong. It's a four-lapper course. We have three four-lappers now, I think, in Victoria. They had 107 finishes for week one and 18 volunteers.

00:55:06Lyndell Murray: I think we found our half-talk. Bulltofta parkrun in Sweden was due to launch, which would be a second parkrun in Malmö, but it was cancelled due to heavy ice and snow, which we touched on earlier in the pod. So they postponed their launch until the 29th of November.

00:55:26Tony O'Connell: Rightio. I've got the Japanese one this week, Lyndell, and because I've got it, I've translated it into English. Isn't that wonderful? So we've got the Yamata Sports Park parkrun in Japan. Look at that. Didn't get my tongue tied around that one at all. Gold Star Talk. It's near a town of Tottori. There were 15 finishers at the launch, and none of those were doing their first ever parkrun. So a fair percentage there, about 60% of the people doing their all-important first parkrun.

00:56:00Lyndell Murray: Yeah, brilliant. And I'm sure they'll all turn up for their second as well. South Africa we're heading to next and Dorothy Nyembe parkrun launch there. It's a three lapper near Joburg and there were 68 first time ever parkrunners and that was out of 175 finishers. There are also 24 volunteers including our very own Johan.

00:56:23Tony O'Connell: Yep, well done, Johan. And we're going to go back to the UK, Llanfoist Crossing parkrun. It's a new parkrun in Wales. There were 373 finishers that celebrated the launch and they were supported by 35 volunteers. And just another little note about launches. Lyndell, there could be a cluster of them occurring somewhere in the world next week. So that's going to be something to watch out for. There's a big group of them coming. So good on you, parkrun. They're finally clustering some launches and I think that's the right way to go because it means that everyone can't flock to a launch.

00:57:01Lyndell Murray: Oh, yes. Good plan. Good plan. Maybe they just dust it out their drawer and cut all the red tape all at once.

Watching the numbers

00:57:11Tony O'Connell: Rightio, in the ongoing segment that we're calling watching the numbers at whatever parkruns, because we haven't picked one yet. We haven't found one yet that we want to track. So with the abundance of launches coming up, I'm sure there's going to be one that'll tickle our fancy soon enough, but not yet.

00:57:27Lyndell Murray: All things take time, TOC. We can wait.

00:57:30Tony O'Connell: Yes, yes. No, we want to find one that's interesting and not a big city one. Just, well, I suppose we did follow Brooklyn and that was a pretty big city.

00:57:41Lyndell Murray: Biggest city there is. Well, it's not really the biggest city, but it's New York.

00:57:44Tony O'Connell: It's up there. Rightio. For all our listeners out there, Palm. Palm is coming up. I am trying my best to get some more information out in the next, I'm going to say, week or two. I'm hoping for a week. Let's say two. This gives me a little bit of slack time. A little bit on programming. For those that are trying to book accommodation, there is no one set place. There's going to be a few of us in Clare. So I think we're going to have to spread out a little bit. I know there's a few staying at the caravan parks. There's a few Airbnbs. Probably a few people crashing at the pub. And there's probably a few people sleeping in the car out the back somewhere. So look, there's no set venue. It's a small town, so we're all going to be close enough to catch up plenty of times anyway. But there will be some events and they'll come out. We'll put them on both the parkrun adventurers page and on the Palm page so that people see them. We'll try to promote them a little bit so that people can see the events. We would love people, once we get the events up, to be able to click to say if they're coming or not. Just give us some ideas and numbers, particularly on the Friday night and the Saturday night for the dinners. Saturday night, as everyone knows, is our traditional fancy dress, but it would be good to be able to give our venue a rough idea of numbers. We don't want to tell them that there'll be 20 there and have 50 turn up because there's probably going to be some people that get hungry.

00:59:07Lyndell Murray: Yes, and we don't want hungry parkrunners.

00:59:10Tony O'Connell: No, no, they sit around and talk too much if they're hungry.

00:59:14Lyndell Murray: Yeah. Thank you to the party planners for Palm. I know that there's a lot of work that goes into that talk. So give yourself some time and don't worry too much about the deadlines.

00:59:29Tony O'Connell: Right. Yeah. What have you got on the plans for the next week?

00:59:32Lyndell Murray: Next week, I'm heading to South Australia and I will be at the home of Larry the Lobster in Kingston, Essie at, I think it's Moriah Creek parkrun, Moriah Creek Reserve parkrun. I'm not sure whether it's Moriah or Maria, but. Pretty sure it's Moriah. Yeah. Either way, I'm going to say hello to Larry. Yeah.

00:59:54Tony O'Connell: How about you, TOC?

00:59:55Lyndell Murray: Where are you headed?

00:59:56Tony O'Connell: Lyndell, I'm in that awkward position where I have absolutely no idea. In fact, I'd say last Saturday was only decided late on Friday night. I don't have any big plans. It's going to be an event locally, and by locally, probably within an hour of travelling, so it gives me a dozen to pick from. But I don't know whether I'll work on a P-index or a Wilson or...

01:00:22Lyndell Murray: I might just go and volunteer so I don't know I had no idea this week man after my own heart if I wasn't three away from a hundred tourist streak I'd probably have no idea where I was going either I've been forced into planning and it's not my usual way I usually like to just make my mind up at the last moment so yeah look I

01:00:46Tony O'Connell: I'd see where someone's going and I think, oh, that looks cool. Let's just go there. Or someone says they're going to have cake. They've got talk.

01:00:53Lyndell Murray: Yep. And they don't often announce cake until very late in the piece.

Sign-off

01:00:56Lyndell Murray: So...

01:00:57Tony O'Connell: Now, rightio, next week, or next fortnight I should say, next fortnight, we have Simon and Sarah will be back again. Remember, 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.

01:01:15[outro theme playing]

01:01:21Alice - lead vocalist on the "parkrun Party" song: It's Saturday morning.

01:01:26Tony O'Connell: Wait a minute. Hold the horses. Back up the train. Lyndell, are you still there? Lyndell? Lyndell? Are you there? Bugger. I've just found an envelope from the Office Lady. The adventurers T-shirt portal's open for the first time in over two years. These T-shirts are great. They really make you stand out in the crowd as a proud, passionate adventurer. Head over to the Facebook page for more details. The portal's only open for a limited time. And I forgot to thank Lyndell the Legendary for jumping in to record tonight. It was great fun. Thanks, Lyndell. Catch you later on another parkrun.