Episode 441 - All Aboard 2026

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

Welcome

00:00:23Melissa Ellis: welcome to episode 441 of the parkrun adventurers podcast a podcast about life if your life is all about parkrun my name is Melissa Ellis and I'm coming to you from warundjeri country welcome back to the boss's seat thank you sir I hope you've been well and enjoyed your Christmas break happy New Year

00:00:47Tony O'Connell: Yes, Mel, and same back to you. And I'm sure we'll hear all about my Christmas break and New Year very surely. But Mel, why don't you kick us off and give us a bit of a recap of what you've been up to?

00:00:58Melissa Ellis: Oh, OK. Well, straight into it, everybody. It has been a while since I've been around. So firstly, I'd like to thank Lyndell Murray for stepping in for me at late notice back in November when I had a family emergency and podcast hosting had to take a back seat. This means that I haven't actually recorded with you, TOC, since late October. And that is way too long ago to recap all my adventures. It was 13 parkrun days ago to be exact. So in that time, I have managed four new events, Lake Fyans Walking Track and De Soza parkrun in Victoria and Kingscliff and Inverell parkruns in New South Wales. These were all prior to Christmas, with the latter being on a week-long break to northern New South Wales with a girlfriend. I chose Kingscliff as I had long wanted to kick off my last geographical Australian compass point and Inverell as it allowed me to complete the Namely Challenge and also was a new event for my travelling buddy. Christmas Day was home at Toolern Creek. Usually I would travel over the new year period to explore at least three more new events interstate, but this year I made the decision to stay home. Adventures were still had, with me acting as tour guide in the Victorian Wimmera area of Horsham, something I'm always happy to do, revisiting one of my favourite parkrun courses and some of the surrounding silo art trail. My Christmas holiday break also allowed me some extra midweek running, much needed time to rest and I even managed to squeeze in a night at the Big Bash Cricket to support the Melbourne Renegades in the Aussie T20 competition. Now my last parkrun day, TOC, would be the logical one to recap in detail, only I'm going to leave that one for you.

00:02:45Tony O'Connell: Thank you very much Mel and congratulations. Yeah, it was great to see your adventures around. I know you do love to get up to your Wimmera River. It's an event that I love to get up to. Great crew up there. Got some good friends up in that area. And it's just a beautiful little parkrun, isn't it, along the river and over the bridge?

00:03:02Melissa Ellis: Yeah, one of my faves. And I did chat to Sauce. Yep. We got a selfie with him.

00:03:09Tony O'Connell: Which you sent to me. Thank you very much.

00:03:13Melissa Ellis: And so why don't you let us know what you've been up to over the Christmas break?

00:03:19Tony O'Connell: We went on our traditional O'Connell family road trip. It seems to be a thing now where we get in the car, drive generally somewhere between probably 3,000 and 3,500 kms in a week to go to do some new parkruns, taking advantage of things like the New Year's Day bonus parkruns so that we can make it worth the travel. This time, we decided to head over to South Australia to Victoria has been reasonably cool South Australia looked a bit warmer when we decided to go over there little did we know that we'd be heading over there into 42 and 43 degrees centigrade which was a lot hotter than we have here our first stop was Renmark parkrun it's a beautiful parkrun along the Murray river the Murray river for those that are unaware it forms a large part of the border between Victoria and New South Wales and then flows through South Australia meandering its way down to the coast I walked with a bloke Alistair Lee who I'd met through the various parkrun groups Alistair and I had a good walk and a chat along the river and we just walked the whole parkrun we were both saying alright we're going to run soon and we'd start chatting and suddenly the finish line was there and it was pointless to start running so it's one of those parkruns where you just enjoyed the day enjoyed the chat enjoyed the birds and then it warmed up quite a bit From there, we drove across to Yeldulknie Weir parkrun, which is in a little town of Cleve in South Australia, which probably involved another 900km drive across, just a little short trip, short hop, incredibly warm one again it's a beautiful little country parkrun they only average probably 30 or 40 a week as a big crowd traditionally their New Year's Day parkrun has been about 15 to 20 people so we thought yep nice small one I sent a message into them and said I'd like to help if there's anything available if not I'll just turn up and run they sort of said back how fast I saw at the moment I might be 30 minutes if I'm lucky and they said oh you're a fast runner you can be a Barcode Scanner so thank you you're talking that was a massive hit to my ego and a boost to my morale so thank you very much um We were surprised when we got to Yeldulknie because we didn't think we'd know anyone and Dan the Blue Wiggle Baldwin and Sandy turned up. We'd parkrun with them in Inverloch about a month ago and they'd heard our travel plans and they just decided to surprise us by popping up at Yeldulknie of all places, which was really great to see them. I actually ran the whole parkrun with Dan, ran a bit quicker than planned. I was going to run with Sandy when I saw them turn up, but... That was a great little parkrun. Unfortunately, there was nothing open in the town on the day. We couldn't even get a coffee in the town at the survey. So short circuit that. And we jumped in the car again, went for another road trip across to Broken Hill this time. So we've done a big circuit through Victoria, South Australia and into New South Wales. And I tail walked at Broken Hill. Broken Hill is right inland. It's probably where you consider the outback to start. So for those people that watch movies, for example, if you've watched Mad Max 2 or Mad Max 5, that's where they filmed it. So in the dusty, the red outback, what you'd consider, you know, into Australia's heartland. The course markers around are all painted on rocks around the course. Great little track around the race course. And I tail walked with one of the locals, Robin, and we just had another great chat as we walked around. It was a day that at home Inverloch set an attendance record of about 450, which is about 90 more than normal. And I tail walked and I came in in position 18 as Tail Walker. So opposite ends of the spectrum. And then, Mel, that leads us on to the big one, Saturday. Jacqui and I ventured down to The Phar Lap Track. It's a course, I think, last time you and I spoke, I was heading to Far Lap at that point. It was Jacqui's 500th parkrun. So we... We headed down there. Jacqui wanted to go to The Phar Lap Track. And we were met by yourself and Dave, which was really great to see you there. Dawn came along. Deborah Jessop turned up. She changed her plans last minute when she saw we were heading there. And it was really good because we saw Deb at Tubo's as well. And Bobby the horse was there, of course. So a great day. The RD... On the day Dan had prepared a great set of stats about Jacqui, because I might have accidentally said she was coming down there. Jack likes to fly under the radar a bit in the 500th. I thought we need to make a bit of a celebration. Funny coincidence, he did all this work on stats and presented Jacqui with a whole heap of information on the day. The next day at the two-base trail run at the finish line, Jacqui's handing out the medals, and the Run Director, Dan, came through, so she was the one on the finish line. When Dan finished, she got to make a presentation. But, no, all in all, it was a fantastic day. Jacqui's finished at 500th, I think. Quick run through her stats, I think she's on 217 different locations, 140 volunteers, and been a fantastic supporter for me and my parkrun journey, as well as quite a few other people. So it was great to actually get there and celebrate and get to that blue shirt.

00:09:10Melissa Ellis: And we should mention why she chose The Phar Lap Track. They've got their own special way to celebrate the milestones, don't they?

00:09:18Tony O'Connell: They do, they have, being the home of Phar Lap and Phar Lap being a Melbourne Cup winner, they have a set of cups with all the milestones. So the 500 that we're celebrating is a blue cup that looks like a Melbourne Cup.

00:09:34Melissa Ellis: Yeah, and they're made out of the core flute. So they're a core flute cutout, double-sided. So one side is blue that says like 500, but the reverse side will be V500.

00:09:46Tony O'Connell: Yeah, so they're multifunctional cups and they're about half a metre high. So they're quite a nice little trophy and that makes for a lot of good photos having the 500 cup there. And they have the same for all the other milestones as well. In fact, we celebrated 100 with one of the locals on the day and a V25 on the day. So, yeah, a few celebrations out there. But, no, look, just a great day. We went off and had coffee and breakfast afterwards and then trundled off to Tubo's Trail Race. Mel, that was...

00:10:17Melissa Ellis: our big celebration for jackie's 500th now to order a blue t-shirt and if you want to if anybody out there wants to see the photo it was featured in the consolidated club report on the weekend so jump onto our Facebook page and you'll be able to have a look at said photo I must also say, TOC, I was actually at your dog near last New Year's Day so that's a funny coincidence

00:10:41Tony O'Connell: It is, Mel. Yeah, it's, as you would have seen, a great little spot. Very dry up in that area, very warm. But, yeah, love the little town.

00:10:51Melissa Ellis: I actually think I also wandered around trying to get a coffee unsuccessfully on New Year's Day. Can't complain, though. It's New Year's Day.

00:11:01Tony O'Connell: And look, it's a beautiful little town. It's one of those little treasures of a town. As we were walking around the town of Cleve, where Yeldulknie is located, I thought you could live in this town. It's just beautiful. They've got brilliant sporting facilities. They've got all the shops. We went out for tea the night before in the pub, and it was just one of those laid-back country pubs. Great little place.

parkrun news bulletin

00:11:23Melissa Ellis: Fantastic.

00:11:24Tony O'Connell: Right, Mel, that's our quick recap of where we've been for the last 13 weeks, without being the full 13 weeks, but I think we should move on to some news.

00:11:36Melissa Ellis: Yes, what news have you got for me, TOC?

00:11:38Tony O'Connell: All right, I'll kick off. So on the 6th of January, parkrun Australia announced the appointment of three additional non-executive board members to the parkrun Australia board. Now, these guys are in addition to the existing board, so they're just providing a little bit more expertise and a little bit more numbers in there for their decision-making. The three people that have come on board are Darren Goucher from Centennial parkrun, who has 25 years in sports leadership and includes... In that time serving as CEO of Athletics Australia. So, you know, someone that's been very heavily involved in sports. Rowan Greenland from Burley Griffin parkrun, which for those that know is in the ACT. He's currently CEO of MS Australia or Multiple Sclerosis Australia. And Stevie Ring from Cameo parkrun. Stevie's had senior leadership roles in Woolworths and worked in various healthy food initiatives. So look, I think we've got some great additional people onto the parkrun Australia board and we'd like to welcome them, into the parkrun world, although they are all regular parkrunners. So it's not like they're coming in from outside. They are regular parkruns. And in fact, Simon, I think, knew one of the parkrunners from years ago in Sydney. So they're not even new parkrunners. They're well-experienced parkrunners.

00:12:59Melissa Ellis: Established. Established. Good word. And they come with connections. That's what we want for parkrun, isn't it? Connections. In the corporate world.

00:13:07Michelle: Welcome to that world.

00:13:09Melissa Ellis: Now, more news. Following on from the Australian announcements, parkrun Global have announced the appointment of Ellie MacArthur as the new global head of event delivery and volunteering. Ellie has been involved with parkrun for years, having been an Event Director at Bolton parkrun, followed by a stint as an event ambassador. For the past eight years, Ellie has been a regional ambassador, so he comes into the role with lots of experience.

00:13:36Tony O'Connell: Very important. That's a key role in parkrun, I would have thought. Mel is the head of event delivery, getting things happening out there to event level. So, yep, welcome, Ali. Another great addition. Rightio, Mel. Moving along with our news. Attendance records. I think Christmas has been... For the Australian side of things, or the APAC side of things, it's been incredibly busy. On the 3rd of January across Australia, 31 individual events broke their attendance records. And as I said earlier, Inverloch didn't just go ahead by a couple, they jumped by 90-odd people. We saw Albert Park set a record of 1,570, which is... Yeah, mind-blowing that that many people, to me, would turn up at a parkrun. Even though I've run at Bushy and I've run in that sort of number, the thought that somebody like Albert, that's normally around the 700 or 800, could double that for an event. Obviously, the cricket inspired it. A lot of UK people over for the Ashes games. The Barmy Army, they're running parkrun. I don't know, I didn't hear the chants in the crowd, but that's one thing I do love about the Barmy Army. When they start a chant, they just keep going. It's not like our half-baked efforts at a chant. It just keeps going. I love it. But anyway, yes, the 31 event set attendance records. And in Australia, we had 99,191 finishes. So we were only... 810 people off 100 000 people participating and finishing a parkrun for the first time ever by the time we have our 6832 volunteers on the third we had well over 100 000 people in Australia doing parkrun which is a huge number it's mind-blowing as someone who's been involved in parkrun now for probably 11 or 12 years, back when in Gippsland, I can remember we got excited when we were getting, like, 300 people. And now I think on that weekend, I think we had 2,700 in Gippsland do parkrun. You know, the numbers and the growth are just fantastic to see. And I see... There's a number of events coming up. That growth's only going to continue to expand and expand out into new areas that currently don't have parkruns. So I'm loving watching that growth and I love it each time we get to our launches and we talk about launches because I see that as being the future for parkrun. But yeah, Australia, well done. Lots of attendance records in that group.

00:16:22Melissa Ellis: So if Albert Melbourne had an attendance record, does that mean that was a national record? Yeah.

00:16:28Tony O'Connell: That does mean that was a national record, Mel, and I think it broke the previous national record by about 400 finishes.

00:16:37Melissa Ellis: Nice work.

00:16:38Tony O'Connell: I think it was about 1,180 or somewhere around that. So it was well and truly... a huge number of finishes for an Australian event in particular you know I think in Australia we've probably only had half a dozen events if that that have exceeded a thousand finishes and to jump to 1570 that's a massive jump huge jump we'll have to watch for the next couple of weeks, TOC because we've now going into oz open so tennis the tennis enthusiasts will be in town Yes, and we do see a surge of numbers, particularly in those inner city, the Parkville's, the Albert Park, Studley Park, Kirkdale, those areas in that inner city. We see a bit of a jump in numbers, especially around those centres.

00:17:30Melissa Ellis: But while we have been enjoying growth in numbers, we've also just recently been experiencing the cancellations. So in a land of extremes, Australia, both bushfires and floods have seen 43 cancellations. The UK have had the opposite end, ice, snow and cold due to storms. And they had 392 cancellations. Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, just one event out of their 27 events went ahead last Saturday. Zuiderpark, Hoogeveen, with just eight finishes. So that's a record low, maybe, for a country attendance record.

00:18:16Tony O'Connell: It is, Mel. You look across the world and there are a number of countries. Look, I guess Malaysia is probably an example where they only have the one event. For a while, you had Lithuania with the one event. I guess every country starts with one event. But in living memory, there's not too many times that a country would have such a drop in numbers from 27 events down to one on a weekend. And to have just eight finishes in the whole country... where they regularly have 27 parkruns is huge. But it was definitely a set of extremes. We looked locally in the Australian context. In Victoria, we had extreme heat. We had poor air quality. We had bushfires cancelling. One of my events is in an area that was being evacuated, so naturally they cancelled. We had a whole heap of examples of that. Then you go up the eastern seaboard to Queensland and they've got floods and a cyclone hitting them and they're talking about getting half a metre of rain in a day, so 500 millimetres of rain. So it just shows you how much of an extreme country we are with the size that we have.

00:19:26Melissa Ellis: Yes. Now, that was the cancellations, but you've got some more news would you like to share?

00:19:33Unidentified speaker: Mm-hm.

00:19:34Tony O'Connell: I have, Mel. One of the parkrun Australia staff has recently retired from headquarters and she was very much a well-loved staff member by all the Australian events and by the staff, obviously. I know she's retired. She's planning an awesome holiday on her boat. And we'd just like to wish Mandy Oliver all the best for her future travels. So thank you very much for all you've done for us.

00:19:59Melissa Ellis: for parkrun Mandy and thank you for those chats that we've had on the phone I've really enjoyed your company so yeah thank you on behalf of Australian parkrunners Mandy join the Adventurers Club so we can see where you go maybe maybe Mandy will stop in at some ports and do parkruns we'll have to watch that oh, TOC, we can have a new segment never mind watching the numbers we can be watching where mandy oliver parkruns

00:20:28Tony O'Connell: That's our challenge to Mandy out there. You've got to travel around and find countries that have parkrun that you can get to on a Saturday. Righty-o, Mel. Moving along, we're out of our news.

Watching the numbers

00:20:40Tony O'Connell: Let's go into some stats. I like my stats as well. At the time of doing our notes on the 10th of January, so last Saturday, New Zealand had 67 events and they recorded 13,844 finishes. Now, this is another all-time country record. So for New Zealand, that's jumped their country record by over 1,000 people, so probably around 8% or 9%, increase on their previous highest record um so more growth or more events and more spread out through New Zealand which is great to see they're slowly covering the map up with the little parkrun logos um they were supported by 1098 volunteers and on Saturday six events in New Zealand so about 10 of their parkruns uh recorded an attendance record for the day so you

00:21:33Melissa Ellis: great growth in New Zealand meanwhile back in Australia we had 488 events with 6438 volunteers assisting 89 382 finishers just shy of 7 000 people registered for parkrun and just over 5 000 participated for the first time probably a lot of New Year's Eve resolutions that we see every year hopefully they keep coming back In the junior events, we conducted five events where 457 little legends were guided by 101 volunteers, 63 new registrations and 57 first time ever finishes. Now, there was the smallest parkrun on the 10th of January. There was three. Baxter in WA had four. Pyramid Hill Golf Trail in Victoria had five. And Bourke Racecourse New South Wales had six. The largest three were Toowoomba, Queensland, with 737. South Bank, Queensland, with 883. And Albert, Melbourne, with 1,072.

00:22:49Tony O'Connell: That's an interesting little highest and lowest there, Mel. Well, out of those, I've done the Pyramid Hill golf course and it had a few more on the day we did it. It was a beautiful little course. In fact, Pyramid Hill is one of my favourite little courses to get around. And I've done two of the biggest, South Bank and Albert Melbourne. How about you?

00:23:08Melissa Ellis: I've been to Baxter. Oh, fantastic.

00:23:12Tony O'Connell: That's a long drive.

00:23:13Melissa Ellis: I've been to Baxter. I was at Pyramid Hill with you when you did it. So I, and I've only done Albert Melbourne out of the large ones. I have not officially done Toowoomba or South Bank.

00:23:24Tony O'Connell: No, we did Toowoomba though as a freeder at Palm in 2024. Correct. It's very difficult with 2026 having to take two years off now.

00:23:35[background music]

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

00:23:37Tony O'Connell: Righty-o, Mel. That's enough of listening to you and I talk. How about we listen to a couple of people that have been out adventuring?

Roving report Ali Sheppard — Tapijn parkrun

00:23:50Ali Sheppard: G'day. Ali from the UK here, but I am currently in the Netherlands, and I am... I'm currently at Tapijn, am I pronouncing that right?

00:24:00Remco: Yes, that's correct, Tapijn.

00:24:02Ali Sheppard: And I'm here with the Event Director of Tapijn parkrun. His name, I'm going to let you pronounce your name.

00:24:07Remco: Yeah, my name is Remco.

00:24:08Ali Sheppard: Remco. And we've just finished Tapijn parkrun, which was wonderful, which was absolutely lovely. I really loved it.

00:24:15Remco: That's good to hear. Yeah.

00:24:16Ali Sheppard: So tell us about Tapijn. How long has it been going on? We're in Maastricht.

00:24:21Remco: That's correct. We started actually just before the whole COVID pandemic happened. So we had two editions and then we had to basically close for a whole year.

00:24:27[crosstalk]

00:24:33[crosstalk]

00:24:35Ali Sheppard: So you had two parkruns?

00:24:37Remco: Two parkruns, yeah, and then we had to shut down. We started with 10 other parkruns in the Netherlands and we were one of the first 10 to start parkrun here in this country.

00:24:47Ali Sheppard: Wonderful, wonderful. And so you're Dutch, you live here. Yes, I am. But there's a lot of British people, I think, involved as well with the parkrun.

00:24:57Remco: Yeah, not only British, but also people from South Africa and other countries. A lot of expats are involved in it.

00:25:00[crosstalk]

00:25:04Ali Sheppard: And Maastricht is a really pretty, charming town. You have a lot of people from different countries here. It's very international.

00:25:13Remco: Yeah, it's very international because of the university. We have 25,000 students here and I think about half of them are from abroad. okay yeah yes and the the site of the parkrun um is on an old army base yeah that's all all the nato base that's correct yeah okay and uh a few years ago the the university uh bought us this this whole area and uh and now the university buildings

00:25:43Ali Sheppard: Yeah. So tell us about the course. It's three laps?

00:25:47Remco: It's a three-lap course, yeah. It's only quite a small park, so we had to use every path there is to get a three-lap course in. But we managed to do it, and I think it's... It's not the fastest course because there are a lot of turns and bends, but there's also a lot to see. That's also nice. There's a lot to see.

00:25:54[crosstalk]

00:26:09Ali Sheppard: There are animals on the course. There are deer.

00:26:13[crosstalk]

00:26:13Remco: There's a giraffe with a girl.

00:26:14Ali Sheppard: There's a giraffe with a girl. There's some odd artworks. Yeah, that's correct. The giraffe is dead and there's a bear that looks very sad.

00:26:25Remco: Yeah, the giraffe is in a bear pit. I think in the 80s, there was the actual bears in it.

00:26:32Ali Sheppard: Wow.

00:26:34Remco: And the bear sitting on the bench is a statue of the last bear who lived there.

00:26:39Ali Sheppard: Okay, yes. I know it was really lovely. We were walking around and... really, really enjoyed the parkrun. But what's your history with parkrun? So did you know about parkrun before you?

00:26:51Remco: Well, I found it online somewhere, the initiative, as it was in the UK. And I thought it was such a great concept. So I sent an email to the parkrun headquarters and they replied to me that sadly there was no parkrun in the Netherlands, but they would reach out to me if they eventually would start. So a few years later, then I got an email from them. Hey, are you still interested in organising parkrun? Because we are going to the Netherlands.

00:27:19Ali Sheppard: So you actually thought of setting up parkrun before parkrun was even in the Netherlands?

00:27:23Remco: Yeah, but I found it online in the UK.

00:27:27Ali Sheppard: Wow, that's amazing.

00:27:28Remco: I love the concept.

00:27:29Ali Sheppard: Yeah, it is a great concept. And so then you started this one up in Maastricht just before COVID. So we must be on what event number? I can't remember.

00:27:39[crosstalk]

00:27:39Remco: 2.40, I think.

00:27:41Ali Sheppard: 2.40, yeah. Today.

00:27:43Remco: um and you haven't done many you were saying before you haven't done other parkruns uh only only only one in the Netherlands which is really really close by and I did uh I did one in aachen which is uh over in Germany over the border yes but yeah normally I'm here at this park and so I don't have a lot of opportunities to go to other parkruns but I should pick that up

00:27:48[crosstalk]

00:28:05Ali Sheppard: And how many people do you get generally coming here to Tapijn?

00:28:10Remco: It gradually increased. We started out with 20, and now I think we are 60, 70, 80, sometimes 100. It depends.

00:28:19Ali Sheppard: Wonderful, wonderful. Well, thank you so much. It's a lovely parkrun, Tapijn. Adventurers, come along here. If you're in the Netherlands, come to Maastricht and come to Tapijn.

00:28:31Remco: I'm glad you enjoyed it.

00:28:32Ali Sheppard: It was wonderful. Thank you.

00:28:33Remco: Thank you.

00:28:35Ali Sheppard: So also in Tapijn, and the reason that I'm here is I have come here to meet Heather Hunter from Australia. Hi, Heather. Hi, Ali. And we met in Queenstown in New Zealand at the Palm this year. This year still, yes. It's incredible. And so at Palm, I think you mentioned that you were coming to the... Europe, to Europe, but you weren't coming to the UK. And so you've been on a grand tour of Europe involving how many countries?

00:29:08Heather Hunter: Four countries. Four countries, I think, yes. And four parkruns in three different countries. Four parkruns in three different countries, yes.

00:29:15Ali Sheppard: Yeah, wow. Yeah. So the parkruns you went to.

00:29:19Heather Hunter: I started off at Stadtpark Chemnitz in southern Germany. Yeah. And then I popped over the border to Park Nadnyski. I probably got that wrong. Nadnyski in Poland. Yeah. And then I was back in Germany last weekend in Bremen at one of the two there called Werdersee. And then this week. Yeah. In the Netherlands. To find in the Netherlands, yes.

00:29:27[crosstalk]

00:29:43Ali Sheppard: Fantastic. And so I think, I don't know what you thought. When I did my first parkrun abroad, I did Aachener Weiher in Germany. And I came across to see the Christmas markets and then found there was a parkrun there. And I was like, oh, I could go to a parkrun. And I had a friend with me who wasn't, a parkrunner and uh and so I had to sort of try and persuade her that that's what you know she wanted to do on a Saturday morning and uh I was really anxious about going to a parkrun in a foreign country particularly where I didn't speak the language necessarily yes um and I think you know some adventurers may feel the same you know is it going to be is it going to be just like we're used to or is it going to be different or am I going to get lost am I going to know no yeah I had all those thoughts uh

00:30:30Heather Hunter: Yeah, the very first one I did overseas was in Italy. Yeah. And, yeah, I had a bit of drama there. I'd never been so grateful to see a parkrun flag in my life when I finally found the start line. And then they all spoke English anyway. Same, I've had the same on this trip. Everyone's spoken English. Fortunately, I do speak a bit of German, so I wasn't as afraid. Afraid's the wrong word, but I wasn't as anxious about the German parkruns. Yeah. But here in the Netherlands, I had no idea what to expect. But the briefing was in English and they said it's always in English.

00:31:01Ali Sheppard: And it's just the same, isn't it? You see the same flags and codes.

00:31:04Heather Hunter: And Google Translate works well on the pages. Like you know which page to go to to see the course description.

00:31:09[crosstalk]

00:31:09Ali Sheppard: It's the same, same but different.

00:31:11Heather Hunter: And everyone's just lovely everywhere.

00:31:13Ali Sheppard: Yeah. And I think some of the differences, a lot of, I know certainly in Poland, when I've been to Polish parkruns, often they don't turn up until about five to nine. And I'm used to turning up like an hour early and getting into the place and thinking, There's nobody here. Yes.

00:31:31Heather Hunter: Had a few of those moments. Yeah. And there was also a lot of snow and ice. So I was checking the cancellation page every five minutes. Yeah. And slipping and sliding my way to find the start line and then around the course as well. Yeah. But it was really nice at the end. Someone was celebrating their 25th run and they'd brought some baked goods and some really nice hot apple juice, you know, like a thing that they.

00:31:54Ali Sheppard: Yeah.

00:31:55Heather Hunter: Shared around with everybody and that went down the tree.

00:31:57Ali Sheppard: They often do that at Polish parkruns. I've been to ones where they bought... Yeah. Kept me warm on the walk back to the motel. And German ones, I've often been there, bought like tea and... Yeah, the ones that I went to... Went out for coffee afterwards.

00:32:11[crosstalk]

00:32:11Heather Hunter: But they all made sure I knew where the coffee was going to be and how to get there and stuff.

00:32:14Ali Sheppard: Really friendly and lovely. So it's been amazing. It's been a good trip. And what else? You've seen a lot of Christmas markets.

00:32:22[crosstalk]

00:32:22Heather Hunter: Seen a lot of Christmas markets. I'm travelling with my mom. So that was our main point coming to Europe. And then we just kind of squeezed the parkruns in. And they were just a bonus if they didn't work out with public transport.

00:32:32Ali Sheppard: Yeah.

00:32:33Heather Hunter: Or they were cancelled. There were no backup plans.

00:32:35Ali Sheppard: Yeah.

00:32:35Heather Hunter: But it's been nice to get the ones in that I wanted to do.

00:32:37Ali Sheppard: Fantastic. That was brilliant. And do you have a favourite? No. No. I can't do that.

00:32:42Heather Hunter: Although I have to say, having done the snow and the ice, it was slippery and scary, but something I've never done before.

00:32:49Ali Sheppard: Yeah.

00:32:49Heather Hunter: Yeah.

00:32:50Ali Sheppard: It'll be up there. With memories anyway, if not favourite.

00:32:53Heather Hunter: Yeah.

00:32:55Ali Sheppard: Oh, no, it's been fantastic. It's been so, so lovely to meet up with you. Yes. And now we've got coffee to go to. We do. And Christmas market, I'm sure. Yeah. Fantastic. That's a wrap.

Roving report Lyndell Murray — Queen Elizabeth parkrun, Casino

00:33:10Lyndell Murray: G'day parkrun adventurers, it's Lyndell and today I am coming to you from the traditional lands of the Gullible people. We've packed up our car, Tracey in a Tutu and I have packed up the car and found a few budding adventurers to head down to Queen Elizabeth parkrun in Casino in northern New South Wales. And I've tracked down Michelle, our Run Director for today. How are you today, Michelle? How did today go?

00:33:35Michelle: Oh, I'm feeling great. We think today is great. We had our record number on New Year's Day and today there has been nearly as many. So we're very excited about today.

00:33:45Lyndell Murray: Yeah, lots of adventurers here on the holidays.

00:33:47Michelle: Yes, we've got people from Hervey Bay, Brisbane, all over the place. It's great. And some first timers as well.

00:33:54Lyndell Murray: Yeah, there were a few first-timers and one second-timer. So hopefully there's a few parkrun habits forming here today.

00:33:55[crosstalk]

00:34:01Michelle: And we had a lady who's been training at home for five months because she didn't think she could do it. She's had a barcode for a few months and she's here today, so that's excellent.

00:34:09Lyndell Murray: That is wonderful. I think I might have been talking to her at the beginning of the event. Yes. So Casino is not a very big town. It's about 1,200, 12,000 people or so. Yes, that's right.

00:34:20Michelle: So what does that mean for your community to have a parkrun here in town? Look, we started in 2019 and we averaged about 30 to 40 and it's slowly building and really it's like parkrun everywhere. It's not just about the run, it's about the connections and the friendships and every week. There are more and more people coming to the cafe with us afterwards and we just love it as a community event. It means everything to us.

00:34:47Lyndell Murray: That's brilliant. And you obviously welcome a lot of visitors for a queue. There's not that many queues around. Yes. What does that add to Casino parkrun?

00:34:56Michelle: Well, we're very lucky. We were wanting it to be called Casino parkrun at the start and we were told, no, you have to have... Queen Elizabeth because this is the park and we're so grateful because we have people from all over the world coming here to chase the queue and it's fantastic we get to meet so many different people it's awesome and you've got a little visitors book yes we have a visitors book our council here the Richmond Valley Council is amazing they mow the track for us every week and we use the book to show them how many people actually come stay

00:35:26Lyndell Murray: eat and uh join in the community so yeah the visitors book's very important yeah brilliant brilliant I've signed it so don't worry Michelle I've done my bit now let's just do a quick run through of the course here at Queen Elizabeth

00:35:40Michelle: Yes, so we start in Queen Elizabeth Park and then we run along the river a little way. It's all on grass and then we go through into the sporting fields and we do this giant figure eight and then come back and finish in the park again, which is excellent. Yep, yep, yep.

00:35:57Lyndell Murray: It is. It's all on grass. It's good for your bones. Yes. And really nice.

00:35:58[crosstalk]

00:36:02Michelle: And we very, very rarely cancel. We had to cancel a couple of times for floods, but even in the wet, we come, we have a track B, but we very, very rarely cancel.

00:36:13Lyndell Murray: We love it. That's brilliant. All right. Is there anything else, Michelle, that you would like the adventurers to know about Queen Elizabeth parkrun in Casino? No.

00:36:23Michelle: Yes, we are noted as one of the friendliest parkruns. When people come for visitors, we often get comments that we are the friendliest and the most welcoming. So we're very excited about that.

00:36:35Lyndell Murray: That's a real feather in your cap, parkrun generally is a very, very friendly place. I would agree. I've thought today is very, very friendly and welcoming. There are locals on their first time came up and had a chat. So it's obviously a sign of the community here as well.

00:36:50Michelle: Well, we had an Englishman here on New Year's Day. He was doing 500 and something. He'd done seven alphabets. And his comment was he's never come to a friendlier parkrun. So we pride ourselves on being the friendly parkrun.

00:37:03Lyndell Murray: We might know that man. I'm not sure. I'll have to do my research on that one. All right, Michelle, thank you so much for having a chat with me today and thank you and your parkrun community for everything that you've done for parkrun and your local community here in Casino at Queen Elizabeth parkrun. Thank you very much. I'm glad you came. Alrighty parkrun adventurers, I'm back home now in Meanjin and I have looked up our Mystery UK tourist who was at Queen Elizabeth on the 1st of the 1st. Now it's none other than Mark Pinney who some of you may know as being the creator of Challenge Chasers. He did indeed finish his 7th alphabet on the 1st of January. He's been in Australia for a little while and has collected another queue and a couple of wires at Quinns Rocks, Yamba and Yeppoon. So they all no doubt contributed to him getting his 7th alphabet. He's got 27 flags on his profile. So Reginald, I'm going to need your help on this as the keeper of the flags. How many flags are there? Is that all of them? He's run at 400 locations. He celebrated that just last week over at Lower Hutt in New Zealand. And he's volunteered at even more locations. It turns out he's quite a prolific juniors volunteer. Yeah. Most impressively, the thing that I'm most impressed at, he is currently on a tourist streak of 264. Yikes, that is impressive. Mark, are you a listener? Are you an adventurer? Please join our club if you're not already. All right, this is Lyndell over and out from Queen Elizabeth parkrun and we'll see you again on The adventurers.

00:38:45[background music]

00:39:00Melissa Ellis: And first up there, we heard from Ali Sheppard, who was in the Netherlands and recorded a roving report with the ED of Tapijn, Remco. And Ali also caught up with pod listener Heather Hunter, who was on a month long European tour in which she managed to get four parkruns done in three countries. So well done, Heather. That's a pretty good effort. And then we heard from Lyndell Murray at Queen Elizabeth Casino speaking to RD Michelle about the community growth and the tourism that being at a Q event brings to the town.

00:39:32Tony O'Connell: Mel, I found that at Inverloch, Michelle was talking about how many people have come there for the queue. I found at Inverloch, we get quite a few people coming all the way. And it's really funny when you call out any tourists and someone will say, oh, I'm from London or whatever. And you go and talk to them as you're walking up to the start line. As you know, we walk about 100 metres up to the start line. And you're talking to them as you're walking. Now, when did you come in? I flew in yesterday, and I'm about to start a holiday, but I got a high car and I flew down Inverloch so I could get an eye. And I really... It sort of surprises me the lengths that people will go to chase a letter, but being one of those people that will go to those great lengths to chase a letter, it doesn't surprise me if that makes sense. I get blown away when people tell me how far they've come to get to Inverloch, and I think I do exactly the same thing... to go somewhere else. But I don't think of it that way because I'm going somewhere to tourist, not my home run. It's just Inverloch to me.

00:40:33Melissa Ellis: You don't see your home event as a tourist destination. No, no, it's just Inverloch. You make it famous too because of its stump. And everybody wants to see maybe the famous TOC will be there.

00:40:46Tony O'Connell: Nah, I've heard he's no good.

00:40:48Melissa Ellis: And that makes me recall an anecdote from when I went to Kingscliff parkrun. So Belinda and I turned up in our adventurers tops. Now, we very nearly didn't wear our adventurers tops. And I can't remember for what reason we decided to wear them. But it was good that we did because... Now, I do apologise to the couple because off the top of my head, and I haven't prepared the notes for this, that I don't recall their names, but it was a husband and wife doing the First Timers Welcome, and I think he was the turnaround marshal. But they were listeners, adventurers, and so they were quite excited when they saw adventurers' tops turn up. But when she was doing the first-timers' briefing and she said, any tourists... A gentleman put his hand up and said he was, I think if I recall correctly, from Zimbabwe. And she was just blown away because she'd always said, and I don't remember which event in Zimbabwe, but a specific one, if she ever had anybody that said they were from that event, she was going to retire. And she was like, oh, she couldn't believe it. And so it was really funny. But she's not going to retire because she was, you know, she didn't think it would ever happen. Anyway, anyway, Toc, back to the notes.

Dazza's

00:42:07Melissa Ellis: This being our first episode of our 11th year, so I thought... it might be a good time to explain Dazza's to those who may have found us over the Christmas break and are new listeners. So Dazza's, as we refer to it, is our weekly Saturday morning Facebook post where we invite our listeners to share their morning experience online in our virtual cafe. If you are familiar with the photo we use, this is Dazza. He is my concrete Buddha statue who resides at my front door and makes himself available for selfies. So welcome to Dazza's. If you don't make it to brunch in person, your virtual community is always here with open arms. And we have chosen a few comments from last week.

00:42:49Tony O'Connell: And Mel, I'm quite proud to say I have a selfie with Dazza from your front doorstep. But moving on, this week Dazza said, with apologies to our Northern Hemisphere friends, Dazza has pre-packed everyone's brunches and it's help yourself because he's off to the beach. How was your parkrun morning? Grab your drinks and snacks from the fridge and tell us all about it.

00:43:13Melissa Ellis: Now the first in the door at Dazza's this week was Sam Schroder coming to us from New South Wales. Luke had to work and I made a last minute pivot to head to Shellharbour parkrun to join the celebration for former pod co-host Oliver Spake's 250th combined with his daughter Hannah's 25th birthday. It was lovely to see them both as well as James and Patrick marshalling at the top of heartbreak hill and Jen and Ben headed straight to the beach afterwards and had a giggle at Dazza trying to surf oh my goodness that would have been a sight to behold and the front photo included the bearded one himself the ogol the newlyweds Hannah and James And friend of the pod, Jen, Arnold and Ben.

00:44:01Tony O'Connell: Great photo there. Our second person into Dazza's for this week is Johan, our friend Johan from South Africa. Back at Heidelberg parkrun, South Africa.

00:44:12Melissa Ellis: No, you've got to say that again. It's not Heidelberg.

00:44:15Tony O'Connell: Oh, this is a great one, Mel.

00:44:17Melissa Ellis: Did you say Heidelberg? I'm sure you just said Heidelberg.

00:44:21Tony O'Connell: I might have said Heidelberg, but that's Heidedal. Heidelberg. Okay, I need a grammar coach. Anyone out there want to apply for a position as the official podcast grammar coach? I'm sorry. Apparently one of the co-hosts is pretty ordinary. That's why he normally stitches the others up when he does the show notes with the launchers. Okay, back at Heidedal parkrun South Africa this week for RD for my 350th volley credit. And that in itself, Johan, is incredible. Still somewhere off from walking at parkrun again, but making progress, even if a bit slower than I would have liked. And the photo was of Johan and his team of volunteers. And I thought it was a ripping photo. So well done, Johan.

00:44:21[crosstalk]

00:45:08Melissa Ellis: It was. We're glad to see you posting in Dazza's. Thank you, Johan. Next, we heard from Jo McLean, also coming to us from New South Wales. She said headed to Rouse Hill parkrun to help Gus Garbers celebrate his 250th parkrun. Despite the heat, 32 degrees already at 8am, there was a great turnout for this all-round nice guy. Meanwhile, I got another date for Date Bingo. Now, we know that Gus is also a listener. There was a beautiful photo of Gus running in his 250 cape. He also visited Dazza's and shared a group photo with just a few mates. And heads up, there was a large group photo.

00:45:51Tony O'Connell: Righty-o. We're going to go across to the Northern Hemisphere. Xavier Sanchez has come to us from Singapore. Still in the Northern Hemisphere, but only just. And he's right there. It is only just. Mum and I were at Bishan in Singapore. Not every day you get to see a monster lizard at parkrun. And the photo is of Xavier and his mum with the Bishan selfie frame. And no lizards.

00:46:17Melissa Ellis: No, I didn't see a lizard. There was also a rainbow-coloured Bishan sign as well, if I do recall. Next, we heard from Jagdeep Singh, coming to us from New South Wales. Today was a volunteer day at Elara Riparian Parklands parkrun, and honestly, it started on a very different note. Woke up after a bad dream, low on confidence, and reached parkrun about 7.30am, just aiming to do the bare minimum. I'm usually there before 7am always, so even the energy felt off, but the moment the run started, something shifted. The vibes, the smiles, it all lifted my mood without me realising. I found myself cheering every single parkrunner, chatting with other park users, even encouraging a few to join parkrun next time. Standing near the finish line was pure joy. One hand giving directions, the other clicking photos. Somehow ended up capturing some really special moments and genuine smiles. Grateful for days like this, I walked in as one person and walked out as another. proof that showing up even on low days can change everything and jagdeep shared a little hands together in a you know thank you emoji and a blue heart and there was a photo of jagdeep a selfie of him on course Thank you for volunteering and sharing your experience with us at Dazza's.

00:47:47Tony O'Connell: And that, Mel, that little comment from Jagdeep that he put into Dazza's really sums up parkrun, I think, in so many levels. You can go there having a great day. You can go there not so great. And I love the way that his day has just improved from yesterday, let's face it, a pretty crappy start by the sounds of things to you're coming out of it, you're in that parkrun high. I love that about Saturday mornings. But we're going to go across to the UK now and we're going to hear from Dan Joe. Caught up with a few of my former work colleagues at Trentham Memorial parkrun who were qualifying to do two of the world major marathon events. And there was no photo with that one.

00:48:33Melissa Ellis: Next, we heard from Alana Truig, and she was coming to us from Germany. Skipped the snow, but added our first German parkrun and ninth country at the beautiful Dien... Now it's my turn to talk. Dietenbach parkrun, Freiburg. And there was a photo of Alana by the before-mentioned German pop-up.

00:48:55Tony O'Connell: And maintaining our European connection, we have Andy Poole in Sweden. Ran in the snow at event number seven at Bulltofta, Malmö, Sweden, with Wendella Hazelwinkle Pool. And there was a photo of Andy and Wendella in the snow.

00:49:12Melissa Ellis: Yeah, the pop-up was right there with them. So that obviously, yeah, running literally in snow, that would be amazing. That would have to be a bucket list thing for me.

00:49:23Tony O'Connell: Yeah, can't imagine doing a parkrun in snow. I know we've done it on ice at a number of events. Yeah, been very frosty and icy but I cannot imagine running a parkrun in in snow certainly not in Australia I wonder if I'll ever get to Europe I hope so one day thank you to everybody who came to Dazza's and shared their parkrun stories

the Obi Award — Jagdeep Singh

00:49:46Melissa Ellis: Now, it's time for an Obilope. Do we still use the Obilope? I'm a bit out of the loop.

00:49:54Tony O'Connell: We've gone electronic now, Mel. What? We have this pop up on our screen.

00:49:59[crosstalk]

00:49:59Melissa Ellis: No.

00:50:01Tony O'Connell: How can you rip an envelope?

00:50:02Unidentified speaker: Oh.

00:50:03Tony O'Connell: Well, Mel, after... In Denmark, they've gone away from the postal service where they no longer offer postal service at all. They do parcel service but no letter service. And I was in the post office today. They were actually telling the customer in front of me that the letter might take up to two weeks to get delivered down to Melbourne and that they prioritise parcels over letters now. So... We don't have an envelope.

00:50:28Melissa Ellis: Okay. Dave, when you edit, if you edit, we need a sound effect. Maybe like when an email is dropped. Good idea. So, I shall do the honours then. This week, the Obi goes to... Yes, what a great message we heard this week from Jagdeep. And it isn't always sunshine and lollipops. Is it the start of our parkrun day? And it just goes to show, just get yourself moving and get yourself there and your day can change.

00:50:35[background music]

00:51:12Tony O'Connell: Yeah, it's all about that community, isn't it, Mel? And the community can lift your perspective and lift your day so much. So, Nat, well done. And I really enjoyed reading that one.

00:51:24Melissa Ellis: It makes me think sometimes I'll turn up to parkrun and I just I might be going to a local event. I haven't got any expectations of what the day like I'm not necessarily meeting friends. It's not it's not a new event for me. So I've got no sort of expectations about what the morning is going to be like and I might just be going to, slide in quietly do a parkrun not expecting anything to happen and you know people will be there that I know and it's the same that the whole the whole vibe and the whole energy changes because you're all of a sudden now you're catching up with somebody you haven't seen for a while and you're excited and yeah it just moves your whole your whole psyche anyway okay now you've got mail

Emails

00:52:08Melissa Ellis: We've got emails, TOC, and this one comes to us from David Irwin. And he said, hi, Mel, TOC, Simon, et cetera. Just thought I would send you an email as you asked for one. Yes, we do, David. We do. And thank you. Queenswood Country Park parkrun is the third queue in the UK. It is between Hereford and Leominster, pronounced Limpster. So not easy to get to with public transport. It's in a beautiful arboretum, but hilly and muddy with some tight corners. It has an unrunnable hill for mere mortals on a two-lap course. We have only had one person finish in under 20 minutes so far. Being a queue, I expect it to become increasingly popular for the alphabet hunters. Thanks for the entertainment every fortnight.

00:52:57Tony O'Connell: As I said, David Irwin, we also had a second email and it says hi fellow adventurers but especially for TOC, sending an email because I know you love email so much hope this brightens your day a little bit and there was three little blue love hearts there happy parkrunning so thank you Sarah that has brightened my day somewhat

00:53:23Melissa Ellis: Hey, fun fact, Sarah Jantscher and me are matchy-matchy with our cars. She has a little yellow Jiminy just like mine. So I don't know if we're ever going to be able to get together with our side-by-side cars, but that's a goal, I reckon, for me. Green and gold. No, they're not green, they're yellow. Why does everybody call it green?

00:53:40[background music]

Club Corner

00:53:44Tony O'Connell: All right, now it's time for us to listen to what Reginald has to say.

00:53:56Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III: This is Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III, with Club Corner, where we talk and cooee-ee at each other about the what and why of parkrun clubs, and I am coming to you from Arrernte Country. With our return for 2026, we are picking up on some new additions to the optional parkrun clubs. We have, What is the Point? The Three Billy Goats Gruff, and, Stationery. What is the Point, is exactly what it says on the box. It is any event with, Point, in their name. There are eight at the time of scripting, and maybe you have heard of a few of these winky face. Dolls Point, Jakes Point, Paradise Point, Picnic Point Parklands, Point Cook, Point Hut Pond, Point Vernon Foreshore Reserve, and Sandon Point. In order, point, point, point, point, point, point, point, and point. Once you complete all parkruns with the word point in them you can be known as a pointer. As we know from various countries folklore there is a well-known troll who has a catchphrase, who is that tripping over my bridge. The Three Billy Goats gruff is linked to parkruns with bridge in their name. In a neat serendipitous moment, we currently have three events. Hoblers Bridge Reserve, Wagi Bridge, and Woodbridge Riverside, a stretch for that last one, but it clearly includes a bridge. Completing all three events makes you a goat. A side note here, I found a fabulous folklore resource from Professor D. L. Ashleman, Professor Emeritus of German, at the University of Pittsburgh. They are considered a leading expert on folklore and fairy tales. He has grouped tales from all over the world into categories, and there were so many more categories than I expected. If you would like to know about animal brides, there are at least 10 tales, or perhaps the birthmarks of the princess, 16 of those. Or may I entice you with any of 17 tales in the category a corpse claims its property? And who would think that there would be a category for the mouse who was to marry the sun? Is there parkrun included in the category the runaway pancake? You will need to search and find out. Finally, the last additional club is called stationary, which is all events with station in their name. This club starts with three events. Alice Springs Telegraph Station, Old Esk Railway Station, and Tallangatta Station parkruns. Each of these new clubs are easy to add to the 5K app in your personal challenges as they have keywords. And remember, in parkrun life, all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun, so stay tuned for our future club corners.

00:56:29Melissa Ellis: and thank you very much to sir Reginald coming to us with clubs what's the point the three Billy goats gruff and stationary now obviously I should point out these are the Australian version of these clubs and I had a look I have got four out of eight of the ones required to be a pointer. I have got one out of the three required to be Billy Goat Gruff. What's the name of that one? And the stationary challenge only had one out of the three, but one is going to come in February. Haha. So anyway, although these are all Australian events, I think it would be really easy to apply the principles in your own country. So if you do, if you think these are challenges that you think you can make work in your home country, please write in and let us know if you do it. TOC, what ones have you got?

00:57:28Tony O'Connell: Well, the Billy Goats Gruff Challenge was, of course, ones that have the bridge in the name of them. And like you, I'm actually the same. I have four out of the eight in the pointers. And you and I have both done a Freedo on the fifth out of the eighth. When we were at Palm, we've done Picnic Point Parklands as a Freedo. I have one of the bridges for the Billy Goats Gruff Challenge being Wagi. And one of the stationary, which is Tallangatta Station, which is currently under fire threat.

00:58:03Melissa Ellis: I know. I keep hearing the broadcasters on the emergency radio mispronouncing Talangata.

00:58:12Tony O'Connell: But don't they know? Talangata.

00:58:14Melissa Ellis: I know. They all... Which is really funny because that's how I would have, that's how I pronounced it the very first time and assumed it was pronounced, but it is not. It's Talangada. Anyway, we know these things because there's parkruns there, but we do send our love to the Talangada station community and we hope you're safe. Yes.

00:58:32Tony O'Connell: and it has been an interesting thing listening to the emergency broadcasts with all the Australian names, with all their letters and syllables and vowels and consonants and whatever else you have. I actually lived in a small town called Katamatite and listening to the ABC presenters trying to get Katamatite out right, it's been a humorous part of the week for the last week. Yeah.

00:58:54Melissa Ellis: Yeah, and some interesting pronunciations of Oyen too, TOC. Yes. Anyway, back on to script.

Consolidated Club Report

00:59:04Melissa Ellis: The adventurers Consolidated Club report for Saturday, the 10th of January, 2026, of a total of 862 members. 602 took part on this date in 10 countries across 293 locations. And thank you to our fairies for filling in these stats for us. Internationally, there are adventures at 61 events in the UK, 7 in South Africa, 3 in the USA, 2 in Ireland and 1 event in Germany, Japan, Singapore and Sweden. Locally, there were adventures at 51 events in New South Wales and Queensland. Victoria had 45. Western Australia had 20. South Australia had 18. Tasmania, 12. The North Island, 8. ACT, 7. And the South Island, 4. So that means no NT.

00:59:53Tony O'Connell: So no bowling strike this week, Mel? Nope.

the Frond

00:59:56Tony O'Connell: And our largest international frond for the week was a frond of five at one event at Kilkenny Lane parkrun in the UK. We had Kat and Nigel Lane, Matt Lovelock, Denise Evans and Tina Durie.

01:00:10Melissa Ellis: And the pilgrimage to Bushy on the 10th of the 1st, there was nobody. Oh, and I'm next to the Aussie largest frond. There was a frond of 11 at one event, Reddall Reserve in New South Wales, Australia. That was Brett and Kathy Crispin, Trent Avery, David and Sherry Eccles, Julie Wells, Sue Davies, Gary Labrent, Breton, Catherine Pierrotta, Rosie Aloe and Kevin Pickup. We also had a front of seven at two events. They were Red Hill Rail Trail in Victoria and Shellharbour in New South Wales, and a front of six at two events, Bibra Lake, that is WA, and The Phar Lap Track, that is where we were. That was us. That was us. Yay. And remember, you can add the Adventurers Club as one of your five affiliations on your parkrun profile. We welcome you to do that. You can have five, just slip us in there somewhere, and you too can be an adventurer.

01:01:04Tony O'Connell: Beautiful, Mel.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

01:01:06Tony O'Connell: Our launches. We are going to do a full rundown next episode, Mel, or the next episode that we record together on last year and do a bit of a recap on the growth in the country. So that's something to stand by for. But since the last recording, we've had a number of weeks. And on the 20th of December... Killarney Country Club parkrun in South Africa launched, this is a new event in Johannesburg and out and back with a warning on the course description to watch out for golf carts they had 177 finishes for the launch followed by 438 on week two so over double the number for week two and then 337 on week three

01:01:50Melissa Ellis: The week after on the 27th of December, there was Beecraigs Country Park parkrun in the UK, a single lap trail near Edithburg or Edithborough, Edith, oh my, Edinburgh. Oh Lord, there were 357 finishes and 43 vols for the first week.

01:02:11Tony O'Connell: Rightio. That was the only one for that week. For the 3rd of January, so into the new year, we welcome Cadell parkrun in Australia. This is in a closed facility in South Australia. There were 24 finishers on the first week, of whom 20 were first ever parkrunners. And a fun fact, on my road trip, I did not know Cadell was actually going to launch. And we drove within 100 metres of where the parkrun's located. We were on the other side of the fence, of course. Mm-hmm. But we drove within 100 metres of the parkrun course on our holiday.

01:02:45Melissa Ellis: Now, also on the 3rd of January, Belladrum parkrun, also in the UK, to the west of Inverness in Scotland. This one appears to have been cancelled on week one due to the icy weather across the UK. There were three volunteers recorded. So, hang on. So, they launched, it was cancelled, but three vols got credits. Ah, because you can do that now.

01:03:08Tony O'Connell: Correct, and it would have been probably the Event Director and the course checker and somebody else probably who was down there telling people, sorry, the event is cancelled.

01:03:18Melissa Ellis: That's a shame. We're sorry for you.

01:03:20Tony O'Connell: It certainly is an unusual thing, but we're seeing it more and more. We do see events pop up as being cancelled. I think in the last probably two or three months that we've been doing this on the podcast, this is probably the third or fourth one now that's cancelled on launch week, but on the 10th of January so in the last week so we've caught up so there's been one or one or two a week while we've been closed money this week there's a couple more on the 10th of January Padersee parkrun in Germany, and it's found in central Germany near Paderborn there were 41 finishes and they completed a two and a half lap loop course

01:04:03Melissa Ellis: Also on the same day, Flint Castle parkrun in the UK, which is an out-and-back parkrun along the Flint foreshore near Chester. 253 completed the course with 38 vols.

01:04:15Tony O'Connell: And also on the 10th of January, we had Holme Pierrepont parkrun in the UK, located in Nottingham and just across the River Trent from Colwick parkrun. This event was also cancelled due to the weather on the launch day. The course is a single loop of a rowing regatta lake, and I think they may sort of come fairly close to challenging for the title of the nearest parkruns as far as where the start points are Mel I know in Western Australia we have two events that are incredibly close for their start lines but this one might be a bit of a challenge here once again you can probably nearly wave across the start line I know in Perth we have Claisebrook Cove and Burswood Peninsula and across the swan river the two start lines can wave at each other

01:05:02Melissa Ellis: this one's going to be very similar across the river Trent all righty well that wraps up the launches that have happened in the break that we've been on so not too many to recap thankfully although we do like launches we do like new events joining the family we just don't like having to recap a whole bunch of them at once so looking forward, TOC Have you got anything specific apart from where you're going to be next parkrun Day? We're not at that point yet. But what else are you looking forward to in the next little bit?

Sign-off

01:05:37Tony O'Connell: Looking forward, Mel, I'm probably looking forward to a couple of new events coming up. I desperately want to get up to Brisbane and do Underwood parkrun for another year. But... I'm really starting to look forward to Palm. I think that's only six or seven weeks away now, so it's coming up fairly soon. Bookings are made. We're going to start confirming numbers soon, and we will probably put a post out in the next week asking for people to be serious about whether they're coming or not on the events, not just mark that they're going just so they get all the information. We would like people to... If you're not going to actually be there... mark the event as interested or something but don't mark as going because we're booking place numbers based on the people that are going but that's what I'm looking forward to Mel palm that's coming up soon we don't usually have too much problem with numbers do we at palm booking and not turning up we do oh oh you should have seen the look I just got No, we have a lot of people at Mark. They're going because they actually like to get all the information, and I understand that. But, yeah, you've got the option. Mark it as interested because if you're interested, I'm not going to book a seat for you at the dinner table. Right. And if we book a big area and people don't turn up, we pay for it. So we don't want to be doing that.

01:07:06[crosstalk]

01:07:07Melissa Ellis: Oh, we can't afford to do that, guys. Oh, no.

01:07:10Tony O'Connell: Because we don't have a budget.

01:07:11Melissa Ellis: We don't have money.

01:07:13Unidentified speaker: Oh.

01:07:15Tony O'Connell: So Mel, what about you? What are you up to?

01:07:18Melissa Ellis: All right. I can't remember. I've lost my place. Oh, yes. Oh, now I remember. Okay. So looking forward, I will be stepping back a little more from my hosting role this year and we'll record bi-monthly with you, TOC, with Lyndell kindly agreeing to step in on the alternate months. Hopefully you all enjoy a new regular voice as we welcome Lyndell to the pod team. This means you'll hear from me again in March when I will hopefully have a nice big adventure to share.

01:07:49Tony O'Connell: That sounds pretty cool Mel and I know what part of your adventure is and I'm really looking forward to having a chat to you about that because that sounds fascinating.

01:07:56Melissa Ellis: Yes, yes, yes.

01:07:58Tony O'Connell: really good you'll probably have a couple of adventures between now and then I would imagine so let's leave that one for the next podcast in the meantime what are you up to on next parkrun day next parkrun day Saturday the 17th of January I will be in hobart Tasmania for those who don't know

01:08:16Melissa Ellis: to see my daughter off on the STS Young Endeavour. So I am planning to make an appearance at Queen's Domain parkrun. I did enjoy a Freedo at this event, TOC, back in Palm 2022. And I did say, I think, and you have confirmed that I was right. It was 2022. This is when all the years and all the palms start to get a bit fuzzy in my memory. Now, to indulge me for a minute, can I also give some context on the Young Endeavour? This replica of Captain Cook's Endeavour was gifted to Australia for our bicentenary in 1988 and has been used by the Royal Australian Navy for youth development, providing young Australians with an intensive, life-changing sail training program through hands-on experience sailing a tall ship. Participants learn to navigate, climb the mast, set sails and operate the ship, fostering a personal growth in an environment away from modern distractions like phones and Wi-Fi with the goal of enhancing their life and career skills. Up to 24 young Australians embark on each voyage and since 1988, over 14,000 young Australians have participated in the program, developing teamwork, leadership, communication, resilience and instilling a sense of community responsibility. My daughter Ezra will be the third of my kids to have had this fabulous experience. She embarks in Hobart and will disembark in Geelong 10 days later.

01:09:40Tony O'Connell: That would be an amazing trip. I read a lot of books set in the age of the great nautical adventures and sailing adventures around the world and I'm reading one at the moment today.

01:09:52Melissa Ellis: about a trip around um the horn of South Africa and I just I would love to be out on a sailing boat like that I just reckon that'd be an awesome adventure so ezra's gonna have a ball it's pretty exciting to be the parents as well like I remember when my older children did the voyages the kids have their phones taken away from them so you've got no contact with your child and you're putting like they're crossing bus straight it's like it is a little bit nerve-wracking what am I doing am I ever going to see my child again But every night the captain posts a blog post. So you're sort of sitting there every night waiting for it to be uploaded and it's really exciting. And then you read what they've been up to for the day and then you've got to sit and you've got to wait until the next night and you get the next instalment. So it's a real journey. And then seeing them sail in, like, I'll be down there on the 25th of January in Geelong at Wangan Wharf, waiting for the ship to come in and the kids are all perched up on the masts and they're singing Advance Australia Fair as they come into the Wharf. It's just an incredible sight and I just hope she has a fabulous experience and doesn't hate me forever. Yeah, anyway, so we're very, very, very excited about it. So thank you, UK, for gifting us the Young Endeavour. We appreciate it. Anyway, that was a bit indulgent. I just wanted to, yeah, I just wanted to share that little bit. But tell me, TOC, where are you going to be on Saturday?

01:11:25Tony O'Connell: I would like to think, Mel, that we're going to get over to Buninyong near Ballarat and complete the De Soza parkrun, which will make us or return us to greatsmanship again. So all of Victoria completed for a couple of weeks at least. But it's going to depend on a lot of things and fires and all sorts of things. So we'll probably call it closer to the weekend. But it'll be a travel somewhere anyway. If not De Soza, somewhere else. And then back Saturday night, because on Sunday I'm going to participate in an aquathon. I'm going to do the run leg, a very short run leg and a very slow run leg. And I've warned my swimmer that I'm going to be very slow and I am very short. So I meet both those criteria. Who are you doing it with? Is this one of the Joes? No, I'm actually doing it with one of the ladies that I did a bronze medan with back about 45 years ago in the surf club.

01:12:23Melissa Ellis: Oh, my goodness. So, yeah.

01:12:27Tony O'Connell: So we've got all these little friends and connections that we've kept over the years through the surf club. For those that know me reasonably well, I actually met Jacqui through the surf club. So, yeah, the surf club's been good to us, and I've got some really good friends out of it, and I'm going to be doing the aquathon with one of my friends, oh that's lovely and have you been life-saving guarding what do you call it uh life-saving yeah I think this is my 44th year consecutively patrolling on the beach so wow yeah had it done a few years of it you're amazing, well done TOC ah well it's it's all fun it's all fun but Anyway, Mel, it's been great to chat again. It's always great to chat and catch up, even though we only did catch up on Saturday. Yeah, I know.

01:13:22Melissa Ellis: That's the benefit of living in the same state, isn't it? We do cross paths and, yeah, and it was great to be there for Jacqui for her 500th. Congratulations again, Jack. You are a real champion and I know you support Toc a lot in all his endeavours and it was great to be there and see you get a little bit of love yourself.

01:13:42Tony O'Connell: Thanks, Mel. Rightio, next fortnight, we are back to Sarah and Simon. They're in the boss's seat and hopefully they can find the new buttons that we've got set up now for things like our Obi Awards. I can't believe there's no Obilope.

01:13:59Melissa Ellis: I turned my back for five minutes.

01:14:00[crosstalk]

01:14:01Tony O'Connell: Things change, Mel.

01:14:02Melissa Ellis: Oh, God.

01:14:07Tony O'Connell: Rightio, Mel. Great to catch up. And 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.