Episode 443 - Gelato in Milano

Episode details · 136 speaker turns · sound cues from audio analysis

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

00:00:29Lyndell Murray: Welcome to episode 443 of the parkrun Adventurers podcast, a podcast all about life, if your life is all about parkrun. My name is Lyndell and I'm coming to you from Meeanjin, the traditional lands of the Turrbal and Yuggera. Cooee, Toc.

00:00:44Tony O'Connell: Cooee Lyndell and you might have guessed this is Toc from Inverloch and I'm on Bunurong country down here. Lyndell, great to hear your voice again. How have you been?

00:00:54Lyndell Murray: I've been really well. I've been busily streaking away on my parkrun adventures.

00:00:59Tony O'Connell: You seem to be having lots of adventures at the moment. Is it just a season for it or is it part of the ongoing Lyndell trip around?

00:01:07Lyndell Murray: Part of the ongoing trip, I've had a busy time through January. I've volunteered a couple of times. I've now volunteered at all of my P-Index events after funnel managing at both Rocks Riverside and Mitchelton during January. And I've also had a few early starts and overnighters. I've been to Victory Heights with my friend Catherine I went to Yowie with Cherie. And listeners may remember my roving report from Queen Elizabeth Casino, which was played in episode 441. But the recent parkrun adventure I had this last parkrun day was to Gayndah Riverwalk. It was a trek to get there for their fifth birthday, but what a great little event. I've recorded a roving report from there, which I guess we'll hear in a future episode. But I tell you what, the cafe experience after this little event was very unique. Toc, you would have been to cafes after parkrun and waited up to an hour for a coffee. Well, up in Gander, the parkrunners all help out. When we went up to the counter and we saw one of the parkrunners there, we asked if it was their business and how great it was that she was welcoming us to her business. And she said, oh, no, no, I'm the deputy principal at the school. I just help out because they get so busy with all the parkrunners. So it just made me think, if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. So good on the Gander parkrunners for getting in and helping out their local coffee shop.

00:02:29Tony O'Connell: Lyndell, I reckon I've only seen that at a few different events. There's a couple of events where I've seen parkrunners going around picking up the plates and all that sort of thing. But one that really jumps to mind, there's a lovely bloke called Manny who's at Dorset Recreation. We went to the cafe and he jumped on. He started making coffees and all sorts of things. And it was just, they were busy. That's what he did. He's a regular there. So yeah, part of the furniture. But it was really great to see. Yeah.

00:02:55Lyndell Murray: I reckon if you did that in a big city like Brisbane, you'd probably get arrested.

00:03:00Tony O'Connell: Yeah, smaller country towns, probably more likely to get away with it.

00:03:03Lyndell Murray: What about you, Toc? What have you been up to?

00:03:05Tony O'Connell: Well, Lyndell, since our last recording, Jack and I, we did our trip to De Soza that we were talking about. That's over near Ballarat, so to the west of Melbourne. We temporarily regained our greatsmanship. It only lasted about two weeks and we've lost it again, but... that's that's parkrun world we'll hear a little bit more about de souza later we've also travelled back to Eildon Pondage — Eildon's one of my favourite little events i'm the ambassador up there average probably 30 or 40 people a week so that's a great little community it's the same group of people that volunteer each week and they just love doing it ilden's been part of the victorian bushfire area so They've been shut for about three weeks. Haven't been able to get in there. The hallway's been cut. Everything's been cut. Everyone got evacuated out. Jack and I, we got up at half past three for a drive and drove the three and a half hours up to catch up with the crew up there. After four weeks, they reopened. It was one of those joyous occasions where people were just happy to be back at parkrun. I spoke to a fellow that had been burnt out. He was just happy to be back at parkrun. A bit of normality. He just wanted to be there. So that was really cool.

00:04:18Lyndell Murray: Sometimes it's times like those where that normal part of life and the great community that we have at parkrun can really make a difference.

00:04:25Tony O'Connell: Yeah, I don't think sometimes we really appreciate the impact on that and the impact that it can have on different people, just getting out and that social catch-up, especially those little events. Eildon... Because some of the locals stayed behind to defend their homes, they had a breakfast about the second week in because they couldn't do parkrun, but they got together and just had a little community breakfast together with all the parkrunners just to touch base with everyone and that. And I think in a big community, you probably don't get that sort of thing, but it's a lovely little community and it's one of my favourite events. It was a great little trip up, even if we did leave home at 3.30 and get home at about 3 in the afternoon.

00:05:07Lyndell Murray: Totally worth it. All righty. Moving on and feeding back from our last episode, how great was that interview that Johan scooped with Lil, our new global CEO?

00:05:21Tony O'Connell: It's been an amazing reaction to it, Lyndell. And I was very lucky to not only listen to that, but listen to Lil talk on the global ambassador's phone hookup just in the last week. Where she reinforced a lot of the points. But I really love the sense of direction with the growth strategy that Lil's put forward. Although I must admit I am a little disappointed that no new countries are coming this year. I was sort of hoping that they were going to announce Brussels or Switzerland or somewhere. But they're focusing on the countries they've got and making sure that the systems are in place. And I appreciate that. We've had growth over the years. Some of the countries that were mentioned in the strategy, places like America, I can remember they sat on five events for probably the first three years I was involved in parkrun. And now they've jumped up to about 150 events. More locally, Yeah, we've seen the massive growth, not only in Australia, but New Zealand. If you go on a percentage basis, New Zealand's going gangbusters. They've just had so many new events start up in the last probably two years. And it's great to see that headquarters actually want to make sure they've got the systems in place to service those events before they start taking on more. Although the tourist in me says, give us some more events. The other thing I really loved was the appointment of Ali McArthur into the global board. It was probably a move designed to bring a little bit more of that practical volunteer and on-ground perspective into the board. Ali has served many, many years as an event ambassador, an event director, and a regional ambassador. So he's got that really grounded outlook on parkrun. It's great to have someone like that on the board, you know, representing the volunteers and the people on the ground. I know all the board are there to represent the volunteers But someone had that real strong volunteer ethic and background is fantastic. And I think, as I said, the comments that Lil made to Johan on the pod, she just reinforced those on that global ambassador link up. And it's good to see Johan actually got a mention for a great interview on the ambassadors link up as well in the commentary that was running down the side on the text. It was great to see that.

00:07:24Lyndell Murray: Yeah. Look, Tok, you and I have just taken away very similar trains of thought from that interview. I really appreciated that philosophy, the growth strategy. You know, Lil really emphasised that parkrun is a health charity and so it's really important as an organisation that they seek out the communities that need that kind of support. Instead of going where the growth is, it's probably a bit of a balance, isn't it? Because you need the volunteers, so you've got to follow where that demand is. But really refreshing that she's really tapping into that charity side and looking to find those communities in need of the greatness that we know that parkrun is. And yeah, I really enjoyed Lil's use of Workforce. as well to include the paid staff alongside the volunteer workforce. It's so important to recognise that parkrun just relies on a lot of unpaid labour and just seeing that contribution as being side by side with paid staff, I thought that was a really nice call out for Lil to make.

00:08:28Tony O'Connell: Yeah, I've got to admit, Lyndell, I really did come away from listening to those two things with a lot of positivity. You know, for the average parkrunner on the ground, they don't know who the CEO is. And yeah, let's be honest, most people really don't care. The parkruns there each week. But to hear that sort of conversation being expressed publicly, and that just filled me with a fair bit of optimism. So yeah, really happy to hear it. And yeah, really love that Lil's on board.

00:08:55Lyndell Murray: Yeah, absolutely.

00:08:57Tony O'Connell: Righty-o. The other thing that came out of feedback from last week was the discussion, or last fortnight, I should say, not last week. We're a fortnightly podcast now. Simon and Sarah raised annual goals, and it got me reflecting. Last year, my goals were to get back under 20 minutes at parkrun and to run a sub-3 hour 30 marathon. Injury was a real killer, and those goals sort of disappeared, as the listeners would know. But this year, I've just set myself some really nice, easy goals. Getting to parkrun each week, whether that's participating as a runner or as a volunteer, just getting there, making sure I get to parkrun every week. I'd like to visit 20 new events in the year. I have a fairly set calendar where I like to get to between 18 and 20 a year. So, yeah, I'd like to do that. And thankfully, Victoria is going through a run of launches at the moment, which really make that easy. Cool. I like to do my not parkrun every day, so that's something I'm really big on. I think I'm currently on about 2,050-odd consecutive days of not parkruns, so I've really become addicted to that.

00:10:04Lyndell Murray: That is very impressive.

00:10:06Tony O'Connell: Yep, can't miss out. Even when I was on the crutches, I was getting out and doing the 5K on crutches just to make sure I kept my continuity of that going. And my other goal is just to get out and meet interesting people and have fun at parkrun. The conversations you have, no matter where you go, and sitting down talking to people about their stories. So this week at Inverloch, I sat down with a couple. He's Scottish and she was Irish and they're travelling around Australia at the moment. And we just talked stories and we had a mutual set of friends. So we were able to relate and talk about a whole heap of different things and parkruns we'd been to and experiences. And I just loved that, sitting down over a cuppa and you'd talk and, you know, parkrun ended at nine and 11 o'clock we were still up at the bakery talking parkrun stuff and we had to get going. That's sort of where I'm at. Lyndell, what about you? I notice your tourism streak is currently at 106 and that just blows my mind. That started nearly three years ago. So in another six weeks, it's three years that streak of getting out to new events.

00:11:10Lyndell Murray: Yeah, well, they're not all new events. They're just different events. So they're not all new events in my streak. Some of them I've got quite a big re-index now, actually, as a matter of fact, because I've gone back to so many events that I've done previously. But yeah, I started that streak, as it turns out, at Palm. Well, not at Palm, at not Palm, at Varsity Lakes, the year that Palm was over in Western Australia in 2017. 2023 so yeah it's nearly three years and i haven't been back to the same parkrun so yeah once that's over i'll um think about some other parkrun goals for the year but my fitness goal for last year was to work on my strength and mobility which i eventually started in november so nothing like being on time i'm carrying that one over to 2026 and my other sort of running goal is i'm going to have a crack at another 24-hour marathon Similar to the Beau Miles theory, where if you run a mile every hour and load the first hour, you can run a marathon in 24 hours. And if you fill all the gaps in with all of your bits and pieces, you can actually have a really productive day. So I did this back in 2020. I started at 4 a.m., not midnight. And finished at midnight, I ran two, three k's an hour and I did get a lot of stuff done. I didn't make a table, unlike Beau. Beau made a table when he did his 24 in 24. So that's my other sort of running goal for 2026.

00:12:38Tony O'Connell: Okay, that actually sounds like a really interesting challenge to have a crack at. It's not just about this, it's about doing other stuff in between and filling the gaps in that. And I have seen that bow miles adventure, like quite a few of those that I've seen. They're really cool. That'd be really cool to do and be cool to do some sort of document around it around... what you've achieved over the time or do a bit of Facebook Lives or something. That'd be really cool.

00:13:05Lyndell Murray: Did a few of those. Might get on TikTok this year. Yeah.

00:13:09[crosstalk]

00:13:11Tony O'Connell: That's for people 40 years younger than I am. Oh, yeah. The other thing I wanted to raise, we talk a lot about not attending launches. And I've just noticed recently, parkrun Australia, like in their social media, have started to advertise or started to promote, you know, welcome to these events in the week after their launch. And I'm wondering with week two's becoming the new big rush, I'm just wondering about... the logic of that. I know we have an event near to us that launched in Victoria, Victory Road. Their second week, they saw an increase from 260, went up to 399 in week two. And I'm just, I'd be really curious to know out of those Extra 199 people it turned up. How many of them had sort of seen it on parkrun Australia's Facebook? And another local event to Victory Road actually flagged them as well and said, hey, they're there. How about some of our people go there for the week? Out of the 399, I noted that 361 of them were there for the first run. So it's not like a lot of the people from the initial 200 were back for the second week. It's a whole new group of people. So it's almost like a second launch. It'll be interesting to track that one and see how they go for week three.

00:14:27Lyndell Murray: Is this going to be a watching the numbers?

00:14:29Tony O'Connell: Oh, potentially. It might be something by the time.

00:14:33Lyndell Murray: Let's talk about that. We'll take that to the production meeting and see what we come up with.

00:14:38Tony O'Connell: See if we can get that past the office lady.

00:14:40Lyndell Murray: But it's a really good point. parkrun are really keen to protect the launches and protect the new events. So, yeah, it will be interesting to see whether that happy post to promote the new events is having an unintended consequence of just swamping the events in the second week instead.

00:14:57Tony O'Connell: Yeah. But in other stats, because I'm good on all my stats, I love my stats. From our across the ditch correspondence, New Zealand attendance and milestones for the 31st of January, there were 67 parkruns with 15,014 parkrunners and 1,157 volunteers. 11 of the events over there smashed their attendance records. Well and truly, they smashed them, a couple of the events. And collectively, the New Zealand all-time attendance record, I think, was broken by about 1,300 or 1,400 people. So almost like 10% jump on the previous New Zealand record. On the day, the biggest event, surprise, surprise, was Hagley. And the smallest was Mangawara River Walkway. On the 7th of February in New Zealand, there were 67 parkruns. So there were the same number of parkruns with 14,718 parkrunners and 1,147 volunteers. And I note there, plus any pending results, because I did the stats a little bit early, it's very interesting to see that their numbers had only dropped by about 200 from that record number. So the numbers are staying up in New Zealand. Each time they get a new event, they seem to jump up in numbers. So... It's one of those things I said earlier, the growth in New Zealand is probably an example of what's going to happen in other places around.

parkrun news bulletin

00:16:18Lyndell Murray: Yeah, it's good to see that growth.

00:16:20Tony O'Connell: On the 7th, the largest in New Zealand was once again Hagley. I think that's almost a repeat. And the smallest was Hamilton Park, of which we've done a Freedom Walk at, and Hamilton Park's a little cool one.

00:16:31Lyndell Murray: And back home in Australia, on the 31st of January, there were 9,300... I'm not sure about that... Might be missing a number there. Is that right? We've got 9,309 participants at 523 5K events including 6,986 volunteers.

00:16:50Tony O'Connell: I'm going to say the person that filled that number out has probably missed a number after the nine. It was more likely 95,000 participants.

00:17:00Lyndell Murray: It would have been for sure.

00:17:02Tony O'Connell: That would be me. Oh, I'll own it.

00:17:04Lyndell Murray: That's all right, Toc. None of us are perfect. And on the 7th of February, there were 97,488 participants. Wow, that's a big jump. 9,000 to 97,000. That's huge.

00:17:11Tony O'Connell: I know. Ten times the amount. A few less volunteers, though. 6,781 volunteers. 521 events. And there were 5,037 first-timers.

00:17:14[crosstalk]

00:17:15Lyndell Murray: There were 19 events that set attendance records on this last parkrun day. So, in terms of the biggest events and the little events, we all know probably how this is going to go. Melbourne was the biggest both weeks. The smallest park ones had a little bit more variety. On the 31st to the 1st, the smallest park ones were Bourke Racecourse in New South Wales with four, Railway Park in Queensland with seven, and Nathalia Showgrounds in Victoria with eight. And on the 7th, of February this last parkrun day. The smallest three parkruns were Coober Pedy Oval in South Australia, Moora in Western Australia with six and Pyramid Hill Golf Trail in Victoria with seven. So again, you know, the same big events that we keep hearing about Albert, Melbourne, Parkville, The Ponds and South Bank filling in those weeks. And in the junior events, there were five events conducted. 698 of our Little Legends were guided by 111 volunteers. There were 71 new registrations and 75 first-time-ever finishers. So that's our stats.

00:18:38Tony O'Connell: That's our stats. But of interest, I'm just doing a quick deep dive because I don't know if you saw the socials a few weeks ago and I think it was Surratt Memorial Park in Queensland that actually had all the volunteers turn up and they didn't have any finishers.

00:18:55Lyndell Murray: Yeah, I did hear about that along the grapevine.

00:18:57Tony O'Connell: Just doing a quick jump in and the last couple of weeks they've had in the 20s. So everyone's rushed out there because they're figuring that they could get into the top 10.

00:19:08Brian: Yeah. Yeah.

00:19:10Tony O'Connell: Interestingly, on the weekend, they had 52 people. So that's one of their bigger events that they've actually recorded, apart from their launch. So if you took their launch out, the 52 is their second largest. So everyone's rushed out there to try being in the top 10. And unfortunately, everyone's got the same idea.

00:19:29Lyndell Murray: Well, that's our stats done. And now it's time to hear our roving reports.

Roving Adventurers (roving reporter crossovers)

00:19:40[background music]

00:19:42Calum Burrell: Cooee and Happy New Year parkrun Adventurers, it's Calum. I'm at Pollock parkrun which I believe is the first parkrun to open up in Scotland. We're at event 804, it's New Year's Day, January the 1st, first parkrun in 2026 done and I'm here with the, are you one of the, you're obviously a run director but Brian, are you one of the event directors as well? Yes I am. Oh event director, brilliant. Okay and so how was today?

00:20:08Brian: Today was fine, numbers weren't as bad as we thought they would be. Christmas day is generally our busiest day where we get up to about 850 but today we're about 480.

00:20:16Calum Burrell: Brilliant and how long have you been involved with Pollock?

00:20:20Brian: Well I've been coming to Pollock for about 10 years volunteering but I've only started as a run director a couple of years ago when one of the other run directors stepped down. We are very fortunate at Pollock, we've always got a good number of run directors.

00:20:34Calum Burrell: Brilliant, so if you can just describe the course for us please.

00:20:37Brian: Pollock's an undulating course. It's a two-lap course. There's a hill in the middle of it. It's quite narrow to begin with but it runs through a lovely country park which people wouldn't actually believe exists in the middle of a city. You feel that you're out in the middle of the countryside. It's a lovely parkrun to do. Gentle uphill finish, fast downhill finish. What more could you ask for?

00:20:59Calum Burrell: So did you start at Pollock when you started parkrun?

00:21:01Brian: Yes, Pollock was my first parkrun. I live only 15 minutes, which is within the ethos of parkrun. We always walk to the park to set up the parkrun and to take part and keep it local.

00:21:14Calum Burrell: Yeah, one of the main reasons we came here today is because it is a home of, well we can see it over there, what's it the home of?

00:21:22Brian: Well, the parkrun is actually right beside the Burrell Collection, so if you come to Pollock parkrun, generally on days other than Christmas Day and New Year, the Burrow Collection will be open and we all go in there and we have coffee and cake.

00:21:30[crosstalk]

00:21:37Calum Burrell: And if you could just explain what the Burrell Collection is.

00:21:37[crosstalk]

00:21:39Brian: The Burrell Collection, Burrell was one of these extremely wealthy people who toured the world collecting things that he probably shouldn't have because he had lots of money. So he collected things like carpets and doorways and paintings and they've all been brought together in this wonderful museum, which has a nice cafe as well, which is more important.

00:21:57Calum Burrell: yeah so we're going to go we're going to try and do Queens on Saturday the 3rd and we're hoping to come here when hopefully we'll be open then when it's open yes it will be open Queens is more hilly three lap course yes I'm going to be doing part walking then I'm hoping if your fingers crossed it's not iced off but

00:22:16Brian: It can be iced off. The weather's looking a bit ropey for Saturday.

00:22:18[crosstalk]

00:22:19Calum Burrell: I believe Strathclyde was cancelled today.

00:22:21Brian: There is a long downhill section in Queens that does get icy. We were fortunate. We got up nice and early and gritted the course. Being in Scotland at 9.30 start because it is dark. So we set up the course in the dark with head torches. And we have to grit it when it's icy. But we're usually on. Very rarely are we off.

00:22:42Calum Burrell: Yeah, very appreciative of you doing that and obviously it's well coned off the icy patches so it's brilliant today. I love gorgeous park. We want to see the Highland Coos.

00:22:52Brian: We have lots of Highland cows in two fields, yes, if they're either up beside Pollock House or down the other side there.

00:22:56Calum Burrell: We'll do a little explore later. So this is the parkrun Adventurers and we do lots of touring as you can probably tell. So in your time in the parkrun world, what's been your standout moments? If you've got three highlights maybe.

00:23:12Brian: for me other than Pollock other than Pollock my favourite course is locally I tend to go to I like the new course at Cunningar Loop which is down beside the Clyde Drompellaire is a favourite Drompellaire Park near Coatbridge other than that I do like the trail courses I've enjoyed going up to places like Pleen and Palace Reg Pleen is great because you just disappear off into the woods you should go there

00:23:27[crosstalk]

00:23:34Calum Burrell: Right, nice one. Well, thank you very much for your time today. Happy New Year to you. And happy New Year to you too. Thank you to all you do for parkrun and thank you to all the volunteers at Pollock parkrun. And I say we'll look forward to going around the Burrell Collection on Saturday. You're most welcome.

00:23:47Brian: Come again.

00:23:48Calum Burrell: Brilliant. Thank you.

00:23:49Tracy Wood: good morning parkrunners it's Tracy in a tutu and i am wandering around university of western australia parkrun now i know people have visited here before but i'm not sure if it was mentioned about the beautiful native flora that's here absolutely amazing i've admired the historic buildings just an absolute gorgeous parkrun now The reason I'm doing a quick report is that a couple of weeks ago someone wrote in and said they've just realized that my last name is not Natutu, it is actually Tracy in a tutu. Well, last name is Wood, but that's what you know me as. and I've just been chatting with some lovely people from South Africa who have laughed at my pronunciation of Johan's last name. Now I'm not going to say what I pronounce it as but I have the lovely Rachel here from South Africa and Rachel is going to tell me how you actually pronounce Johan's last name. Rachel would you please? Fantastic. So, hello to Johan from in South Africa, and I apologise for mispronouncing your name in the past, and I will try to repeat it properly in the future. Hello from University of Western Australia parkrun. Have a good day. Bye.

00:25:13Tony O'Connell: Howdy, parkrunners. It's Toc from Inverloch, and I'm here with Dave from the lovely D'Souza parkrun in Buninyong, just south of Ballarat. How are you, Dave?

00:25:23Dave Westaway: Oh, keeping out of mischief.

00:25:25Tony O'Connell: Dave, the course out here, it's a little bit overcast. Ballarat seems to be either stinking hot or a touch on the cool side. But today was about 14 degrees, probably absolutely perfect for running.

00:25:36Dave Westaway: Absolutely gorgeous today. I mean, last week, if you've been up here, we had smoke from the fires. And, yeah, so people had to be a bit careful about the air quality. But today's just perfect for a parkrun. So give us a bit of a course description of your course here. All right, so we're at De Soza Park in Buninyong, and it's a trail, very well laid out, nice and smooth. It actually links in with the Yarrowee Creek Trails and the Wallaby Track, and it's part of the Hyde Trail and the Wallaby Range Track. So it links in with the whole lot. You can start here, and you just keep walking and end up in Bendigo if you're not careful. As we go down, we start off in the park itself and we follow the trail down and we come to our first bridge and that goes over the Union Jack Creek. There are actually three bridges on the course so we send people over the first bridge and we go around in an anti-clockwise direction, four laps it is. We go past the second bridge, that's what we call the troll bridge because there's no trip trapping over that one and then we get down to the third bridge and we get sent back and around and we just do four laps through then we come back up the path we started off on back into the the main part of the park and we run through the flags and that's five k's done i actually found it to be a fairly friendly course because you're both sides of the creek there were people yelling out to each other and encouraging across the creek you're not that far apart from the other side so you can give a bit of cheek as you're going um it's it's the path's good for a couple of people across but the one thing you do need to remember is with it being four laps, if you're a slower walker, you really need to stay left because you'll get people passing you. First time I tail walked on this one, I was still on the first lap with the people who were taking it nice and easy. And the front runners that actually finished, they were heading up for their fourth lap and they were home and hosed before we'd completed our first. So it can bank up. You've just got to be a little bit aware of that if it's a busy day.

00:27:22Tony O'Connell: Yep. And how did you get involved in parkrun?

00:27:25Dave Westaway: Oh, that's my brother's fault. He tried to get me to drink the Kool-Aid back in 2017. but uh i just did one on new year's day so anytime he came down from brisbane i'd go out on a parkrun then he'd run off and leave me which i thought was very rude uh and eventually uh the doctor told me i should stop being a fat bastard i should get out there and do some exercise i'd already registered i thought well that's something i can do every saturday and i just loved it you know so discovered some of the challenges and so i've just been going around Wallaby Track, which is another of our Ballarat parkruns. We've got four in the 20k radius out of Ballarat. And there's another really lovely one up at Beaufort Lake. So there's five really close ones. And so I've just been doing some local ones. And then I went for a drive with my son-in-law up to Uluru and went to Coober Pedy and started paying attention on the 5k app about all these challenges. And it doesn't take much to get me excited. So... I got Coober Pedy as my first one outside of Ballarat, and then went off and chased down my alphabet in about 18 months, I suppose.

00:28:26Tony O'Connell: And I love the fact that you've got your alphabet T-shirt on. I think I matched 24 out of your 25 I've been to, and Coober Pedy's the one that I haven't been to.

00:28:34Dave Westaway: Yeah, no, Coober Pedy's so remote, they really need to get volunteers and from people who were touristing to help it happen. So at some points they've had to actually skip having the parkrun. So if you're ever heading up there, always let them know in advance you're going up there and see if you can volunteer because if you want to get a Coober Pedy credit, you really need to make sure it's running.

00:28:55Tony O'Connell: Yeah. And your first stint at RD today, you did really well with your brief. It was one of the more entertaining under 11 rules description.

00:29:03[crosstalk]

00:29:03Dave Westaway: I thought that was pretty clever. Yeah, I just basically said, look, the under 11s have to just keep an eye on their parents and keep their parents with their, and just basically not run them off their feet because I know some very very energetic 11 year olds I'm a school teacher and I had one of the kids from my class wanted to do parkrun with me did my fifth fastest time and I have never felt so old and slow he just ran me off my feet so I thought you know there is a defib at the end but we don't want the kids to force their parents to use it no well done look it's been a lovely parkrun and we might wrap it up there and thanks for the chat glad you enjoyed yourself here

00:29:30[background music]

00:29:44Tony O'Connell: And, Lyndell, I've got to say, that was a fantastic set of roving reports, especially that last bloke. He's really good. I really like his style. We started with Callum at Pollock parkrun, and he was talking with Brian the RD. One of the things, I guess, as an Aussie, it sounds funny that they're setting up for a 9.30 start, and they're in the dark, and they've got torches for a 9.30 start. Yeah. Day up. Days well and truly up in Australia at that time of the day. We had a quickie from Tracy at the University of WA. She had a bit of a pronunciation dilemma there and probably coming from me, I'm the last person to give advice on pronunciation, so I'll skip over that one. And then we heard from Tok at D'Souza. I had a chat with Dave. Dave was wearing an Alphabet shirt quite proudly. And Dave's commented a few times into our Dazza's and he's got a little bit involved with the Adventurers. So it was great to see. I think three of the volunteer team on the day were all really keen parkrun Adventurers members. Dave had a new Alphabet shirt on. I'm happy to say that I could match 24 out of his 25. Yeah, we had a fair bit to chat about.

00:30:50Lyndell Murray: Wow, twinning. All right. Thanks to our roving reporters. And now let's head over to Dazza's. So as always, we've chosen five comments from the last two weeks of Dazza's post. And on the 31st of January, Dazza said, it's eat Brussels sprouts day. So Dazza can offer you Brussels sprouts omelette, Brussels sprouts chai, Brussels sprouts acai and Brussels sprouts smoothie or a hot chocolate because it's also hot chocolate day. I don't know why he didn't lead with that personally, Toc. But then he asks, what are you having and how was your morning?

Dazza's

00:31:23Tony O'Connell: Linda, I've got to say I'm one of those rare people that really enjoy Brussels sprouts and I could just sit down with a bowl of Brussels sprouts and a bit of butter and a bit of bacon on it and be quite happy. So I don't know what everyone's problem with Brussels sprouts day was. I'm going to lead with one that does have a problem with Brussels sprouts. Cherie Martin came to us from Belle Domaine. And Cherie said, I definitely did not have Brussels sprouts. But after volunteering in the timekeeping role at the thriving Rebel Domain parkrun with a healthier side bowl, mine is the Brussels sprouts. And there was no picture from Cherie, but she wasn't alone. It looks like no one opted for a Daz's special bowl of Brussels sprouts. And there was no further comment on the Brussels sprouts from me. I was interested in Cherie's comment about Belle Domaine thriving. It looks like they've had some growth there. At the beginning of 2025, they had a New Year's bump, averaging in the mid 350s for January 2025. In January 2026, it looks like they've been averaging about 450 finishes and 439 on the last parkrun day. So they've had a fair bit of a growth at Belle Domaine.

00:32:35Lyndell Murray: Yeah, they sure have. It's one of those little parkruns out to the southwest of Brisbane City, out towards Springfield and Ipswich. Next, we heard from Nick Graney, who came for us from Studley parkrun. And Nick said, very excited to achieve Cowell Club today with my 100th different event at Studley in Melbourne. I almost didn't get there after the Australian Open tennis went too long and I didn't get to bed till 2.30. Got up early, rushed and forgot my cow ears. I've been told by Rebecca Bailey that I need to find a Dalmatian costume instead for my 101. No broccoli today, just home for a nap. Great track, great volunteers and met some fellow adventurers. And Nick's post is appropriately embellished with emojis of cows, a tennis racket, a sad face for forgetting his cow's ears and Dalmatian footprints for his 101. And the photo they uploaded was of him with the Studley frame. Congratulations on your Cowell, Nick.

00:33:32Tony O'Connell: Rightio, we're going to head over to the UK and we hear from Ian Thompson at Holyrood parkrun. Ian avoided Brussels sprouts but had a breakfast of something that's probably equally as divisive. Ian said, I ran at Holyrood in Scotland, no sprouts for breakfast, but I did end up with my travel companion's black pudding. The photo is me questioning my life choices afterwards. And he said in a follow-up comment that he ended up with some haggis on his plate too. Unfortunately, his photo isn't of the black pudding breakfast. It's of Ian with the Holyrood pop-up with some rolling hills in the background. Google AI confirms that Holyrood is considered quite hilly and frequently considered tough, which is why Ian is questioning his life choices. But again from Google AI, it sounds like you get a 360 degree view of Edinburgh at some point in the course. That sounds like a bit of a bucket list. parkrun.

00:34:28Lyndell Murray: Sure does, Toc. Next we heard from Wendy Glenn at Phar Lap Track. parkrun. Post Far Lap Track. Oh gee, that's a tongue twister. Holy moly. Wendy said... Post-far lap track parkrun. Yes, good on you, Lyndell. Wendy was excitedly telling anyone who would listen that this was her 150th different parkrun course. I was undecided about breakfast, but I think you helped me decide, Dazza. Moroccan green brekkie for me, please. And Wendy's photo is a picture of the menu board where the Moroccan green brekkie consisted of sautéed seasonal greens, Moroccan roasted pumpkin... baby carrot and fried Brussels sprouts with pomegranate and poached eggs and hummus. Congratulations, Wendy, on your 150th different event. We're always here for that kind of update. Don't keep looking for someone who will listen. We will hear.

00:35:24Tony O'Connell: And I've got to say, that breakfast actually sounds really yum to me. I could get all bored with that, Wendy. You're going to have to tell me exactly where that was. I meant to say, with Ian's comment, the previous one, about the 360-degree views of Edinburgh, that's rather funny to have that one pop up, as the Scottish gentleman I had breakfast with at parkrun on Saturday, that's his home run, Edinburgh. Oh, there you go. So life is full of little two degrees or three degrees of separation.

00:35:53Lyndell Murray: Especially in the parkrun world.

00:35:55Tony O'Connell: It is. Our next one that we heard from was Johan from South Africa at Brandkop parkrun. And another taker for Brussels sprouts, Johan, said, After two months of not being able to parkrun, Levi and I attempted Brandkop parkrun South Africa today as tail walkers, accompanied by Sarnet Bester. I'm over the moon that we managed to walk today. so much and that i'll even try a brussels sprout smoothie and johan shared a picture of himself levi and sunnet in the open fields of brancott parkrun and a clear blue sky and it's really great to hear you back out on course johan i'm not sure that you actually missed much with the brussels sprout smoothie We're going to move along now. Dazza's on the 7th of February. And we've selected a couple of comments out of this one. And this one I've got to say, there's a lot bigger uptake. The theme for the week, Lyndell. People seem to get more into this theme than they did Brussels sprouts. I don't know why. On the 7th of February, Daz has said, it's ice cream for breakfast day. So Daz has brought in his gelato scooping pals. There are 48 flavours. Which one would you like? And while you're choosing, tell us all about your parkrun adventures this week.

00:37:09Lyndell Murray: And we heard from Debbie Jessop from Far Lap Track parkrun. I can't believe I had to say that twice. And Debbie said, I had Snickers slice for breakfast. It's too yum for my own good. Fun story, I used to work at Dairy Bell. My favourites were cookies and cream, strawberry cheesecake. Back to Far Lap parkrun to catch up with Rhi. bumped into a few others who also happened to be there. And the photo with this comment is of Debbie and Rhi, both with big smiles. Later, Rhi also posted a post with a montage photo as well from Farlour.

00:37:47Tony O'Connell: Righto, we're coming down my way next, Linda. We're going to Coonwarra and we heard from Carolyn McRae. Carolyn said, yes, ice cream was had with pancakes at Million Romeo's following Coonwarra parkrun. And Linda, I can confirm that Million Romeo's do do good pancakes and good ice cream. Putting this one on my favourites list. Had a great out and back on the Great Southern Rail Trail. Tunnels, bridges, wetlands and even a dog stick library. Laughy face emoji. Then Jan and I went to a monthly produce market for more coffee and a purchase of fresh produce and a donation to the local CFA. Travelling home, taking the scenic routes to Yarra Glen for ice latte with more ice cream, then via Kinglake and Flowerdale on the 17th anniversary of the Black Saturday bushfires. And Carolyn put in a montage of photos for a great weekend away, a whole heap of different things, including parkrun. And I've got to say, there's a special thank you from me to the Yarn Bombers.

00:38:48Lyndell Murray: Oh, how terrific. Sounds like a lovely photo. I'll have to go back and catch that one. Now we move on to Patrick Shimatek, Patty Schmitty. And he was in Milano Nord in Italy. Oh, my goodness. What a great place to be on ice cream day. Patty says, always lemon gelato for me. I escaped parkrun this weekend at Milano Nord parkrun, but just happened to have the best lemon gelato I've ever tried. Dazza, I think even you'd struggle to match it. Oops, did I just say that? The photo was of Patrick with the biggest gelato going around. Now, I happen to have been to Milano Nord parkrun. They don't go to a coffee shop after parkrun. They go to a gelato shop. And the gelato there is very good. So I agree, Patrick, Dazza may struggle to match that one.

00:39:41Tony O'Connell: No, that was an awesome photo too. That's got to have been the biggest gelato I've seen. I don't know, you had to have two hands to hold that thing up.

00:39:48Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:39:50Lyndell Murray: Well, it's Italy. If they're not known for their gelato and their pizza, I guess, what else are they known for?

00:39:56Tony O'Connell: We're going back up to Queensland and Kelly Timms came to us from Bowen and she said, we didn't manage ice cream for breakfast, but we did manage to grab one on our way back to the airport after doing Bowen parkrun. And there was a great photo of Kelly with Belinda in the Bowen selfie frame with the ocean backdrop. And a fun fact about Bowen, They had an older guy on a scooter that marshalled the same corner every week for a huge amount of time. He was always in a Hawaiian shirt. His name was Tom. Tom passed away in 2018, but the corner still has permanent signage on it, and it's called Tom's Corner. And the event held an annual Tom's Run where everyone gets up in bright gear just to celebrate Tom's life. So it sounds like another great little community run there at Bowen.

00:40:41Lyndell Murray: absolutely finally we heard from our very own office lady sam schroeder was at greenway and sam says evie and i went to greenway parkrun to help celebrate catherine o'connor's 500th parkrun and the parkruns eighth birthday it was lovely to see loads of adventurers there i suspect the frond will be a healthy size and there was a great picture a big smiley sun-filled pic with sam and evie ingrid also called into daz's and said While I didn't have an ice cream, I did have an icy cold watermelon, thanks to Catherine O'Connor, who is celebrating 500 runs at Greenway parkrun's 8th birthday. Plus, my ice cream loaded enough last night to keep me running for the week. So I'm all good. I like your style, Ingrid.

00:41:27Tony O'Connell: Rightio, Linda. We've got a whole heap of great input in there and great photos. I've got the envelope for the Obi here, so I'm going to open that up. And let's see who's the winner. And our Obie this week goes to... Patty Oshimo. Well done, Patty Oshimo.

Obi Award — Patrick ("Patty") — Milano Nord parkrun, Italy

00:41:48Lyndell Murray: Well done, Patty.

00:41:50Tony O'Connell: I reckon any ice cream that you've got to carry with two hands and probably ask a mate for help with deserves an Obie, so well done. I agree. And if we've given you a shout-out at Daz's today, send us an email or a comment or a post-on comment just to let us know that you're a listener. It's great to hear who out there is actually listeners and who just logs into Daz's each week.

00:42:12Lyndell Murray: Indeed. Alrighty, it's onto your favourite segment, Tok. It's time for our email.

Emails

00:42:19Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III: You've got mail.

00:42:20Lyndell Murray: Our first email is from Heather Hunter. Hello, pod team. I hope this is just one of an influx of emails after Tok's passionate pleas and she's put in a lovely smiley emoji just for you, Tok. In response to episode 442, I thought I'd share my parkrun goals for 2026. I ended 2025 on 88 different parkrun events. which left 12 remaining to achieve my Cowell. So I'm aiming for one new event each month to reach 100 different events by the end of the year. The January one was Red All Reserve, 11 to go. Plans are locked in for several already, and others are only penciled in. Unfortunately, I can't make it to Palm 26, but I am heading to Western Australia a few months later to complete the Peel Club Challenge. I'm keen to hear the goals of fellow listeners too. Thanks for all your time and effort recording and everything else that's involved getting each episode out for us. It's really appreciated. Heather Hunter, A760611.

00:43:22Tony O'Connell: And Lyndell, it would be fair to say that that did spark an influx of emails, so I'm really happy. Our next one says, Hello Mel, Tok, Lyndell, Sarah and Simon. It's great to have the podcast back on the 9th of January and I'll listen while out for a walk this morning. After listening to Sarah and Simon's parkrun goals for 2026, as requested by them, I thought that I would write in with some of mine. Goal 1. Reach the goal of running at over 100 Australian parkruns. Last year I managed to join the Cowell Club completing 100 different parkrun locations. This was made up of 16 international parkruns in 8 countries and 84 Australian runs in all of the states and territories. This year I want to add at least another 16 different Australian parkruns to Moteli to reach 100 different Australian Runs. I've already added Woden Town parkrun in the ACT. So 15 plus to go. Goal 2. Run a marathon. Amazingly both my husband Bill and I managed to get into the Sydney Marathon this year. Amazing as over 123,000 people entered the ballot and only 40,000 people got an entry. You might ask how is this related to parkrun? Well, before we started parkrun, myself properly in January 2019 after running 11 times at the end of 2016 and then badly breaking my leg and ankle and having a two-year pause, and Bill on Christmas Day 2019, we had never ever thought of running. parkrun was a gateway event that got us into running, first five kilometres, then ten, then half marathons. parkrun will be part of our training run as we aim to finish our first 42.2 in August. I'd love to know if other adventurers are looking to compete at Sydney Marathon this year. And a third goal. Goal three, keep enjoying parkrun. I'm so happy that I started parkrun and that I got Bill into it as well. We've made so many friends and it's great to see you go to a new parkrun and see the Blue Adventurers t-shirts. You can immediately start a conversation. We both want to keep on enjoying our Saturdays as either runners or volunteers and look forward to more touristing. Hopefully I can record a few more roving reports for the podcast as well. Thanks as always for a great podcast, which I look forward to listening to each fortnight. Very best wishes and looking forward to a fantastic parkrun year. Yvette Turner.

00:45:46Lyndell Murray: Thank you, Yvette. Our next email is from Eman. Hi team, happy 2026. Christine and I are looking forward to catching up with the adventurers at next month's Palm. We wanted to write in from Sarah's comment in the last episode and share our parkrun goals for 2026. From July, Team Vigara is embarking on a one-year world parkrun adventure, hitting up four continents and ticking off a massive parkrun streak. Looking to get a solid tourist streak across Canada, Europe, Japan and South Africa and meet parkrunners around the globe. It will be a great opportunity for the kids to see the world. We'd love to borrow a Channel 5 News crew press pass so we can share the different events we attend. See you soon. Regards, Eman and Christine. Now, I checked Eman's profile. His longest tourist streak is currently 13. But is there such thing as a tourist ratio? If there is, his is about 50%, which is pretty impressive, especially since both he and Christine contribute so much to their local parkrun up in South Toowoomba. And Eman, yes, you and Christine are very, very welcome to send through roving reports. We would love to hear about your adventures.

00:47:03Tony O'Connell: That just sounds like an awesome goal, doesn't it? A year of travelling to so many different places, meeting so many people. And, yep, we'd love to hear a few reports. You bet. Our last email that we're going to read out tonight says, I was listening to episode 442 this morning and it mentioned yearly goals. Well, one of my goals is to complete five kilometres on the 11 days that occurred this year that I'm missing for Date Bingo, which... As a long-time parkrunner means that some of the dates will be the last one I need to have completed the entire month of dates. As many of the hosts and fellow parkrun adventurers in general love a good stat, and are long-time parkrun adventurers... I wonder if anyone has ever delved into this, or am I the only one? My stats. Date bingo, 92%. And she has 340 of the 366 available days. The first month completed, December. So she's pretty impressive, getting a month complete out of all that. The last parkrun day, the 31st of the 1st, being the last date of four that I need to complete, January 1st. Completing parkruns on the 7th of the 2nd and the 21st of the 2nd will complete February. I missed completing March last year thanks to the cold and a cyclone called Alfred. The most number of days I still need in a single month is 5 in July. This is because for many years I skipped parkrun on the first Saturday of July while participating in a small event. You may have heard of it, the Gold Coast Marathon. I also have another yearly goal that involves $111, $55, $44, $33, $22 and $11. But I'll leave that for another time. Happy adventuring. Tutu Tracy Leeper, A845608. Well done, Tracy. I don't know if you've done much of a deep dive into your date bingo, but Tracey's actually just a little bit ahead of me on the date side, missing a large number for many years. Jackie and I went for a holiday about May each year. We went to Fiji for a couple of years, and so I'm missing half of May. It seems to be my biggest gap.

00:49:14Lyndell Murray: Yeah, well, I know that I have not completed a parkrun on the 29th of February. I also happen to know that the next time the 29th of February will occur on a Saturday is a very, very, very, very, very long time away. So that's the end of my deep dive into date. Bingo.

00:49:34Tony O'Connell: You've got me thinking now about the 29th of February and I can quite happily say that I achieved that on the 29th of February 2020 at Bendigo Botanic. Yes. One that doesn't happen that often and especially doesn't happen on a Saturday all that often. No, indeed.

00:49:50[background music]

00:49:50Lyndell Murray: Alrighty. Thank you everybody for your emails. Please keep them coming. And now it is time to throw to Reginald.

Club Corner

00:50:02Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III: This is Reginald Yardley Pomfrey III, with Club Corner, where we talk about the what and why of parkrun clubs, and I am coming to you from Arenda country. Willkommen zur Deutschlandwache, welcome to Germany Week. To go wiki deep to start, the Federal Republic of Germany is a federation and consists of 16 partly sovereign states. Of the 16 states, 13 are so-called area states, open bracket these have a level of government below the state close bracket. Two states, Berlin and Hamburg, are city-states, with no separation between state government and local administration. Then we have the state of Bremen is a special case. Frankly, just head to the wiki to learn more. Nearly every part of the country has a parkrun within coup. See what one did there? Germany was a change in tack for a country launch. They hosted three events in their inaugural week. Küchenholz parkrun, Neckarau parkrun, and Georgengarten parkrun for a triple launch party. The lead-up to this launch included a grand tour from PSH and other HQ staff, who traveled throughout eight cities and met with anyone keen to start a parkrun in Germany. Their country manager even recounted in a blog post that the first landowner permission came in before the tour was finished. By January 2018, Germany added Berlin, Frankfurt and Osnabrück as part of the community, and throughout that first 12 months a total of 11 parkrun events. I believe that this was a country record at the time. The other new thing about the launch of parkrun in Germany was that they embraced the future, which is now the present, but then was a huge innovation. Germany launched with only the parkrun virtual volunteer app. No more stopwatches, scanners, and laptops with dodgy cables for them. Germany added 17 events in 2019, and now host nearly 70 events each week, accumulating about 10 new events annually. Germany celebrates German Unity Day on October 3 each year, plus they host their other optional day on Christmas Day. Locally the events coordinate to ease pressures on event teams but cooperating and rotating which events are open each year, so be sure to check ahead if traveling for a special event. Germany has another first, since March 20, 19, Aachener Weiher parkrun is the most alphabetical parkrun in the world. You could go to Zooerfontein parkrun in South Africa and complete the A to Z of parkrun exclamation point. With so many event options in Deutschland I am not going to highlight any further, just get there and try some. And remember, in parkrun life, all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun, so stay tuned for our future club corners. [German: "Welcome to the Germany Watch"]

00:52:50[background music]

00:52:51Tony O'Connell: And we've heard once again from Reginald, who has given us another summary of one of the countries that participate in parkrun. It's always good to hear a little bit more in depth. Linda, where is your favourite German parkrun?

00:53:06Lyndell Murray: Well, that's an easy question. It's Riemer parkrun. It's the only one I've done in Germany. I'll remember it forever because it was six or seven degrees and it rained the whole time. It would be quite nice on a sunny day, I think. It was on a retired airfield just outside of Munich.

00:53:29Tony O'Connell: It's pretty funny, our different German experiences. We rented at Ziegelwies and it was almost sunburn weather, blue skies, absolutely gorgeous day. We spent the day in the town and it was probably got up around 30 degrees. Yeah, right. Yeah, just a land of contrasts.

Consolidated Club Report

00:53:51Lyndell Murray: Let's head over and check out the Adventurers Consolidated Club Report for Saturday the 7th of February. And there were 629 Adventurers that took part in 11 countries across 315 locations. And that is of our total number of 871 members. Locally, there are adventurers at 59 events in New South Wales and in Queensland. There's a tie there in the state of origin. 45 events in Victoria, 18 events in Western Australia, 17 events in South Australia, 13 events in Tasmania, 9 events in the North Island, 4 events in ACT, 2 events in the South Island and 1 event in the Northern Territory. Internationally, there are adventurers at 69 events in the UK, 10 events in South Africa, two events in Japan and one event in each of Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden.

The Frond

00:54:56Tony O'Connell: And our largest international frond, Lyndell. I feel like I've been stitched up a little bit here, but I'm going to have a crack at it. On the 31st of the 1st, there was a frond of four at White Promenade, Leandro and Ross in the UK. And they were James Newt, Gail Bengert, Cass Castleton and VKP. On the 7th of the 2nd, There was a frond of seven, which is a big frond for the UK, at Wimbledon Common. They were Debbie and Andy Airey, Denise Evans, Martin Waller, Rhiannon Taylor, Tina Durie and James Nottingham. So James was the biggest front two weeks in a row.

00:55:34Lyndell Murray: Popular guy. On to our pilgrimage. And on the 31st of the 1st, there was no one at the home of parkrun at Bushy. And there was no one at Sandringham either to greet the king. Did you see that? The king was at Sandringham. I did not know until I saw that post on Facebook that there was a parkrun at Sandringham on the Royal Estate. There you go. You learn something every day. Then on the 7th of February, we had Danny Norman there doing his, not doing his pilgrimage. He's probably been there 50 times.

Pilgrimage

00:56:12Tony O'Connell: I think he's probably even been there a few more and volunteered quite a few times as well. Right, Linda, we've got our largest Aussie front, and we're going to pick one at random for the 31st of the 1st. And the one that we've picked, let's pick D'Souza in Australia, in Victoria, of course, the great estate. And the people that were there on the day, there was a front of seven, And there was actually seven at four different events. So there's Dermot Johnson, Vicki Hallam, Greg Moore, Marg Prowse, Joanna McCarthy, Christy Gange, and Dave Westaway. And that's the aforementioned Dave from the roving reports. On the 7th of the 2nd, there was a front of 11 at two events. And the one that we've selected is Victory Road Reserve. And that was Gareth Dowling, Bill Ludwig Jr., Bram Cassidy, Vincent Heng, Melissa Flintjar, Melissa Gallichan, Maz Strong, Irene Bomacanti, Dawn Branton, Vicky and John Smith, and Woden Tan was the other one that had a frond of 11. Just as a reminder, you can add the Adventurers Club, and I'm sure everyone listening to this has the Adventurers Club as one of their five. If you're having any trouble with that, just message the page, and we'll give you instructions on how to add the parkrun adventurers in, because we love to see our fronds forming.

00:57:34Lyndell Murray: We do indeed. Okay, launches. On the 31st of January, there were four launches. The first one, York Community Woodland parkrun in the UK, a largely flat trail with two laps through a newly established woodland near York. There were 36 volunteers that helped 347 finishers, and two of those were first-time parkrunners.

00:58:00Tony O'Connell: Coming back to home, Victory Road Reserve in Australia and finally a V for the Great Estate. Yay! This one's a figure of eight course on a former waste transfer station that's now been transferred or transformed into an awesome park. Lots of green spaces, there's dog off-leash areas, there's all sorts of things in this one. We had 260 finishers complete the circuit for week one and they were assisted by 26 wonderful volunteers.

00:58:29Lyndell Murray: Next, moving on to the Constellations of the South parkrun. Fabulous name.

00:58:35Tracy Wood: I want to go there just because of its name.

00:58:38Lyndell Murray: There were 214 finishes, including a very impressive 36 first-time-ever parkrunners at this new event in Eurella in New South Wales. The course is on a trail in an off-leash, dog-friendly park, and there's some popular sculptures nearby as well. It's 95% trail. And there's a little bit of elevation, 60 meters of elevation. It's two and a bit laps of the trail area. The course map looks a little bit hard to follow. Looks a little bit like Mr. Squiggle has had a bit of a sneeze.

00:59:13Tony O'Connell: Very interesting description, Lyndell, but that when I looked at the map, that's exactly what I thought of. Something from the 70s TV show, Mr. Squiggle. We had another launch on the 31st of January, and that was in Denmark, and that was Holbeck for Lead parkrun. This is an out and back with a loop. on it 101 people braved the ice and snow to complete the course 33 of these were first time ever parkrunners and they had 12 parkrun or 12 volunteers on the day then on the 7th of February there were two launches worldwide. Toc, do you want to kick us off? Yeah, because once again, we had another launch in the Great Estate. We're on a roll down here down south. Cruickshank Park parkrun launched in the Melbourne suburb of Yarraville, which for those in the know is near the Westgate Bridge. It's a three-lap figure of eight course, and it was attended by 307 parkrunners and supported by 18 volunteers.

Launches and anniversaries ("Where is the cake?")

01:00:09Lyndell Murray: And lastly on our list of launches, Storwy Mieszki in Poland launched. It's a two-lapper. And it attracted 131 finishers with 22 volunteers.

01:00:21Tony O'Connell: That's a great little wrap-up there of launches, Lyndell. There's six across the two weeks. It seems like parkrun are just constantly launching a couple of events every week. I haven't had one of the 10 events launching, but there's a few more coming up. So it's interesting to see parkrun growing and where it grows. And I think I said last time I recorded, I must do a breakup of last year's launches by country. And I'll say it again, I must get around to that before the next episode.

01:00:54Lyndell Murray: All right, Toc. Let's move along to the news of the moment. Palm, it's just around the corner.

News of the moment

01:01:01Tony O'Connell: Palm is four weeks away. Can you believe it? Less than four weeks away. It's coming over the road like a steam train. We need to get everyone that's going to Palm to actually click on the events in the parkrun Listener Meetup Facebook page, go to events. so we know who's coming just so we know how many spots to book at the two pubs mainly if you're going to parkrun you just rock up like any other parkrun but we need to know for the pub because there's a fair difference between them seating 40 people and 80 people so we need to know that the numbers look like they are swelling a little bit so please either let me know or click on the link to say you're going on the event invitation looking like being a sensational weekend I will be kicking out a program and maybe before this episode's out there'll be a little bit more feedback in the message group once you click on the event invitation if I pick your name up as being someone not in the messenger group we'll add you in so that you know all the stuff that's happening for the weekend

01:02:04Lyndell Murray: Brilliant, Toc. Just in case I haven't clicked on any of those buttons i'll be there and don't forget importantly get onto this the theme for the dress up on the saturday night is rainbow so get your thinking caps on and make sure that you are adequately attired on the Saturday night.

01:02:25Tony O'Connell: And I'm sure there's so many more things there, Lyndell, than just the straight rainbow. There's so many things. I had a couple thrown at me that were out of left field the other day, and I thought, wow, I would not have connected that to rainbow. And I thought, how do I do a costume for that? And I thought, oh, that's a really hard one to do.

01:02:45Lyndell Murray: Yeah, I've had a couple of ideas like that as well. LAUGHTER

01:02:50Tony O'Connell: Next parkrun Day, Linda, where are you going to be hiding at?

01:02:54Lyndell Murray: I am on the lookout for somewhere close to home to volunteer due to some other commitments that I have this weekend. I'm not sure yet. I'll find somewhere, I'm sure.

01:03:02Tony O'Connell: So it looks like we're both going to be on the volunteer rosters this week because I'm Run Director at the Stump and I'm looking forward to a visit from Tracy in a tutu. That's going to be pretty awesome.

01:03:14Lyndell Murray: Yeah, fabulous. She's looking forward to it, Toc. LAUGHTER

01:03:19Tony O'Connell: Linda, there's been so much to talk about over the last hour or so. So many things happening in parkrun world. And I've got to say, it was so good to get so many emails. Yep, the old bloke's a little bit happy that he's got so many emails in for the fortnight.

01:03:36Lyndell Murray: Yeah, absolutely. Keep them coming in, guys. We love to read your emails. And as always, you can contact us on our Facebook page, parkrun Adventurers, or our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. That's it for another episode. We will see you all next time for more adventures.

01:03:50[outro theme playing]

01:03:57Tony O'Connell: Bye.