Episode 449 - Is it your first time?

Episode details · 145 speaker turns · sound cues from audio analysis

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

00:00:32Simon Mackley: 449 of the parkrun Adventurers podcast, a podcast about life, if your life is all about parkrun. I'm Simon Mackley and I'm joining you from Quandamooka Yirrbindra or Quandamooka Sea Country.

00:00:44Lyndell Murray: And I'm Lyndell Murray and I'm recording in Meeanjin, the traditional lands of the Turrbal and Yuggera. G'day Simon. Hey, coo-ee.

00:00:52Simon Mackley: How are you, Lyndell? I'm pretty well.

00:00:55Lyndell Murray: Pretty well. How are you? What's happening? Where have you been? What have you been up to?

00:01:00Simon Mackley: Oh, gosh. Well, as you know, up here it's been raining. Like, at least we're in the same state. This is like Mel and Toc talking about the greatest state.

00:01:08Lyndell Murray: Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is a takeover, Simon. Watch out.

00:01:11[crosstalk]

00:01:11Simon Mackley: It is.

00:01:12Lyndell Murray: It is.

00:01:14Simon Mackley: The humid state.

00:01:15Lyndell Murray: The humid state. It is.

00:01:19Simon Mackley: It is indeed. Ding.

00:01:26Lyndell Murray: With the two of us, David is going to have a field day because I've noticed I've chucked a few Indeeds in lately too. Good.

00:01:33Simon Mackley: I was going to say, it hasn't been across all of them because we've had someone who posted and there was no dinging after their Indeeds. in the post that was called out. So we'll see how he does this time. Anyway.

00:01:50Lyndell Murray: Let's see.

00:01:51Simon Mackley: Exactly. So how's things with you?

00:01:54Lyndell Murray: All pretty good. I have, well, it's not been so long since the listeners have heard from me. And in that time, I have completed one parkrun at Jubilee Tenner Field. And the listeners will hear a little bit about that in a roving report that we've got coming up. How about you, Simon?

00:02:11Simon Mackley: So, yeah, I'm trying to think. It must have been four weeks ago when it was last recorded. So last week I was at Wishart and avoided the rain. So it was raining all just before it. So it was quite wet underfoot, but puddles and that sort of thing. The week before that, I went to Polaro and I caught up with Brian, who I know you interviewed a couple of months ago. So it was his last RD stint when he was moving down to Victoria. So I went there to wish him well. I know he's still around for a bit longer, but that was his last RD. Before that, I was at Cleveland and the time before that was Redland Bay. So I really haven't ventured very far from home, to be honest. But yeah, it's been nice to be sort of close at home. There's been a lot going on at home. So that's why I stuck around.

00:03:02Lyndell Murray: Sometimes that's the case, isn't it?

00:03:04Simon Mackley: It is.

00:03:04Lyndell Murray: All right. Shall we move on to our listener feedback?

00:03:08Simon Mackley: I think we should.

00:03:10Lyndell Murray: Well, guess what? We don't have any feedback on our last recording. Tok and I obviously did a stellar job, Simon. There's no feedback. Tick for me and Tok.

00:03:21Simon Mackley: Well, I would like to thank you for pulling him up on his pronunciation of Redding. Like, I know it says reading, but it's very much the, I'm just a builder on that one. It's just that we obviously knew better. And I was yelling at my car radio when I heard him saying it. And then, yeah, you picked it up. But, you know, you guys had some good chemistry.

parkrun news bulletin

00:03:45Lyndell Murray: Yeah. Look, I thought it was quite funny that he was happy to get the very simple

00:03:51Simon Mackley: parkrun name and then buggered up the location but anyway this is our talk we love talk maybe we'll roll on to some news so avid parkrunners in Tasmania or maybe Australia will have noticed that Launceston parkrun has actually changed its name it's now called Inveresk Precinct parkrun sounds like the core team were involved in the decision as well so There was a comment on their Facebook page that there was a perception that because the event was called Launceston that it was the main parkrun in Launceston and there may have been other reasons too. So the event team indicated that in one of their comments that it was a decision that they didn't take lightly.

00:04:34Lyndell Murray: No, big decision to change the name of your parkrun. But interestingly, it seems like there's lots of parkrunners that are overnight alphabeteers because they needed an eye and now all of a sudden they have one.

00:04:46Simon Mackley: Exactly.

00:04:48Lyndell Murray: Interesting decision. Look, I'll try to keep this short. I do have a few views on the names of parkruns. I get a bit hot under the collar when little towns in regional areas have generic names. And I'm going to call out our old friend Railway Park at Proston, for example. It's in a regional area in Queensland. It's quite frequently on our smallest parkruns list. There's not going to be two parkruns in Proston. why don't we just call Railway Park Proston parkrun, you know? Or alternatively, I wonder if there's room for more of the approach that Jubilee Tenterfield has made. The name of that parkrun is actually Jubilee Tenterfield. So it acknowledges both the park name and the locality. So I think that might be a really good way moving forward if you're listening parkrun HQ. They're probably not. Yeah.

00:05:42Simon Mackley: Yeah, I mean, like when we started Brisbane Valley Rail Trail Black Bart, we had to put the Black Bart on the end of it because obviously the rail trail is 100 miles long. So it could have been anywhere there. So, yeah, I mean, Railway Park, Proston wouldn't have been the worst.

00:05:58Lyndell Murray: No, no. There's plenty of longer parkrun names than that. But anyway, moving on, I guess I'll end this little segment, which is the little food for thought. I wonder what will happen if they rename Zillmere parkrun. to O'Callaghan parkrun, which is where that parkrun is located, Simon.

00:06:16Simon Mackley: Wash your mouth out, Lyndell. That is sacrilege. I mean, Zan would then be the busiest parkrun, not only in Tasmania, but probably in Australia. They have fun rushing there to get their Zed.

00:06:29Lyndell Murray: Yep, absolutely. And lots of people booking flights to the Netherlands and Germany for their second and third Zeds.

00:06:36Simon Mackley: True, true, yes.

00:06:39Lyndell Murray: All right. Moving on. Our next bit of news. We had some sad news since we last recorded. simon that colin thorne has passed away now we've called out colin a few times on this podcast colin from new zealand completed 265 parkruns at 21 locations he did his first parkrun in 2017 in his 90s and he's the reason why parkrun now has a 101 to 105 year age category he's just such an inspiration to many oh unbelievable yeah i mean it

00:07:15Simon Mackley: Sad to hear of his passing, because I know that I called out, you know, he was so close to getting 250 last year and that sort of thing. So, yeah, I was really waiting for him to hit that 250, because it's just, as we both know, 250 is so many parkruns. But to do it over 100 is just...

00:07:35Lyndell Murray: Yeah, incredible. I have a bit of a connection to Colin. One of my old work colleagues was his nephew and he mentioned when I reached out to send my condolences, he mentioned that his last visit to Colin was just a week before his passing and he said he was still bright as a button and still had his cheeky smile and he always had time for a joke. So his family are very aware of that Colin leaves a really big void in their lives, but leaves such a large legacy with the parkrun community. So we remember Colin and thank him for what he's done for parkrun and for all of us.

00:08:13Simon Mackley: Exactly, exactly. Alrighty, moving on across the globe. So South Africa recently held its ambassador conference and our friend Johan managed to snag an interview with Carol Cunningham, who is parkrun's global volunteering lead. Let's hear what Carol has to say.

00:08:25[background music]

00:08:39Johan Duvenhage: And I haven't used that parkrun adventurers, but that's our new greeting. And I am here with someone that I've had the pleasure to meet this week for the first time. And that's, she's from up there, but she's been down there, down under for quite a while. And now she's here somewhere in the middle. Welcome to Carol Cunningham, the Global Lead for Volunteering. Thank you. Right, so I've had the opportunity, we're having the parkrun conference in South Africa at the moment, and I've had the opportunity to quickly chat to Carol about some of the things involving our volunteering. But before we get to that, Carol, how long have you been with parkrun and what's your role specifically?

00:09:19Carol Cunningham: Okay, so I've been working for parkrun since 2017. I started as the volunteer lead in APAC and then it was about three years ago that I moved into a brand new role, the global volunteering lead. So I am responsible in that role for the strategic direction of volunteering and supporting the teams around the world, the head office teams with volunteering.

00:09:51Johan Duvenhage: Fantastic. So we've recently heard that volunteering now results with event delivery. So what are the benefits to that and is there any drawbacks to that?

00:10:02Carol Cunningham: It has been the opportunity to elevate volunteering. Volunteers are absolutely the heart of what we do and bringing it into event delivery. We've now got an SLT, a senior leadership team member who is leading volunteering, which is great. And obviously, volunteering is absolutely crucial to event delivery. So it just makes sense to bring those two together, share ideas, work together more closely. So I'm very excited about Ali, who's just come on board as the new lead for these teams.

00:10:38Johan Duvenhage: Yes. So volunteering does also have some issues and some of the issues that's come up recently is the focus that we need to do some more learning and development or focusing more on the learning and development of volunteers and also spreading the load for volunteers. Do you have some comments on that?

00:10:53Carol Cunningham: Yeah, this feedback, first of all I say thank you to anyone who's provided this. It's something that we've heard over the last few years. So this year in particular, we are focusing on that training and development side for volunteers. So that is actually one of our objectives. And it'll be a long process. I want to be realistic and let people know that we can't change everything overnight. But we recognise that this is important for event teams, ambassadors to give them the tools and confidence. And with the sharing the load, yeah, look, hear it loud and clear. And, you know, I think this will be something that we continue to need to support teams with, with the messaging, with the tools to help them and, encourage more people in our community to see how wonderful volunteering is.

00:11:44Johan Duvenhage: So touching on the sharing the load, we've seen some of the stats showing that more and more volunteering is being done by a smaller and smaller group of people. So why is that not optimal and what can we do in the short to medium term about that?

00:11:58Carol Cunningham: Yeah, look, I mean, it's great that people are doing more volunteering. It shows that they love it and are enjoying it. However, long term sustainability wise, that means that we're not getting people coming through that pipeline to grow those communities. So we do want to see people coming in and at the kind of younger end and people have maybe not tried it before and you know helping out maybe you know you don't have to do it every week you know when you you drop in and out when you feel like it encouraging that flexibility around volunteering i think that's something that you know we need to do more of i think a lot of people don't realize they see a team there every week and think that's what you have to do when you don't have to do that you know if you want to volunteer one week come along and do it if you want to walk and run if you want to sleep in that's okay yes so um what's the one thing that you want to achieve in the next year or two in terms of your role and volunteering yeah i mean we've got the the strategy that we set well a couple of years ago and you know really i want to see us continue to work and achieve the objectives for that so we've got three objectives this year as part of that strategy so training and development is one of those so start start that project and move it along We're also looking at listening to volunteers, so the volunteer feedback pool, continuing that pilot, getting more countries involved. And then we're also obviously looking at the recruitment side that you just mentioned. We're actually focusing on the ambassadors, making sure that that recruitment process globally has the right processes in place so we can encourage more of our community. and encourage diversity with that, you know, get people to come in through the pipeline and grow that volunteer pool.

00:13:43Johan Duvenhage: I said I wouldn't ask you something controversial, but I just remembered something. And the subject of volunteerism has maybe become a little bit more prevalent now since the app has gone mainstream and become parkrun operated. Is there any issues in terms of volunteerism that you think we as parkrun adventurers, we do travel, we love to volunteer, but obviously that does bring certain problems when people want to volunteer in certain types of roles when they are travelling.

00:14:13Carol Cunningham: Yeah, look, I mean, we obviously want as many people to get involved in volunteering as possible. I think regardless of whether you are travelling or touristing or, you know, you're there at your local event, just be aware we've got an event team there who's, there are volunteers as well, that they are there to deliver a safe event. And, you know, they need to be able to manage all those roles. So, you know, it may be the case that, You know, if you've got 20 tail walkers, you know, that might be quite challenging for the team. So, you know, we definitely want to encourage all the time to get more people involved. But just be aware, like, you know, when you're talking to event teams, that they are volunteers and that they're there to deliver a safe event. So, you know, understanding that.

00:14:59Johan Duvenhage: So, parkrun Adventures, Carol has done her 15 years in parkrun this week, on the 23rd of April. And she's also been around a bit, done about 176 different events. So one of the questions we tend to ask is, so in your travels over the years, is there any one, two or three events that really has that memorable, is very memorable to you for whatever reason?

00:15:29Carol Cunningham: That is a tough question. It is a really tough question. And actually, that statistic you just said to me is completely new to me. I didn't even know that. So hand on heart. I've loved every single event I've been to. I guess, you know, if I had to pick, I definitely would say Hull parkrun, okay, because that's where it all started for me. And in terms of that community at the start, like when I went there, that's what made me think this is just absolutely brilliant. You know, that's something that I took away as kind of, this is what parkrun is all about. I'd never been, obviously, to a parkrun before. I had a totally different expectation. I thought it was gonna be just like my local running club. And the event directors and the run director on that day, they were just so welcoming. And I came back, I can't remember if it was the week after or the week after that. I went back to Australia, so Hull's in the UK, and I went back to Australia and said, yeah, we need to have this here.

00:16:33Johan Duvenhage: We could probably also say that the Hull parkrun is doing a little bit better than the Hull football.

00:16:40Carol Cunningham: to the next question all right you've got two other events to identify oh look this it really is a tub and i don't like because you know every single event no no i mean i know simon mackley is uh um on this podcast so you know i will give a shout out to mossman who at the local park and i go to in sydney and and the reason i go to them and also willoughby that's close to me both of those events you know it's absolutely fabulous communities they're you know, volunteering-wise, and that's where I go to help out most of the time, that they, yeah, just made me feel part of that community.

00:17:16Johan Duvenhage: I think our local parkruns always have a special place in our heart.

00:17:19Carol Cunningham: 100%.

00:17:20Johan Duvenhage: Yeah. Carol, so much. Thank you so very much for your time. And have a safe hike back and enjoy Freedom Day tomorrow in South Africa.

00:17:25[background music]

00:17:28Carol Cunningham: Thank you. And thank you for the opportunity. Cheers. Bye.

00:17:42Lyndell Murray: And that was great to hear from Carol there. Thank you, Johan. Carol's got a great history in parkrun, doesn't she? And even though she's a global lead, she's based right here in Australia and has started a few events closer to home here in Australia and around Asia. So great to hear from her.

00:17:59Simon Mackley: Yeah, it's good to hear from Carol. I know Carol quite well because as she said that she used to go, well, she does go to Mossman. Obviously, I don't go there anymore. Yeah, no, it's very nice to hear from Carol all the way across there in Africa with Johan. And speaking about away from Australia, we're going to jump straight into the parkrun New Zealand attendance and milestone stats. So starting on the 25th of April in New Zealand, there were 61 parkruns with 13,462 parkrunners and 1,083 volunteers. Two events smashed their attendance records, and that was Opaheke Park, which I think was on its second week, and Whangarei, which we know was honouring Colin Thorne, as we were just talking about. On that same weekend, the biggest New Zealand parkruns were Neckley as normal, followed by Waitangi and Whangarei, and the three smallest were Mangawara Riverwalk, East Otago High School and Hamilton Park. The closest to the average for the week of 221 was Taupo, which had 227. And then for the past weekend, on the 2nd of May, there were 69 parkruns with 12,176 parkrunners and 1,154 volunteers plus any pending results. Now we don't actually have the largest and smallest stats for this week as our wonderful friend Alison is having a well-deserved And very park-runny break in Japan.

Attendance and milestone stats

00:19:33Lyndell Murray: Okay, moving back to Australia. And on the 25th of April, we had 78,525 participants, 6,101 volunteers at 457 events. And that included 3,609 first-timers. In the junior events that week, all five operated with 614 little legends being guided by 120 responsible adults. The biggest and smallest on that week, we're back to our old friend Railway Park, Simon, had three runners that week, followed by Moora with five, Puckapunyal with six, and Coober Pedy Oval with seven. And the largest, our old friend Albert Melbourne with 960, followed up by the Ponds and Roads parkrun. This last parkrun Day on the 2nd of May, there were 77,948 participants, 6,837 volleys, 525 events and 3,402 first-timers. Again, all the junior events ran that last weekend with 543 little parkrunners supported by 108 older parkrunners. And last weekend, the smallest parkruns were Moora and Waterloo Plains parkruns They both had five participants and then Pyramid Hill Golf Trail and North Harbour with just six. The largest parkrun last weekend again was Albert Melbourne with the Bridesmaid being Rhodes and the second place runner up being Parkville with 705.

00:21:20Simon Mackley: Yeah, like Parkville's not one we actually hear very often from. So that's, I wonder what happened there. Maybe it was their birthday.

00:21:25[background music]

00:21:26Lyndell Murray: Oh, maybe. All right. That's our stats for the last couple of weeks. It's time now to throw to our roving reporters.

Roving Adventurers (roving reporter crossovers)

00:21:42Tony O'Connell: Howdy parkrunners, it's Toc from Inverloch and we've ventured all the way across to Ireland, landed in Dublin, jumped in a hire car and we've driven across to Galway to the University of Galway parkrun and I'm here with the lovely Claire who is today's Run Director. G'day Claire.

00:21:58Claire: Hi, welcome, welcome to Galway.

00:22:00Tony O'Connell: First of all, Claire, can you give us a little bit of a description of the parkrun course here? It's a beautiful sunny day. We're sitting here, blue skies. They tell me it gets wet in Ireland, but every time we come here, it's sunny.

00:22:11Claire: I know, you're so lucky. So we're located in the University of Galway. So we're kind of in the sports grounds and our run starts beside the meadow. And then we run out by the River Corrib and it's just a very simple out and back down along the River Carrub, back in towards the meadow. a beautiful kind of runway by the river with forest and greenery around us.

00:22:33Tony O'Connell: And looking across the river, you've got a castle over the other side of the river, a couple of ruins at the other end. For an Aussie coming over, it's very interesting to see the ruins and the castles all around. We don't have that sort of thing.

00:22:47Claire: No, we do. We're very lucky. When you turn left out of the meadow across the river, you see Menlo Castle. And then when you run down towards the other end, there are some other castle ruins down by the bridge. So, yeah, we're very lucky. It's quite a scenic route.

00:23:00Tony O'Connell: And Clare, what's your background with parkrun? What got you into parkrun and what got you to be standing up in the runder at the vest today?

00:23:07Claire: So I'm relatively new to parkrun, about three years. I used to live in London. I used to hear about it a lot, but I never took part. And then when I moved back to Galway, a friend of mine told me about our sister parkrun nearby, Knocknacarra. This is before the university one existed. and I just started going there, volunteered a couple of times as a marshal and the parkrun here today started about two and a half years ago so then last year I got involved as volunteer coordinator and then actually last December I took over as co-event director so I'm co-event director with my friend Bram and yeah so that's basically sort of started running it, volunteered a couple of times and it kind of snowballed from there.

00:23:46Tony O'Connell: Okay, I think we might wrap it up there. It was really great to meet you. It's a lovely parkrun. It actually was really enjoyable watching the guys on the sports field next door as you walked along. As I said, the river, the sunshine, you've got plenty of green space around you. This is a really beautiful parkrun.

00:24:02[crosstalk]

00:24:04Claire: Great. Thank you. Thanks for visiting. And we love having visitors. Lots of people love to come and get their you. So please come and visit anytime.

00:24:11Lyndell Murray: right thanks claire cheers g'day parkrun adventurers it's lindell and today i am chatting with chrissy and we are on the traditional lands of the Jukambal, Bundjalung and Kamilaroi people in tenterfield northern new south wales and i have just completed jubilee chrissy welcome to the podcast how are you going today well thank you thanks for coming and visiting our little town it's an absolute pleasure now before we get into parkrun i just want to make that little note that We are on the meeting places of the traditional owners of the land we're on. And Tenterfield is the birthplace of Australia. This is where Federation was first cooked up. Is that correct, Chrissie?

00:24:57Chrissy: That is. So we're very lucky in the fact that we have such a beautiful meeting place on this beautiful land that we live on. And yeah, so Federation, the first speech that Sir Henry Parks gave is actually just next door in the cafe that we're sitting at. Yeah, and he announced that it would be a great idea for us to all be one, and I think it's a great idea, and we live that now.

00:25:18Lyndell Murray: Excellent. Now, I am going to go and have a look at the museum and we are at coffee after parkrun, as you said. But let's get back to parkrun. Tell me a little bit about your parkrun. Give us a bit of an overview of the course.

00:25:32Chrissy: So it's tricky to explain it verbally and we try and chalk it and put it out as much as we can. It is a combination of path and grass course. We are a two-lap course. Because we are such a little town, it is hard to find five kilometres within a park so we have to double up as where we can and we use our local cricket field as well to make sure that we get everything in.

00:25:57Lyndell Murray: It's a lovely mixed terrain course. The lap around the little white picket fence around the cricket field was delightful and at this time of year as well the leaves are really beautiful so what a lovely course and parkrun it is. The people as well you've got a nice little community. I met Peggy the three-legged dog

00:26:15Chrissy: peg peg the three-legged dog yes she comes and joins us and her owner will occasionally um volley as well so she does two roles which is um very sweet no look we are are very lucky um in a small community a small town it's hard to start um events like this in terms of unless people have been to a parkrun before and have seen it prior. When it's something new, it's hard to kind of get started and introduce that to a small town. But our volleys have been amazing and we just look after each other so much as best we can. And it's just, yeah, it's pretty magic. It's pretty lovely.

00:26:55Lyndell Murray: And event 101 it was today, we noted it from that race briefing that we should have been wearing our Dalmatian costumes. So tell us about that journey. You were around to start this parkrun and slowly got people on board and got the council on board.

00:27:11Chrissy: Yeah. Like I said, initially to get this started, there was a long line of people prior to me who... We were in the initiation stages and then, yeah, we just... When I came in to sort of take over from organising it, it took us a little while. We did get a little bit, I don't know, disheartened there at the beginning when we didn't think it was going to take off, but we had New South Wales Sports support us in getting us started, which was really good, and we acknowledged them for their help in that. And, yeah, we... Yeah, we started off small and we're lucky that we have a J in our name, which always brings the alphabetters to us. And yeah, it is just a gorgeous little spot. And yeah, we're lucky that we've got as far as we did. So we had our 100th The Weekend Pride Anzac Day. And that was lovely to celebrate that because it feels like it went so quickly. And yeah, so one of our regular volunteers, Mark, wanted to do 101 Dalmatians and wanted to be black and white today. And I was like, well, no, we're just going to be normal. Keep warm today.

00:28:22Lyndell Murray: Yeah, it was a bit of a cooler morning. Now, you said earlier that, you know, it's a small town and less people have been involved in parkrunner. Tell me about yourself, have you been involved in parkrun outside of Tenterfield? What's your parkrun story Chrissy?

00:28:38Chrissy: We had our little small young family, we had been overseas prior to moving to Tenterfield and so when we moved post-COVID it was very difficult to meet people even though we were working in the community it was just You sort of wanted to have an out of work where you could actually meet other people that you wouldn't see within your work hours. And so, and yeah, well, you know, I'd gone to parkrun down in Stanthorpe, which is just down the road in another beautiful parkrun. And I thought, wouldn't this be great to have here? And then when I did the application online, found out there was already wonderful people already trying to get it up and running. So I am not going to tell you how many parkruns I've actually done because I have volunteered for 100. But I won't tell you how many we've actually run because it's a very low number. But yeah, we do it for our community for now.

00:29:40Lyndell Murray: Yeah, that's good. parkrun is that kind of place though, where no matter how you want to be involved, everything is valued. Whether you're running a 15 minute parkrun every week, or whether you're towel walking every week, or whether you're just showing up to cheer people on, it's a really wonderful community to have within a community. Alright, is there anything else Chrissy that you would like the parkrun adventurers to know before they pack up their

00:30:10Chrissy: car van to jump on a plane or a train to venture to Jubilee parkrun what else would they need to know um winter's beautiful time to do it i know it gets very very cold here um it gets a bit chilly but it is a lovely time and this time autumn like tenefield prides itself on its autumn season And the fact that there's just so much beauty within it and enjoying the town and everything that has surrounding it. You know, Tennerfield is, you know, on the brink of mountain biking as well. So that's really exciting. That's going to bring a lot of our other little adventures into town. So it'll be a little combined adventure city. It's exciting.

00:30:54Lyndell Murray: Yeah, absolutely. All right. Well, thank you very much for talking to me and making the trip to the cafe. Didn't want to miss it. And thank you for everything that you have done and will continue to do for your community and parkrunners here in Tennerfield at Jubilee Park.

00:31:10[background music]

00:31:12Chrissy: Thank you very much for making the time and, yeah, see everyone soon.

00:31:20Simon Mackley: And we're back from our raving reports. So we had two amazing sounding parkruns. First of all, we heard from our Lyndell at the birthplace of Australian Federation. And then we heard TOC on his first stop of his and Jackie's epic European journey. So it sounds like they're getting nice weather, which Ireland is green. So there's a reason it's green, but they don't seem to be getting any rain. So we will see what happens there.

00:31:48Lyndell Murray: It's always sunny where talk is, Simon.

00:31:50Simon Mackley: I know. At least he says it is.

00:31:53Lyndell Murray: He says it is, yeah. Yeah. Okay, let's check in with Dazza. And as always, we've chosen some comments from each of the last two weeks of Dazza's posts. So on the 25th of April, Dazza said... For adventurers in Australia and New Zealand, today is Anzac Day, a day where we honour all those who have served our nations as their legacy reminds us of the values that define us. Resilience, mateship and the strength found in standing together, lest we forget. And joining us at Daz's was Yvette Turner, who was at Umbagong parkrun. And Yvette said, our day started at 4.30 a.m. with a moving dawn service in Canberra, thinking of all those who served and are serving and remembering those who paid the highest price for their country. My sister Adrienne is visiting, so Bill and I took her to her fourth parkrun at Umbergong District parkrun. The run director gave a heartfelt speech and two local students performed the last post and the rows either side of a minute's silence. I wore black for Colin Thorne, and while I never met him, he was an inspiration to me. We had an absolutely perfect morning for a run, a cold, crisp, sunny morning under blue skies, lest we forget. And the photo that Yvette has posted is of her, Bill, and presumably Yvette's sister together in the event core flute.

Dazza's

00:33:23Simon Mackley: And we also heard from Barb Luther, who was at Toowoomba parkrun. So she said, we went to Toowoomba Dawn Service and then to South Toowoomba parkrun. Big numbers turned up for the Dawn Service and followed on to the Toowoomba parkruns. I walked with my cousin, Denise, who did her 350th parkrun today. And there was a photo of the dawn service and an Anzac banner at Toowoomba parkrun.

00:33:47Lyndell Murray: Next, we heard from Gemma Kiyuski. My day began with the 4.28am Anzac Day service in my hometown of Gatton, Queensland, where I laid flowers in memory of my brother, who lost his life in 1966 in the Vietnam conflict. Then followed a special Anzac Day morning at Gatton parkrun, with 155 parkrunners coming together to run and walk, volunteer and support one another. It's mornings like today's that remind us what parkrun is all about. community, mateship and being together. The ode was read by a parkrunner and a minute's silence was observed before parkrun got underway, lest we forget. And Gemma took Anzac biscuits for everyone to enjoy after parkrun and they were a big hit. The photo that Gemma posted was of her with a tray of Anzac bickies wearing her brother's medals and a poppy scarf.

00:34:44Simon Mackley: We also heard from Ray Baldock Taylor at Keira parkrun. After attending Elephant Rock Dawn service, we arrived at a very wet Keira parkrun and decided not to change into our joggers and stay in our gumboots. We did have our Run Army shirts on, not that anyone saw them, lest we forget. And she put emojis of the Australian and New Zealand flags. And there was a photo of Ray and her friend in pink gumboots and rain jackets with the Keira frame.

00:35:10Lyndell Murray: And lastly, we heard from, or not lastly, second lastly, we heard from Carolyn McRae, who was at Nightcliff parkrun. Carolyn said, Park Walker at Nightcliff, a fantastic tribute to our Anzacs with Karen Strong doing a reading. young Grace playing the last post, and a minute's silence. Following, there were Anzac biscuits, juice, flavoured milk, and Zoopa Doopas. And the photo is of Carolyn with the event frame and a cutout of the silent soldier silhouette. What a nice touch from the event team at Nightcliff to add that in as a tribute to our Anzacs.

00:35:46Simon Mackley: And last one for the week, we have Latina Troig, and all she wrote was last post and finish tokens, and she was at Wentworth Common parkrun. She posted a picture of what we're assuming to be her trumpet, and she was the one who played the last post for the music stand and the event photo frame.

00:36:05Lyndell Murray: Okay, just to round out Daz's from that week, I did just want to do a quick shout out for a milestone. Sally Hepleston did her 500th at Westerfolds on the 25th of April as well. Congrats, Sally.

00:36:18Simon Mackley: All right, and Daz's on the 2nd of May. It's Join Hands Day. Did you hold anyone's hand at parkrun today? Dazza has the snacks ready, so come on in and tell us about your morning.

00:36:29Lyndell Murray: And first we heard from Val Warwick at Bell's Parade parkrun. It was more hugs than hand-holding, but it was a great morning at Bell's Parade. Celebrating. And Val posted two pictures, one of a big group of parkrunners having breakfast and another of her with the event core flute dressed all in green because Val celebrated 250 parkruns and 250 volunteers. Congratulations, Val. What a terrific milestone.

00:36:56Simon Mackley: Yeah, that's huge. Next, we heard from M. Nico at Kira parkrun. She said, I figuratively held our first time timekeeper's hand. So it's close, I guess. RD for the third week in a row at Kira parkrun and then posted a photo, a volunteer photo from Kira parkrun and well done to the brand new timekeeper.

00:37:17Lyndell Murray: Carmel E. Roll was at Cape Stone Lake parkrun and her comment was, a rainbow holding the two sides of parkrun together. And Carmel has posted a spectacular picture of a rainbow arching from one side of Cape Stone Lake to the other. What a terrific picture. Fabulous to be able to spot that on parkrun Day. Yeah, beautiful.

00:37:38Simon Mackley: And then we heard from Rex Green, who said, did I join hands with the devil by doing my 66th different event at the sixth event at Bonga Bonga parkrun? A bit too pretty to think that was the case. And Rex posted a picture of himself with the event frame amongst some very pretty trees.

00:37:56Lyndell Murray: We heard from Ian and Lydia Knox. Where else but Kewarra Beach? parkrun. No crocs to hold hands with, but a lovely team. Very friendly. Well, I would say it's probably lucky that there weren't any crocs if you're intending to hold hands with them. And there's a great picture of Ian and Lydia with the event frame in the tropical rainforest north of Cairns in far north Queensland.

00:38:18Simon Mackley: And last one for the week, we've got Ali Sheppard, holding hands across the nations at University of Galway parkrun, with parkrunners pictured here from Australia, Liberia, the UK and Ireland, with parkrun uniting us all. So Ali posted a picture of six parkrunners holding hands with the University of Galway pop-up, including Toc and Jackie.

Obi Award — Alana Torek

00:38:40Lyndell Murray: All right, it's time for our obi. Simon, I haven't hosted with you for a while. What are we doing? Have we got an old-fashioned old school envelope or are we receiving an electronic mail today?

00:38:51Simon Mackley: I have received the electronic mail, so this must be Sarah's doing. So the obi this week goes to Alana Torek. A picture of her trumpet from when she did the last post at the Anzac Day. If we've given you a shout-out today in Daz's... Send us an email or comment on the post in Facebook to let us know that you are actually a listener.

00:39:14Lyndell Murray: All right. That's Daz's for this week. Moving on to our emails.

00:39:19Simon Mackley: We have no emails.

00:39:20Johan Duvenhage: You've got no mail.

00:39:22Simon Mackley: Now, is this because Tok's on holidays? We all like emails, so keep them coming in. I know he's away for a few weeks, but we certainly want to hear from anyone who has something to tell us.

00:39:32Lyndell Murray: We sure do. Please keep emailing us. Okay. With that then, let's hear from Reginald.

00:39:35[background music]

Club Corner

00:39:49Reginald Yardley-Pomfrey 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 Aranda country. After a few side quests about apps and indices, it is back to our country series, this time, Malaysia! Depending on your listening hour, salamat pagi, salamat petang, or salamat malam. parkrun in Malaysia began in April 2018 with Taman Pudu Ulu parkrun, and this event was joined by present 18 parkrun, Putrajaya in November 2018. Both events returned in August 2022 after their Covid closures, but Taman Pudu Ulu had their 107th and last parkrun on 31 December 2022 as they no longer had permission from the landholder to continue. The proposed Taman Tasik Danau Kota parkrun was also in the same landholder limbo sad face. Present 18 parkrun is continuing strong, with over 250 parkruns to date, and they are the ever-smiling face of parkrun Malaysia. You can get to Present 18 parkrun by many modes of transportation, but most internationals, such as our listeners, will probably use the Grab app. By all reports, this is very easy to do, but you can also use bus, taxi, walk or drive, depending on your distance from the starting area. The course is reliably described as picturesque and runs alongside Water Smiley Face. A quick sidebar. If you are a speedy woman and fancy your chances at finishing in under 19 minutes 23, go and have a crack. That course record has stood since December 2018. Another quick sidebar, the major highlight of heading to Malaysia are the shopping districts. Take your bag half empty and enjoy your time shopping, e.g. there are some major second-hand clothing areas. The special day for Malaysia is held annually on September 16, and present 18 parkrun held this first special day event in 2025, and have plans to now celebrate each year. They have also held the additional parkrun on New Year's Day in 2019, 25 and 26, and look to be continuing into the future also. I would like to share some information about Malaysia Day, with thanks to the Sabah State Library. Malaysia Day is a celebration that is held on September 16 every year to commemorate the establishment in 1963 of the Malaysian Federation or the merging of Malaya, North Borneo, now known as Sabah, Sarawak as well as Singapore. Singapore seceded the Malaysian Federation in 1965. The September 16 date is not to be confused with the Independence Day which commemorates on 31 August 1957. Malaysia Day was declared a public holiday in 2010, giving Malaysians two celebrations related to the country's independence. The declaration of Malaysia ceremony was held at Stadium Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur on 17 September 1963, where the Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj recited the formation of Malaysia declaration in front of 30,000 people, followed by his chanting, Merdeka, seven times. Thus, a new nation was born, Malaysia. And remember, in parkrun life, all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun, so stay tuned for our future club corners. [Malay: "good morning, good afternoon/evening, or good night (correctly spelled selamat pagi / selamat petang / selamat malam)"] [Malay: "Independence / Freedom - the rallying cry chanted seven times by Tunku Abdul Rahman at the declaration of Malaysia"]

00:43:10[background music]

00:43:12Simon Mackley: Okay, and we're back from Reginald, who gave us a run-through of what's happened in Malaysia since they launched, what's happening right now, and a little bit of a history lesson on Malaysia. So I hope that everyone's enjoyed the break from the countries, but we're now back into it again. So as I said, starting off with Malaysia.

00:43:30Lyndell Murray: Yeah, thanks, Reginald, for that segment. Okay, let's check in with our Consolidated Club report. And for Saturday, the 2nd of May, 2026, a total of 913 members, 653 took part on the 2nd in 13 countries and 340 locations. Here in Australia, there were adventurers at New South Wales with 58 events, Victoria with 52 events, Queensland 50 events, Western Australia 20 events, South Australia 19, Tasmania 9, the ACT 5, one in Northern Territory. And then across the ditch, there were nine on the North Island and one on the South Island. And internationally, there are adventurers at the UK. I had 80 events. And Japan and South Africa each had 10 events. Japan's got a bit of a bump with a few of our friends of the podcast over there right now. Ireland and USA both had four events. Singapore had two, and there were one adventurer in Austria, Canada, Finland, Germany, Italy, and Sweden.

Consolidated Club Report

The Frond

00:44:48Simon Mackley: Our largest international fronds over the last two weekends. So the first one was a front of 15 at... Crescent 18, Putrajaya, Malaysia. And that was Jill Gardner, Christy Payne, Michael and Kylie Blaine, Andrew Johnston, Neil Scott, Leanne Blaney, Leonie Butler, Ian and Suzanne Brown, Terry Logan, Martine Barrett, Roberta Winters, Emily Delve and Julie Doolan. And then last week, We had a front of 13 at one event, and that was at Urayasu Sogo Koen in Japan, and that was Alexandra and Lucy Kington, Debbie and Andy Airey, Tony Reeves, Lee Stott, Louise Garrett, Andy Wendella-Poole, Gabby Lipshin, Penelope Thiessen, Wendy Pallant, and Jay Heer.

00:45:42Lyndell Murray: Our pilgrimages on the 25th of April, we had nobody at Bushy. And then on the 2nd of May, on the 2nd of May, there was still no one at Bushy, but Jill Gardner was at Bushy in Dublin. So close.

00:46:02Simon Mackley: That's good enough for me.

00:46:04Lyndell Murray: Absolutely.

00:46:05Simon Mackley: And the largest Aussie frond on Anzac Day, we had one event, which was Shellharbour, and we had our old... host a lot of spank sue davies julie wells mark hibbard kristin and delvin mckenzie julian gordon turner andrew and eva blander david foster and louise atkin oh sorry louise atkin and then last weekend there was a front of 10 at one event another one we don't hear from very often, Inverloch and that was jota how yvette and bill turner sarah crundwell joanne Joanne Harland, Claire Gibson, Janet and Dave Tozer, Christy Hill and Rebecca Gawd. Interesting that all these people went when TOC was away.

00:46:51Lyndell Murray: Yeah, maybe the stump's more popular than TOC.

00:46:54Simon Mackley: Oh, controversial. Shots fired.

00:47:01Lyndell Murray: Yeah, we never hear about Inverloch. I don't even know where it is. Yeah, this is what I hear. Yeah. Okay, this last week we had two countries with their special event day. So the stats aren't over yet, Simon. South Africa's Freedom Day was on the 27th of April and Japan's Greenery Day was on May the 4th.

00:47:24Simon Mackley: Alrighty, so let's first go to South Africa for their special day. And of a total of 906 members, and you might notice that there's a difference between what Lyndal said earlier. So 906 members on the 27th, 14 took part on this date at 10 events in South Africa. And they were, I'm going to struggle with a couple of these, Huddle parkrun, Century City parkrun, Mauriceburg, Golf Club parkrun, Nordvik, Breed Valley, Silver Oaks, Allawool North Golf Club, Delta Springs and Midstream. So

00:48:01Lyndell Murray: don't worry simon i've stitched myself up and given myself japan so let's see how we go here people strap in on japan's special event day of a total of 916 parkrun adventurer members and that was current as of the 4th of may uh 36 adventurers took part at six events in japan futakota magawa Heijo Kusiki Rikishi-Cohen, Hikari Gowaka-Cohen, Marbora Kaigen-Yuhoda, Shibamata Cohen-Carden, and Shingeshikawa Ukima.

00:48:48Simon Mackley: Well done. You totally stitched yourself up with those. That's okay. So it's definitely great to see some adventurers travelling further afield. I know that Andy Erie had a a big group go across to Japan. So I'm guessing that we'll see them popping up in the next couple of weeks. But, yeah, like we've had a bit of a surge. So as we called out, Freedom Day was 906 members. Then we went up to 913 on the weekend and then 916 for Greenery Day. So we're really getting the numbers out there. So I'm guessing that Andy's crew might have added some more people to our Adventurers group.

00:49:29Lyndell Murray: Yeah, maybe. And remember, you can add the Adventurers Club as one of your five affiliations at any time on your parkrun profile and give us a yell if we can help you with that in any way. Okay. Now we've got some launches to get through, Simon. Let's see how we go with these. I don't know what we've got ahead of us here. But on the 25th of April, there were three launches. Ards Forest Park parkrun launched in Ireland, which is right up in the very far north of Ireland. There were 58 participants and a pretty healthy 47 first-timers. Wow. Yeah. And a lucky 13 number of volunteers for that parkrun launch.

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

00:50:13Simon Mackley: There we go. And then there was Riverside parkrun in Ballymoney that launched in Northern Ireland. It's also a long way north. So obviously it's north of the Republic of. They had 76 participants with 75 first-timers. There's one person. that had done a parkrun before and that was on a mixed terrain course as well and a sweet 16 volunteers.

00:50:37Lyndell Murray: Okay there was also a launch in Germany so luckily we have our European correspondent Sarah to tell us all about it. So what Sarah was saying there was that the parkrun runs behind the dikes on both sides of the river with two turning points and a connecting path via a pedestrian bridge in between. The launch had 50 participants with 45 first-timers and 14 volunteers. I don't know what happened on the 25th of April. We got some very high proportions of first-timers at our launches. It's great to see.

00:51:25Simon Mackley: All three of them and like different countries as well. So that's phenomenal. Very happy to see that. Then going over to last weekend, it was actually six launches across five countries.

00:51:37Lyndell Murray: Picking off with Beban parkrun in Nanaimo in British Columbia in Canada. They had 95 participants, 52 first-timers and 11 volunteers.

00:51:53Simon Mackley: And close at home, Kershaw Gardens in Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia. It had 163 participants with 10 first-timers and 16 volunteers.

00:52:03Lyndell Murray: Kingsway Park parkrun in Ermston, just west of Manchester in the UK, had 506 participants. Only 12 of those were first-timers, Simon. And they were supported by 42 volunteers.

00:52:18Simon Mackley: Yeah, it seems to be swinging back the other way.

00:52:22Lyndell Murray: Yep.

00:52:23Simon Mackley: All right. Now, we've got one in New Zealand. I'm going to say that it's Raumunga Stream parkrun in Whangarei. of Whangarei in New Zealand. 124 participants, six genuine first-timers and 18 volunteers.

00:52:39Lyndell Murray: Heading over to the USA, Stony Brook in Massachusetts, which is northwest of Boston, had 28 participants, seven first-timers and seven volunteers.

00:52:52Simon Mackley: And to round out the week, we've got Thorny Bay Beach parkrun, which is near South End-on-Sea in the UK. It had 243 participants. 31 volunteers, and only seven first-timers.

00:53:05Lyndell Murray: All right. That's a lot of launches, Simon, but we got there.

00:53:10Simon Mackley: And most of them weren't hard to say, so Toc's going to be very jealous.

00:53:15Lyndell Murray: Sure is. All right. Looking ahead. Simon, next time the pod is recorded, it'll be National Volunteer Week. this year's theme is it's your year to volunteer so a national volunteer week occurs between the 18th and the 25th of may so looking forward to that simon yeah indeed um i can't believe it's come around again so quickly i mean i know it happens every year but yeah but that's a great um a great theme as well your year to volunteer so i'm looking forward to seeing what parkrun does to recognize it this year yeah absolutely simon next parkrun day where are you headed

00:53:53Simon Mackley: I'm heading to Jearn Park to celebrate their second birthday because for their first birthday, unfortunately, they had been wiped out by the cyclone. I know we're into May now. Their birthday was about two weeks ago, but not everyone from the team could actually turn up. So yeah, I'm heading there to celebrate their first and second birthdays. What about you?

00:54:13Lyndell Murray: I have no plans as yet, so I'm unsure where I will be.

00:54:18Simon Mackley: Fair enough. Well, I know where you'll be in two weeks. You'll be back here again, but this time you'll be recording with Mel.

00:54:25Lyndell Murray: I will. I will. I'll work on my pronunciation, listeners, and hopefully I'll be a bit better at some of them next time.

00:54:33Simon Mackley: You shouldn't have all those Japanese ones to do, so yeah, you should be okay. Oh, no, there's going to be some special days. Because obviously that's why I talk in Europe, to try and get some of those special days. So I can imagine the Dutch ones and the Swedish ones and all that sort of thing. It's going to be some good ones to get your tongue around.

00:54:48[crosstalk]

00:54:53Lyndell Murray: Well, that'll be great. Simon, it's been a pleasure chatting to you this evening and recording together.

00:54:58Simon Mackley: As indeed. Thanks for catching up. And as always, listeners, you can contact us via Parker and Adventurous on Facebook. Or our email, which is parkerandadventurers at gmail.com. And make sure you do send us some emails, please, listeners. That's it for another episode. We'll see you all next time for more adventures.

00:55:15[outro theme playing]

00:55:18Unidentified speaker: Bye, everybody. Bye.