Episode 450 - Celebrations and pronunciations

Episode details · 160 speaker turns · sound cues from audio analysis

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

00:00:30Lyndell Murray: Welcome to episode 450 of the parkrun Adventurers podcast, a podcast about life if your life is all about parkrun. My name's Lyndell and I'm recording in Meanjin, the traditional lands of the Turrbal and Yuggera. Now listeners, you are in for a treat this pod because as special co-hosts, as our guest, we have the one, the only, the man getting all the parkrun scoops of late, it's Johan!

00:00:57Johan Duvenhage: You're going to make me blush, Lyndell. Yes, background adventurers, it's Johan Duvenhage.

00:01:10Lyndell Murray: Welcome to the pod, Johan. Now, you'll notice that I didn't say your surname because listeners will know that pronunciation is not my strong suit. We occasionally hear your voice on the pod, but it's so exciting to have you here to record the pod in full with you. We thought that after all of your interviews that you've been getting of late, we just needed to get you here for the full feature screening. So thank you for saying yes and joining us as co-host tonight.

00:01:40Johan Duvenhage: Thank you for having me. It's a real privilege to be here. You know, when they said come to parkrun, you'll have fun, meet people and see places I did not really know what was going to hit me a few years later. So it's really been an exciting journey.

00:01:53Lyndell Murray: Yeah, well, you know, in life, if you get an interesting opportunity, just say yes. You never know where it will take you. And what a time to have you. Not just any episode. It is episode 450, no less. Now, as we all know, 450 is not an official milestone, but it's still worthy of acknowledging. And there's a lot of people over time that have made this pod what it is. But mostly our listeners, our lovely, fabulous, wonderful listeners. We would like to shout out to them on this occasion. So it's our birthday, Johan. Did you bring cake?

00:02:29Johan Duvenhage: Well, it's truly an amazing occasion. And yes, I actually have cake. There's a carrot cake on the kitchen table that's been the subject of several liberation attempts by my dogs. So we'll salute the pot and its truly special community with every bite as we go along during the week.

00:02:44Lyndell Murray: Yeah, I hope you do get to get a piece of that cake and the doggos don't eat it all. So, Johan, on to parkrun. Where did you parkrun last weekend?

00:02:54Johan Duvenhage: Last weekend, or let's say the week before this weekend, I was down in the Western Cape to do the West Coast Fossil Park parkrun. And it's not just for fossils. Anybody can go. It is really an amazing parkrun. And I just left the Western Cape in time as two massive cold fronts came through, causing significant damage and causing also a lot of parkruns to cancel. So our hearts really go out to everybody that suffered loss in the Western Cape. And then yesterday I went to Delta parkrun in Johannesburg because it was a special occasion for one of my dear friends and one of our ambassadors in Gauteng. Gillian Findley had her V500 celebrations, volunteer 500 milestone. So I packed up all the dogs and we went to Gauteng to celebrate with her. And where have you been to?

00:03:43Lyndell Murray: Well, it's only been two weeks since the listeners have heard from me. I've been on the bench for one of those weeks, again, with my triathlon officiating other life. But I also visited Greenheart Robina Parklands, which is the newest parkrun on the Gold Coast, just south of Brisbane. It seems like they're building a really nice community there. They're in the middle of a whole bunch of different parkruns but they're really hoping that their community will embrace it and and make green heart their own and and they'll have lots of people heading there each week i think they'll succeed in that they've got some really nice people down there all right johan yeah exactly exactly johan let's head over and listen to some of our listener feedback

Listener feedback

00:04:26Johan Duvenhage: Yes. So first off, Calum Burrell commented on Facebook, with Lyndell talking about parkrun names, I think it's worth noting that Jubilee Tenterfield is likely to be called, or so-called, to help avoid confusion over the other Jubilee parkruns in the world. For the record, there is four of them, two in Australia and two in England in the United Kingdom.

00:04:46Lyndell Murray: Ah, Callum, thank you for that update, but that is disappointing. I do like a parkrun with some specificity in the title as you all know from the last pod we're going to hear a little bit later that there's a new parkrun called Ulladulla and it's in Ulladulla so that has got us wondering whether they're listening to us after all next lot of feedback Helen Patricia who also commented on Facebook loving the pod and chuckling about pronunciations thank you hmm

00:05:18Johan Duvenhage: Yeah. And so over the years listening to the pod, I've come to believe that one should fear pronunciations in the UK more than anything else.

00:05:26Lyndell Murray: Oh, really? Okay. Is that after the reading, reading scandal of a couple of pods ago?

00:05:31Johan Duvenhage: I think there's a lot of the British Akron names that are very difficult. Okay, let's go to the next one. Ali Sheppard commented on Facebook. Thanks for Daza's shout out and for posting my pic as the cover pic. It was so good to meet up with TOC and Jackie again, who I haven't seen since Palm 25. The guy from Liberia in the pic was with a crew from Sanctuary Runners, a really interesting initiative in Ireland to help asylum seekers and refugees. Google them to find out more.

00:05:57Lyndell Murray: And lastly, we got some feedback from a fellow parkrun podcast called Runs in the Park. Great ep and great segment on University of Galway parkrun. We run an Irish parkrun podcast here at Runs in the Park. So we know that Galway parkrun and many others around that part of Ireland are Glad it was sunny for you. It's always like that in Ireland. I've got a few laughy emojis, so I'm not sure whether they're 100% serious about that.

00:06:25Johan Duvenhage: I think Toc had an experience of sunny Ireland a year or so ago. Right. let's move on to news first up it's national volunteer week 18 to 25 may and news from parkrun australia is that our sponsor brooks is celebrating parkrun volunteers who have helped bring the community together if you have volunteered at parkrun within the last 12 months you'll automatically go into the draw to one one or five pairs of ghost 18s

parkrun news bulletin

00:06:53Lyndell Murray: there's no need to enter parkrun will draw the five lucky winners from parkrun volunteer results so be sure to check the newsletter next week to see if you're one of the lucky winners wow that's great that's a really great initiative of brooks to come on board and help us celebrate national volunteers week thank you brooks okay the other bit of news we all know that parkruns around the place or certainly around australia anyway often run a speed week but Mudjimba Beach parkrun up on the sunshine coast in queensland hosted Slow Week on Saturday the 16th of May. And here is what they said about Slow Week. Celebrating back-of-the-pack excellence, enthusiastic shuffling, tactical walk breaks, mid-course life chats, scenic appreciation, and the firm belief that nobody has ever truly enjoyed sub-five-minute pace. I wouldn't know. I've never run at five-minute pace. So Majimba is welcoming walkers, walkers with dogs, joggers, run walkers, people returning from injury, people avoiding injury, anyone carrying an emotional support coffee or gelato. They've listed recommended equipment. So unlike speed week, where people discuss carbon plates, gels, lactate thresholds and race readiness, slow week encourages sun cream, we'll be out there for a while, floppy hats, sunglasses of questionable practicality, and footwear selected primarily for beach and cafe compatibility. And their final thoughts, if your Saturday plan involves just taking it easy today, walking, chatting more than running, or carefully protecting a minor niggle that may or may not actually exist, then Main Beach parkrun is the event for you. See you next Saturday for relaxed vibes, low expectations, excellent company, and potentially the slowest collective start in Majimba Beach parkrun history. And remember, parkrun in thongs is absolutely a thing. Oh, Johan, this sounds like me. I should have been there.

00:08:52Johan Duvenhage: Yes, and thanks. Good job on correcting your main beach parkrun to Majimba Beach in the second time.

00:08:59Lyndell Murray: Okay, yes, no, it definitely was Majimba Beach.

00:09:01Johan Duvenhage: All right, let's move on. We have a note from the office lady herself, and she seems to be curious about something. She asks, should we sell running or tick running caps with our logo on them? She's going to post on the Facebook page this week, meaning that that's after the post goes live to gauge interest. So if you don't use Facebook, but you'd like to say yes, feel free to send us an email to let us know what you think and stay tuned for some more merch news coming soon. That sounds interesting.

00:09:31Lyndell Murray: It sure does. Can't wait to see what the office lady's cooking up.

Weekly stats

00:09:37Johan Duvenhage: All right, let's get into our stats. Lyndell, over to you.

00:09:41Lyndell Murray: Okay, we are firstly heading across the ditch to New Zealand and the stats for the 9th of May are as follows. In New Zealand, there were 71 parkruns with 10,723 parkrunners. and 1,188 volunteers, which is a new New Zealand record for volleys. How fabulous! And on that week, the biggest New Zealand parkruns were Hagley with 716, followed by Revolution with 416 and Hobsonville Point with 390. The three smallest were Southend Reserve with 11, Lost Lagoon with 23 and East Otago High School with 25. And the event that was closest to their average was Caroline Bay. They had 170 and their average is 161. On this last parkrun day, on the 16th of May in New Zealand, there were 70 parkruns with 11,182 parkrunners and 1,229 volunteers. Now, that again smashes the previous record week by another 41 volunteers. And these stats also are without any pending results, but might even get even bigger. How good is that?

00:10:59Johan Duvenhage: That's awesome.

00:11:01Lyndell Murray: Yeah, really great to see the New Zealanders getting out and volunteering.

00:11:01[crosstalk]

00:11:04Johan Duvenhage: And then moving over to Australia, on the 9th of May, we had 73,634 participants, 6,820 volunteers at 532 events with 3,218 first-timers. In junior events, all five operated with 441 little legends guided by 106 responsible adults. The smallest parkruns that week was, oh, and Lyndell, you told me how to pronounce it and I forgot, but it's Moora.

00:11:31[crosstalk]

00:11:31Lyndell Murray: Moora, I believe.

00:11:32Johan Duvenhage: Moura, Moura, okay. Moura with five. Moura with five. Railway Park with six. Coober Pedy Oval and Waterloo Plains, seven each. The largest parkruns were South Bank with 713. Albert Melbourne with 756. The Ponds with 761. And strangely enough, Albert Melbourne wasn't the highest for once. then on the 16th of may we had 77 309 participants at 535 events there were five junior events with 501 little legends and 100 older legends bellevue park juniors had their first junior hit 250 runs that's awesome congratulations Incredible. Yeah, and then the smallest parkruns, Moura. Again, four people. Pyramid Hill Gold Trail with six and Railway Park in Meninge with seven each. The largest parkruns were South Bank with 715. The ponds were 718. And back to the throne, Albert Melbourne with 855.

00:12:37Lyndell Murray: That is a lot of parkrunners. All right, Johan, let's go and see what's happening out on the street. Let's go and hear from our roving reporters.

Roving Adventurers (roving reporter crossovers)

00:12:50[background music]

00:12:52Sarah Jefferson: Good morning, parkrun adventurers. It's Sarah here from the west side up in Japan. And today I have come to Sunshine Beach parkrun, which is about 25 minutes from Kyoto Station. And I'm here with the event director.

00:13:05Shuichi Sakata: Yes. My name is Shuichi Sakata.

00:13:10Sarah Jefferson: Thank you for this morning. I think I came in about 58, place number 58. I'm not sure how many runners you normally get here.

00:13:20Shuichi Sakata: About 50, yes.

00:13:23Sarah Jefferson: About 50? Yes. Okay, so a little bit more than normal. Can you please describe this beautiful course for the listeners?

00:13:31Shuichi Sakata: You know, our course just tied by the... Lake, which is the biggest lake in Japan. Name is Biwa Lake. It's a very beautiful course. Please come here.

00:13:46Sarah Jefferson: And there's lots to see. So you have a bridge, a beautiful bridge at one end. Yes. And then what else do you have? I saw some people fishing.

00:13:54Shuichi Sakata: Yes.

00:13:54Sarah Jefferson: Lots of people with their dogs.

00:13:57Shuichi Sakata: Then also the rowing course.

00:14:01Sarah Jefferson: Ah.

00:14:02Shuichi Sakata: One of the famous growing course here.

00:14:05Sarah Jefferson: Okay. Yeah, it's very beautiful. And obviously this morning is quite warm. I think 26 degrees. So it's getting hotter now in Japan.

00:14:13Shuichi Sakata: Yes, getting hot. But still good season, I believe.

00:14:17Sarah Jefferson: Yes. And how did you get into parkrun and volunteer?

00:14:22Shuichi Sakata: So actually we went to different place. to meet a person who organized a course.

00:14:34[crosstalk]

00:14:34Sarah Jefferson: Oh, so a different parkrun that was already existing? Yes. I see.

00:14:38Shuichi Sakata: Then the person recommended, please have a course. We should increase the course in Japan. Then finally I decided to have this course.

00:14:51Sarah Jefferson: And was it hard to start a parkrun in Japan?

00:14:54Shuichi Sakata: Yes, yes. so need to how to say our course is the first one in the Shiga area also you know the next city Kyoto is a famous city but no course that's why almost

00:15:16Sarah Jefferson: Okay, so it took...

00:15:17Shuichi Sakata: Nothing to know, yes.

00:15:18Sarah Jefferson: It took many months to establish? Or was it over years, maybe?

00:15:25Shuichi Sakata: About three months.

00:15:26Sarah Jefferson: Three months, okay. Yeah, wow. Well, well done for persisting. Yes. Yeah, thank you for that. And do you volunteer a lot? Do you run? Do you go to other parkruns? So, actually, I'm not a runner.

00:15:45Shuichi Sakata: That's why I should gather the runners in Japan.

00:15:51Sarah Jefferson: Wow, so you're not a runner, so you think that you should help and volunteer. Yes, yes, yes. Wow, that's amazing. I'm not amazing. You are amazing. I say you are amazing.

00:15:54[crosstalk]

00:16:00Shuichi Sakata: I try.

00:16:00Sarah Jefferson: We are very thankful for that. And you must meet so many crazy people coming from other countries to do your parkrun.

00:16:08Shuichi Sakata: yes as you know this parkrun, so about 80, over 80 percent of runners is that you can see the foreigners yeah wow yeah so that's good for tourism i guess to get people here i heard the headquarter of parkland So introduce this course. This course is the nearest from Kyoto city. That's why many tourists, if the tourists come into Kyoto, then they are coming to our course.

00:16:45Sarah Jefferson: it's quite easy to get here too just one train yeah just one train one train yes and is this park called or this place because you said it was a lake but the parkrun is sunshine beach don't be confused how come it says beach this place name so

00:17:02Shuichi Sakata: It's sunshine beach, that's why. However, I cannot swim. Ah, so no swimming. Yeah, dangerous.

00:17:09Sarah Jefferson: Ah, dangerous, okay. Okay, I won't swim today then.

00:17:12Shuichi Sakata: If you want to swim, you should go to the north area of this lake. But not this season.

00:17:16[crosstalk]

00:17:19Sarah Jefferson: Yeah, okay. Well, thank you so much for talking to us about your parkrun and thank you for volunteering. Thank you so much.

00:17:27Shuichi Sakata: our pleasure. Then please come to our special course to see our big city.

00:17:28[crosstalk]

00:17:33Alison Fraser: Kia ora koutou adventurers it's Alison here reporting in not from across the ditch but I am in Japan and today I have come to Futaka Tamagawa parkrun which was the very first event to start in Japan and with me today is the run director Roger and Roger Can you tell us a bit about your parkrun story? [Te Reo Māori: "Hello / greetings to you all, adventurers"]

00:17:58Roger: My parkrun story probably began around 2015. I've got one of the early parkrun numbers. It's only six digits, whereas everyone here is kind of like seven or eight digits. Are they up to eight digits? I don't know. when my cousin said to me, I'd started running a bit, and my cousin said to me, lived in London, oh, there's this thing called parkrun, you should, my husband goes, she said, and she printed out a bark run, bark run, that's a doggy parkrun. a parkrun code for me. parkrun got cancelled that week, so I actually didn't start parkrun until about a year or two later. I joined the parkrun, I'm from Liverpool, England, and my brother lives in Warrington, so there's one called Victoria Park, that was my first parkrun. And then, I've always lived in Japan, and then around late 2018, there was some new surfacing of this thing called parkrun. It's probably gonna come to Japan. They were looking for people to come and join some test runs. And I joined that original group. And then parkrun Japan was born here at Futako Tamagawa. I'm not sure what date in April. It was early April in 2019. And we had parkrun Royalty, PSG himself, PS8, sorry. Sorry, Paul. Paul Sinton-Hewitt came out with other people like the Paralympic guy, Noel Thatcher, who is... Visually impaired runner. Yes, yes, visually impaired runner. And he did the translation. His wife is Japanese. His wife is Japanese, yes. And we had about 350-odd people that day, I think. And ever since we've been doing parkrun, and now today was, what, 308 or 309? Anyway, there you go.

00:19:28[crosstalk]

00:19:45Alison Fraser: What do you love about parkrun that keeps you coming back?

00:19:48Roger: What keeps me coming back is I need something to do Saturday morning. Actually, what I love about is the community and the fact I can get fit. As long as I don't eat too much parkrun scran afterwards. I just love the parkrun community and... It's a really, really good way to meet Japanese people. We get a lot of tourists at this parkrun. Probably, I'd say every week, at least 20% of tourists from overseas. A lot of Australians and New Zealanders, a few Brits. And then I just love the camaraderie, really.

00:20:21Alison Fraser: Can you tell us about the course? Can you describe it?

00:20:23Roger: Yeah, the course. Well, the original course was pretty much an out and back on one side of the river. But after Corona, we moved to our current location. And it starts, it's about 600 metres deep. straight route out and then it's a three lap anti-clockwise loop and then we kind of come back make a u-turn and then the finish line is separate to the start line it's a pretty flat course on tarmac you can see mount fuji all the time no shade unfortunately it's pretty hot in the summer um but um but you know there's a lot of nice courses in japan and we definitely recommend people to visit the unofficial parkrun facebook japan page where you can get all sorts of information yeah and i'm one of the admins by the way awesome have you done many different parkruns yourself Yes, I have done. How many? I have to look at my info here. But for my hundreds, around 92 and 93, I was seeing my number of volunteering and running was about the same. So I deliberately... work did some uh visited other parkruns around the tokyo area to make sure and then on my 100th i did a double hundred so it was my hundredth parker and my hundred volunteering here so i don't know if there's a name for that but um i visited i've been to about four countries i've got to look at my um my um parkrun information here my app where's the app where's the app here's the app but i've been to japan of course uk uh well france unfortunately that got closed down so it's called sort of half half a thing um singapore malaysia i really recommend singapore malaysia because malaysia only has one parkrun

00:22:15Alison Fraser: Well, I was going to ask you if you could pick three of the parkruns that you've done, not counting Futako Tamagawa, which three would you pick for a variety of whatever reason?

00:22:26Roger: Oh, well, one, I'm going to talk Asia. Okay. Number one, I think would be, very hard for me to say because I'm such a public physician. I really love going to the one in Kuala Lumpur, just out about 30 minutes out. Precinct 18. Crescent 18 because, It's a river course. The food is awesome. The roti, the Malaysian pancake with curry afterwards. You go out to along the course, you see a really lovely mosque. And it's just and the volunteer team, they're great. They make some brilliant videos of them dancing and stuff. The other one I really like in is in Singapore is East Coast Park. because it's closest to the equator um with apologies to bay east garden um but i love all the singapore parkruns because they're all really good community but i guess bay uh east coast park was the first one there and it's also near where i stay and it's sort of i like to see the sea i love the sea uh the third one oh my goodness this is hard um Third one, third one that is a standout for me, I think would be Warrington, Victoria Park, my first parkrun in the UK. On a wet day, near the start line, it gets really, a huge puddle, mud puddle, they call it Lake Victoria. And that's just a nice community as well. But every parkrun's great.

00:23:56Alison Fraser: It is, yeah. I know it's always hard to pick your three.

00:24:00Roger: Very hard.

00:24:00Alison Fraser: Yeah. And it's quite loud now here out on the terrace, but we're on a terrace for your parkrun, Park Fath venue, where we're having our... Our Fath and Scram. Yep. And we can see Mount Fuji today. Yes. So this is a great place for people to come.

00:24:17Roger: Yes, yes. We like being here.

00:24:20Alison Fraser: Yeah. Well, thank you so much for putting on an awesome parkrun. We really enjoyed it.

00:24:24Roger: There's lots of different people. Thank you.

00:24:27Greg Moore: That's great. Hey, welcome to Mantua Botanical parkrun. I'm Greg and I'm here with the event directors from Mantua Botanical parkrun. I'm with Ian and I'm with... Lou. Lou Fitt. Here we are. We're at Mansfield Botanical parkrun and they're going to give us a description of Mansfield Botanical parkrun. Welcome Ian and Lou.

00:24:50Unidentified speaker: Yeah good thanks Greg. Yeah it's a pretty course because it's all within the Mansfield Botanic Park and it's just a lovely track around with all our autumn colours this morning. Plus we had some brilliant sunshine which was really handy after all the rain we had during the week. It's a fairly flat course, except for our famous zigzag, which is steep and narrow and always gets people in the end, doesn't it?

00:25:14Unidentified speaker: It does. Seven switchbacks to the top, and we have to do that little zigzag twice. It's a nice little kicker right in the middle. The second round's probably more a mental game than it is a physical game, I think. but it just mixes things up around our botanical gardens.

00:25:28Greg Moore: And it's a two lapper.

00:25:30Unidentified speaker: It is a two lapper. And there was a significant morning this morning because we normally have around sort of 60 or 70 would be our normal numbers for our parkrun here. This morning we had 215 because we were joined by Lauriston Howquah Campus. Lauriston is one of the girls' schools in Melbourne. They have a campus out here outside of Mansfield and all their students, a lot of their staff and a lot of parents, of course, because tomorrow is Mother's Day. And so they were here to join in and be part of the event.

00:26:04Greg Moore: Awesome. So it all went to plan, do you think?

00:26:06Unidentified speaker: Yeah, it did. Look, we had to try some different things. We don't normally have a finished shoot. We set out some signs at the start to help sort of put people in their right positions. Yeah, just a little bit different and a lot of extra volunteers, which made a huge difference.

00:26:22Unidentified speaker: and traffic management to control the flow of the cars and car parking and also slow down traffic, which is something we don't have in general parkrun days.

00:26:29[crosstalk]

00:26:31Greg Moore: But with traffic management, we have to thank the Shire for that.

00:26:34Unidentified speaker: Yeah, absolutely. The Shire have been really supportive with that. They organised the coffee van. They've also got some portaloos and a PA and all sorts of things that was really, really helpful.

00:26:46Unidentified speaker: It's great that the communities come together. and supported the event today.

00:26:50Greg Moore: Yeah, it's a good country atmosphere where the Shire got behind them and no charge for traffic management, which is awesome on parkrun's behalf. And what else is so good about Mansfield? Why should people come here?

00:27:03Unidentified speaker: I reckon we're probably one of the friendliest courses around. We are really encouraging for everybody, very inclusive as parkrun is anyway, but we get lots of great comments from visitors because we are such a friendly event.

00:27:18Unidentified speaker: And even though we do have the zigzag, which is quite challenging for some, a lot of people say that that's what makes our parkrun because it is quite interesting. A lot of the courses around here are quite flat, but it's beautiful scenery. And you sort of feel involved because it stays within one park. So you've always got someone coming past or going past you up or down. So it's a nice course.

00:27:40Greg Moore: Yeah, awesome. All right. Thanks for letting me join you for Mansfield Botanical parkrun. Thanks for coming along. Appreciate you being here. No worries. Thank you. That's all, parkrun adventurers. Talk to you soon.

00:27:45[background music]

00:28:00Lyndell Murray: And we had three excellent roving reports this week. First, we heard from Sarah from Sunshine Beach parkrun, which is near Kyoto. She had a chat there with Shuichi Sakata, who has this really strong desire to grow parkrun in Japan, despite not being a runner himself. He has volunteered at parkrun over 206 times, and I think they're all at that one parkrun. but never completed the course himself. What a legend. Next, we heard from Alison from Futako Tamagawa, where she talked to Roger, who credits the tight-knit community there with helping him to connect with the Japanese locals and build that parkrun. And lastly, we heard from Greg Moore, from Mansfield Botanical parkrun in Victoria, Australia, where they had a bumper crowd due to visiting school groups.

00:28:43Johan Duvenhage: Awesome. All right, let's head over to Dazza's. So we've chosen five comments from each of the last two weeks Dazza's post. So on the 9th of May, we had 101 comments in Dazza's. And on that day, Dazza said, in Australia and several other countries, tomorrow is Mother's Day. Dazza has whipped up lots of treats for the mums and everyone else. Come on in and share your morning adventures with us all.

Dazza's

00:29:09Lyndell Murray: And first, we heard from Heather Hunter. And she was at the University of Western Australia, parkrun, in Western Australia. And Heather wrote, I adventured to Perth with Heather Morgan and visited UWA, completing the Peel Club and the Compass Challenge. We enjoyed breakfast with Chloe and David, and I had a 5K chat with Jonathan as per his post earlier. Now, we haven't included Jonathan here, I don't think, but it's nice that our adventurers are connecting out in the wild. And there was a really nice photo of the double threat of Heather's being Heather Hunter and Heather Morgan. in the UWA parkrun frame looking very happy.

00:29:50Johan Duvenhage: And next up we have Audrey Boswell coming to us from Echo Ripley parkrun in Queensland. She writes, a train strike and all, eventually I managed to get to Echo Ripley parkrun. What a lovely old fashioned smiling welcoming crew. Really enjoyed the great path, a heck of a hill, but old fashioned. I really liked to see, or was it that it pushes me on, the assorted kilometer markings. So thanks Echo for my extra wanted E. Then it was Mother's Day and we all volunteered at Des Connor Park Junior parkrun. Just added to the day to see either the mums out there with their bambinos or quite a few of the dads who left mum in bed with a cup of coffee and took the responsibility of the children. I met and chatted with a few dads who were so pleased to be out there encouraging their children. Many of the children were very pleased with themselves, making toast for mum before attending and some of the assortments they had made for her. How lovely it is, such a special time when you think back to your own memories. And it's always uplifting doing the junior. And Audrey shared a photo of herself in the selfie frame, wearing all things parkrun, including parkrun shoes and a parkrun tourist shirt with a beautiful skyline at the back. Very lovely.

00:31:05Lyndell Murray: Well done, Audrey. Next, we heard from Cheryl Lerves-Raymond, who is at War Hope parkrun in New South Wales. And Cheryl shared, a lovely way to start Mother's Day weekend with our local son arriving and walking the course, helping me look after the party at the back, volunteering number 243 as the towel walker for the 64 participants at War Hope parkrun, New South Wales. And Cheryl also posted emojis of a yellow heart and a sunflower. The photo she shared was of Cheryl, Raymond and their son in the event frame with Cheryl donning the towel walker vest and her husband had a red volley vest on as well. So how nice that you could complete parkrun on Mother's Day weekend with your son, Cheryl. Congratulations and thank you for your mammoth volunteering effort as well. 243, that's brilliant. Huge kudos to you.

00:31:59Johan Duvenhage: Yes, that's awesome. Next up was Jan Yates and coming to us from Hasenheide in Germany. Jan said, my last Europe parkrun on this trip. I visited Hasenheide parkrun in Berlin yesterday. Three flags in five weeks makes me a very happy Jan. And Jan did indeed look very happy with the Hasenheide pop-up. We hope you had a safe flight back to Australia, Jan. And congratulations on achieving flags in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands.

00:32:31Lyndell Murray: Yeah, brilliant. That's our kind of parkrun trip, right?

00:32:35Johan Duvenhage: Yeah.

00:32:36Lyndell Murray: Lastly, we heard from our very own Sarah Jefferson. And Sarah was at Uriya Soshi Sogo Cohen parkrun in Japan. And Sarah says, hey, Dazza, how amazing is it when your birthday falls on parkrun day? A new parkrun followed by Disneyland with friends. Oh, and happy Mother's Day to all the mamas out there for tomorrow. Mamas are the superheroes without capes. And Sarah has posted a heart and a flower emoji. The photo that Sarah shared was a printed photo of Matt Stevens, Sarah, Roberta Winters, Alison Fraser and Hadley at parkrun. And the photo she was holding up was in front of the castle at Tokyo Disneyland. So apparently at 7-Eleven in Japan, you can print photo postcards via an app. Who knew? You can do lots of things at 7-Elevens in Japan. I'm not that surprised at that. And yes, how incredible is it when parkrun Day is on your birthday? And we hope that you and all of your friends, Sarah, had a really great day at parkrun and also enjoying Disneyland.

00:33:47Johan Duvenhage: Yes, it looks like they're really having fun in Japan.

00:33:50Lyndell Murray: Okay. This latest parkrun week on the 16th of May, Dazza said, it's love a tree day. Did you see trees at parkrun today? Dazza has a whole lot of green and leafy treats prepared. So come on in and tell us all about your morning. There are 144 comments on Dazza's post, Johan. So which of the ones that we've got for this week?

00:34:14Johan Duvenhage: Yes, first off, and that is whilst I'm still wondering what those green and leafy treats were that I prepared, was Jackie O'Connell. And Jackie came to us from parkrun Vingis in Lithuania. Jackie shared a lovely morning at parkrun Vingis, Lithuania. Lots of trees in this park with the hearts emojis, tree emojis and a running emoji. She also shared a selfie on course in her 500th shirt with green trees aplenty in the background. It certainly looks like some forest bathing happened on this parkrun course.

00:34:48Lyndell Murray: Johan, Dazza is preparing salad. What else would it be? Okay, next we heard from Pippa White. And Pippa was at Amager Fælled parkrun in Denmark. Hi, Dazza. Did a parkrun on some reclaimed land. Some small trees, but big smiles. My niche challenge, Tony O'Connell, you'll get email. Oh, that's exciting. Called Birthday Squared. So this challenge, find a parkrun that started on your birthday and then run it. Dates and months to match. A Margafalid parkrun started on the 16th of May, 2009. Today they were 17 and I went up a new age category. woohoo, with the parkrun adventurer's neck tube until it was used to mop up tea. Now, that's interesting. She's obviously spilt the tea. The photo that she posted, though, was not of tea. There was a photo of Pippa with the parkrun pop-up, donning the biggest grin we have ever seen. And she was wearing her birthday sash, which is obviously...

00:35:56Johan Duvenhage: incredibly appropriate what a great challenge we will be looking out for that email pippa so we can't wait to read that one and happy birthday to you yeah well these neck tubes are very um versatile so that is a new use for your parkrun adventurers buff so next up uh sherry martin was attending in east richmond parkrun in new south wales and she wrote Such a lovely, lovely tree day parkrun with tree and leaf emojis. It was a joy to run into Lance and Robin Plan at East Richmond parkrun this morning and the autumn colours along the course were absolutely beautiful. A perfect way to start the day. Sherry shared a collage full of smiles, zoomies and adventurous attire with Lance and Robin. It really sounds and looks like a perfect start to the weekend.

00:36:46Lyndell Murray: Sure does. Lastly, we heard from David Messenger at Nightcliff parkrun in Northern Territory. David stated Nightcliff parkrun with Christine Brown for her first Northern Territory parkrun. After a lot of planning and travelling over the last two years, I achieved both Barra and Ollie volley status, having volunteered at every state and territory of Australia and both islands of New Zealand. And David shared a photo of the nightcliff parkrun frame with the tail walker vest on and wearing his own personalised T-shirt, which says, Olly Volley, all of Australia, and Barra Volley, Australia and New Zealand. And it goes on to list the names of the places he has visited and volunteered at. Now, David used to be the man of the spreadsheets or Mr. Spreadsheet himself. But I think he is now getting a new name for himself as his personalized t-shirts are very impressive. And there's been a few of them now. So well done on another achievement, David. and enjoy your holiday exploring Northern Territory. Now, I did say finally David Messenger, but we do have another David to hear from, don't we, Johan?

00:38:01Johan Duvenhage: Yes, and David O'Brien from Rustenbrook parkrun in Tasmania shared, Today I ventured to Rustenbrook parkrun in Tassie for my 100th volley, a beautiful undulating gravel course around the dam with lots of trees and wildlife. Volleys and participants were all happy and friendly on a wonderful sunny morning. And there was a photo of David in the tail walker vest, giving a big wave and smile as he walked past the photographer. Congratulations on your V100, David. That's an awesome achievement. And we thank you for your service and dedication to volunteering at parkrun. And I've been to Rustenbrook parkrun previously. It is absolutely beautiful.

00:38:43Lyndell Murray: It is a nice one. We did it as a Frito when we were down there for Palm one year. Really, I'd love to get back there and do it on Parkland Day.

00:38:51Johan Duvenhage: I also only did it as a Freedom Run, unfortunately. But yes. So, Lyndell, that brings us to the Obi. Have you received the email yet?

Obi Award — Cheryl

00:39:02Lyndell Murray: I sure have. The OB goes to... Cheryl. Cheryl, we can't go past a party at the back. So thank you for keeping the said party in check as Tower Walker.

00:39:19Johan Duvenhage: Congratulations, Cheryl. All right. And if we've given you a shout out in Dazza's today, please send us an email or comment on the post on Facebook so that we know that you're a listener.

00:39:28Lyndell Murray: Absolutely. Alrighty. It's now time for our emails and we do have an email.

Emails

00:39:33Johan Duvenhage: You've got mail.

00:39:34Lyndell Murray: Johan, over to you.

00:39:35Johan Duvenhage: So Michael Blaine, our roving adventurer writes, I cannot believe this episode will be number 450. Well done and thank you to all the pod production crew on this massive achievement. The work you do and the lives you touch out there in the community is immense. In episode 449, Reginald talked about Malaysian parkruns and the current single event, Precinct 18. I was part of the recent frond of 15 adventurers that attended on 25th of April. This event is very friendly, very picturesque, and one crazy thing about it is that the team produces a TikTok-length dance each week and publishes it to their Instagram account. It's worth bookmarking for a laugh. Volleys and anyone can take part in the dance. If any listener finds the dance of 25 April, they will see a handful of the adventurers from South East Queensland featuring. Apart from that, I would like to add that there's a reasonably priced four-star hotel about 20 minutes walk from the event. And the city of Putrajaya in which the event is held is a very interesting place to stay for a few nights. It is Malaysia's new administrative capital city like Australia's Canberra. Totally unique to the rest of the country but interesting enough and set amongst some great parks and city design. And it's only 30 years old. Likewise, the event is about 45 minutes if you grab an Uber from downtown Kuala Lumpur if you want to stay in town. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone that wants to head to Malaysia and become a countryman. Happy adventuring, everyone. Regards, Michael Blaine. And Michael sent us a link to the reel of the dance they did. You can Google for it. And we'll also ask the office lady to maybe post it in the comments to this episode.

00:41:22Lyndell Murray: Yeah, we'll see if she can do that. That dance was awesome. Like that was so well planned, really funny, nicely choreographed. It's definitely worth a look. And I think I will tag them and keep up with their little dances. It's really, really great. Alrighty, Johan, it's time now to hear from our friend Reginald.

00:41:50[background music]

Club Corner

00:41:52Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III: This is Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III, with Club Corner, where we talk about the what and why of parkrun clubs, and I am coming to you from Aranda country. Today I am going to talk about Japan, the 21st country to join parkrun. parkrun Japan is fabulous and we could review all of their events. parkrun in Japan began with a preview tour from World HQ, and they found that the country was ready for parkrun. Between Japan's strong running culture, the number of British expats, and Japan's proximity to parkrun HQAU, parkrun in Japan began on 6 April in 2019 with Futako Tamagawa parkrun. There were 343 parkrunners present, including luminaries such as PSH, Tim Oberg, Carol Cunningham, Tom Williams, and Renee Gimbert. Japan has continued to expand, and they now regularly host 40 to 50 events each week, seasonally dependent. Happy recent 7th birthday to FTG and parkrun Japan. FT what? Listen on, dear listener and I will expound. To immerse yourself in parkrun Japan culture I can recommend the YouTube channel, Hero and Jam TV. There you will be introduced into the convention for parkruns in Japan to be known by a three-letter acronym rather than their full event name. So Futako Tamagawa parkrun is FTG, Kashiwanoha parkrun is KNH, Hikari Goka Koen parkrun is HKG, etc. etc. Hero and Jam also have orientation videos, showing the best train station for events and then a walking map for how to get to the event, a fabulous resource. Some videos are even POV, making things very easy. Something that is special about events at parkrun Japan is the service culture and the respect for all participants at the event. An example is the gear tarpaulin. When you turn up to most events, there will be a tarpaulin laid out for you to place your bag, coat, bottle, etc. Everyone places their gear, and a volunteer keeps an eye over it. As you may imagine, there are many tourists who are squeezing in one more parkrun before they leave the country, and they all have their bags, winky face. I found a great example of Japan culture on their blog, from Mr. Nishina of Hirono Kaigan Park parkrun. I think growth is not speed, but depth. This sentence spoke to me, and I think it would be wise to heed for all event teams and parkrun organizers. The majority of events are in the main population band from Tokyo and south to the west, with Chuo Ko and parkrun in Iwate Prefecture sticking out on the map as their northernmost event. There are no events in Hokkaido's sad face. 2025 was a big year for Japan with their 50th event coming online. To celebrate, they released a Japan Limited tote bag to commemorate it, and yes, we are all a bit jelly. The special day in Japan is Greenery Day, held annually on the 4th of May. This is toward the back end of Golden Week. Golden Week is a series of four national public holidays that are clustered together, usually between 29 April and 5 May. There is a surge in vacation travel throughout the country, with many workers opting to take the full week off. You must, repeat, must, be planned ahead, and you should expect lots of people to be about. Japan is a fabulous place to visit, and if you are fortunate enough to go there, be sure to spend plenty of time both in and out of Tokyo. Hopefully our wonderful pod host Sarah has returned by the time this episode drops and we have some first-hand accounts. We will see you again, and remember, all non-Milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun, so stay tuned for our future club corners.

00:45:30[background music]

00:45:46Lyndell Murray: Reginald, thank you so much for your profile of Japan. And you have saved us. Because what I'm hearing from that, Reginald, is that from now on, we only need to refer to Japanese events by the Convention of the Three Letter Acronym. That'll be great, Johan.

00:46:03Johan Duvenhage: I think that may save a few difficulties for a lot of us.

00:46:09Lyndell Murray: Yes. It will come in handy in this next segment. We're going to go through the Consolidated Club report and our fronds. So let's get into that, Johan.

Consolidated Club Report

00:46:19Johan Duvenhage: Yes. All right. So let's look at the Adventurous Consolidated Club report for Saturday, the 16th of May, 2026. Of a total of 925 members, 643 took part in this date in 19 countries across 338 locations. We just needed an adventurer in Malaysia to make a clean sweep of all 20 countries.

00:46:44Lyndell Murray: They'll be there next week, Johan, after they hear about the dancing.

00:46:47Johan Duvenhage: Ah, yes, yes.

00:46:49Lyndell Murray: Yes, they'll be there next week.

00:46:51Johan Duvenhage: Locally. Locally to you, of course, not to me. There were adventures at Victoria, 62 events. New South Wales, 56 events. Queensland, 51. Western Australia, 17. South Australia, 16. Tasmania, 10. The Northern Territory with four events. The ACT with three events. North Island, seven events. And South Island, two events. Then, internationally, we had adventures in the UK at 68 events, in Finland and South Africa at 6 events each, Denmark 5 events, Sweden and Norway 4 events each, and Japan 3 events. Then there were two events each in the USA, Germany, Netherlands and Poland, with one event each in Austria, Canada, Italy, Ireland, Singapore and Lithuania.

The Frond

00:47:45Lyndell Murray: wow the largest international front on the 9th of may was a frond of 14. now it was at Yodogawa Kasen Koen Hirakata Chiku and i couldn't use the acronym for that one johan because there are four words in that event not three so i had to pronounce it all we'll have to ask uh reginald for an update to his uh his system His naming convention, yes. Yeah. Yeah. And those adventurers were Debbie and Andy Airey, Christopher Miles, Wanda Day, Lee Stott, Alison Bulliment, Ellie Soper, Amy Dodson, Gabby Lipschen, Wendy Pallant, Penelope Thiessen, Claire Putterall, Jay Heer and... joanne davies there was a frond of eight at one event on the 16th of may and that was at yuka family road or yfr in japan and they were alexander kington debbie and andy airy tony reeves claire putterill wendy pallant amy dodson and lucy kington

00:48:59Johan Duvenhage: All right let's move over to the pilgrimage and on the 9th of May we had nobody there but yesterday on the 16th of May we had Adrian Luscombe, Ben Thompson and Janice Whittle all at Bushy Park. Well done!

00:49:16Lyndell Murray: In Australia, the largest fronds were on the 9th of May. The largest Australian frond was a frond of 14, and that was at Yackandandah Rail Trail in Victoria. Adventurers there were Steve Amor, Sherry and David Eccles, Michelle Fyfe, Donald Sutherland, Gillian Howells, Philippe Perez, Barbara Luther, Wendy Pearce, Helen Davis, Victoria Knight-Phillips, david ryan renata kosh and sheila sharma now that frond occurred because it was the annual parkrun world tourist meetup for the world tourists group that cass castleton founded so they were all down at yakondanda last weekend and this last parkrun day the 16th of 5th There was a front of nine at two different events. The first one was Greenheart Robina Parklands, Oscar Ryan, Dean Wirrick, Mark Walls, Simon Mackley, our very own, Irene and Parth Bomakanti, Irene Dalloway, Roberta Winters and Gemma Kajewski. The second front was at Queanbeyan in Australia and that was Nick Graney, Kasson and Christy Hill, Yvette Turner, Sarah Urich, Mia Horrington, Rebecca Gordon, Moira Byrne and Peter Crowder.

00:50:39Johan Duvenhage: Right. And then also we had a special event day this week. It was Ascension Day on the 14th of May in the Nordics. And I think I got this section to punish me for agreeing to this podcast recording. So let's try our best. So Adventurers have a total of 923 members. 52 took part on this date at 20 events in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. So in Denmark we had seven events with eight people at Amagerfelle, one at Brabant, two in Damhusengen, one in Eschbeer, one in Fuglsangstow, three at Velleparken and one in Niber. In Norway we had five events with one adventurer at Ankersjugen, There were three at Ekabeesletta, one in Vestningen, and one each in Livstien and Bergen, with four in Turin. Then in Finland there were four events, and we had one adventure at Ladensatama, five in Pokkinen, one in Tampurei, and five in Urelupuvistu, I hope. Then in Sweden we had four events with three adventurers at Bildalsparken, two in Haga, five in Judashuggen and two in Uppsala. And I think I've just found that the Nordics may give a bigger challenge to pronunciation than the UK.

00:52:25Lyndell Murray: Yeah, well, and now that we've got our fallback with Japan, maybe we should just apply that to everything that we can abbreviate to initials. I don't know. We might have to take that to the office chat and see where we get to with that one. But I think more than anything, it's so great to see so many adventurers travelling all over the world. And remember, if you are travelling, you can always send us a roving report. So keep that in mind, adventurers. We love to hear from you.

00:52:56Johan Duvenhage: Yeah, especially if you're traveling to a destination that can trip up the host pronunciation.

00:53:01Lyndell Murray: Oh, yes. Extra marks for that. Remember, you can add the Adventurers Club as one of your five affiliations on your parkrun profile. All right, Johan, it doesn't end there. We've now got to get through the launches. Okay, let's go.

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

00:53:15[crosstalk]

00:53:18Johan Duvenhage: All right. So we had a few launches. And on the 9th of May, there were three launches in two countries. So first up, we've got Abbotswood parkrun launched in the UK. It's east of Portsmouth and south of London, where we had 347 participants with 19 first-timers that tackled the course, ably led by 36 volunteers.

00:53:41Lyndell Murray: Drumlanrig Castle launched in Scotland. It's located south of Glasgow, close to the border with England and not far from Lockerbie. Oh, and we all, it's sad that we all know where Lockerbie is, isn't it?

00:53:52Johan Duvenhage: Yes.

00:53:54Lyndell Murray: Yeah. Anyway, there were 275 participants with a pretty healthy 54 first-timers. and 24 volunteers. So obviously that was an event that was needed, that it was a place where they were really crying out for a parkrun with so many first-timers, which is great to see.

00:54:12Johan Duvenhage: And then lastly, on the 9th of May, we had Greenheart Robina Parklands parkrun that we've heard before in the podcast of, and that launched on the Gold Coast in Queensland with 412 participants, 10 first-timers and 33 volunteers.

00:54:29Lyndell Murray: This last parkrun week on the 16th of May, there were five launches in four countries. So Bulognasjön parkrun launched in Gävle in Sweden. This parkrun is about an hour and a half north of Stockholm by train and it launched with 84 participants. 14 volunteers and 52 first-timers to parkrun. So again, really great to see so many new people experiencing parkrun.

00:54:56Johan Duvenhage: And then next up we have Claudy Country parkrun in Northern Ireland. It's south-east of Derry, Londonderry and they had 68 participants, 22 volunteers and 14 first-timers.

00:55:08Lyndell Murray: parkrun Los Zwiecienets launched in Poland. It is east of Szczecin in Poland. Okay, so at that parkrun there were 97 participants. 43 first-timers, again a good nearly 50%, I guess, first-timers and 19 volunteers.

00:55:30Johan Duvenhage: Yes, it's always good to see these high numbers of first-timers at new events. And then up next, we had Sunrise Beach parkrun in Onslow, Western Australia. It's only a three and a half hour flight north of Perth or a 1,400 kilometer drive. There were eight participants, nine volunteers, and five genuine first timers. It's an easy sounding course. So you start at Sunrise Beach, you run to Sunset Beach, and then back again, and you do it twice.

00:55:59[crosstalk]

00:55:59Lyndell Murray: Sounds like a two-day affair. Yeah. Sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset. Yeah, and two days to get there. Set aside four days for Sunrise Beach parkrun, everybody. And last but not least, we had Ulladulla parkrun launch in New South Wales. It's on the south coast of New South Wales, south of Sydney. And there, there were 166 participants involved. 19 volunteers and 37 first timers. So a lot of launches there. And as we've noted, plenty of first timers and plenty of yet again, not so great pronunciation. You did a stellar job. You did a stellar job with all of your special day pronunciations. So well done you.

00:56:49Johan Duvenhage: Totally wet from sweating. Right.

Looking ahead

00:56:55Lyndell Murray: Looking ahead. What's coming up?

00:56:55[crosstalk]

00:56:58Johan Duvenhage: Yes. So, by the next time we record, UK parkrunner Darren Wood, A490, would probably have hit his 1,000 parkrun milestone. Yesterday, he completed number 999 at Avection parkrun in Sweden. So, that is something really, really awesome to look forward to. Yeah, brilliant.

00:57:21Lyndell Murray: Yeah, I guess that'll be another variation of the yellow shirt.

00:57:24[crosstalk]

00:57:24Johan Duvenhage: Yeah.

00:57:25Lyndell Murray: What am I looking forward to? I'll tell you what I'm looking forward to. I'm looking forward to winning a pair of Brooks running shoes with the volunteer promotion for Volunteer Week.

00:57:36Johan Duvenhage: You are in the running because you're in Australia and I'm out of the running because I'm not.

00:57:40Lyndell Murray: Yes. All right. Well, I do hope that happens because for next parkrun day, I don't have any other plans. So the only plan I do have for this week is running, is winning some free shoes. I haven't decided what I'll be doing yet next Saturday. How about you, Johan?

00:57:57Johan Duvenhage: Yes. So I'll be staying local this week and I'm heading to Haiderdal parkrun. We will be celebrating our ninth anniversary and our 400th event. So I'm really looking forward to be there with the team.

00:58:10Lyndell Murray: You'll have to make another cake.

00:58:11Johan Duvenhage: Yes. I have heard that there will be cake.

00:58:14Lyndell Murray: That is brilliant. All righty. Johan, thank you for chatting with me this evening. Thanks for the catch up. It really is such a treat to have you here, not just in little snippets, but the full Johan, full feature length here on the pod, Johan. So thank you.

00:58:31Johan Duvenhage: Thank you. It was great to be here. I am very nervous and I hope that people can still understand what I've tried to say the whole time.

00:58:42Lyndell Murray: That won't be a problem. You've been great. Okay, listeners, next time you hear from the parkrun Adventurers, it will be Sarah and Simon back in the seats.

00:58:52Johan Duvenhage: And parkrun Adventurers, as always, you can contact us via parkrun Adventures on Facebook or on our email, which is parkrunadventures at gmail.com. So that's it for another episode. We'll see you all next time for more adventures. Bye-bye.

00:59:00[outro theme playing]