Episode 451 - Let those pies fly high

Episode details · 191 speaker turns · sound cues from audio analysis

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

00:00:30Sarah Jefferson: Welcome to episode 451 of the parkrun Adventurers podcast, a podcast about life if your life is all about parkrun. I'm Sarah Jefferson and I'm recording on the traditional lands of the Whadjuk Noongar people.

00:00:44Simon Mackley: And I'm Simon Mackley coming to you from Quandamooka country, Quandamooka Yarra Bindra, ohayō gozaimasu, Saradas.

00:00:52Sarah Jefferson: Simon-san, that's good morning. And we're recording in the evening. I love that you were trying to greet me in Japanese, but you should be saying konbanwa. [Japanese: "Good evening"]

00:01:02Simon Mackley: You are so right, Sarah. Konbanwa?

00:01:05Sarah Jefferson: How was your trip away to Japan? Oh, Simon, honestly, I just love Japan. I could absolutely live there for a year, I think. The culture, the food, the people, the efficiency of the bullet trains, the parkrun experiences and the onsens. I really loved it. In fact, I actually saw a post recently online because your phone definitely listens to you. It went something like this. Why should You never book a trip to Japan. The food is so good that it changes your whole palate. Everything is so efficient. You realize how chaotic your life is. You won't find a game of AFL anywhere. I guess that's good for some, Simon. You'd be happy with that. The people are so friendly. You'll start to question yourself. The 7-Elevens are so good. Your local servo will depress you. You could totally, honestly eat solely from 7-Elevens. 7-Elevens if you needed to. Everywhere is so aesthetic. Your Instagram followers will be sick of you. The matcha tastes so good, coffee starts losing its grip on you. And that's so true too. I had so much matcha the whole time I was there. You can't blame being late on the trains as they're always on time. The fashion is so good, you'll be rethinking your entire wardrobe. The onsens are so relaxing that regular baths feel pointless. And finally, everywhere is open late. You'll never be in bed on time. You get the idea. Everything was just so efficient, organised and high quality. We just had the best holiday in Japan.

00:02:40Simon Mackley: I can imagine. I can imagine that. I mean, you know that I'm a massive fan of Japan anyway, and I am always itching to go back because, yeah, there's always something new to see and that sort of thing. And I have touched so little of it, even in Tokyo. So, yeah.

00:02:54Sarah Jefferson: Well, when are you heading back, Simons? You about to book a new flight?

00:02:59Simon Mackley: I wish. I mean, Jackson keeps on pestering me about it. He wants to go back as soon as possible. But yeah, nothing planned yet. But yes, like he has told us that he wants to go back big time.

00:03:11Sarah Jefferson: I think it'd be so amazing as a child to experience such a rich culture and somewhere that's so different to Australia. I think just so safe, right? Yeah. It was so great, you know, taking a young child there. And I could imagine, you know, taking, taking Jackson there too. You just really don't have to worry about little things. I guess you would have to going elsewhere.

00:03:29Simon Mackley: Oh yeah, exactly. Exactly. The safety thing is like, is a massive thing, especially when you can't speak the language, but obviously they are so, yeah, so polite and so helpful. Like, It's unbelievable. You can't explain it without going there, right?

00:03:44Sarah Jefferson: That's right. Actually, one time we were – well, actually, there were a couple of instances. There was one person, there was one Japanese person, and the light was red to walk. No cars. It was so quiet. The Japanese person stood there and waited. And I think a couple of times Matt and I just went across the road, which we shouldn't have done, jaywalking. But they just follow the rules, even when no one's there. It's like we're so impatient in Australia, you know. Why would I wait when, you know, I don't need to? But Japanese people know the rules. There's no ifs or buts. You don't cross the road if it's, you know, red. It's simple things like that. I think they just know and they just follow. Anyway, I better stop holiday dreaming, Simon.

00:04:22Simon Mackley: Where did you park around last weekend? Last weekend, I caught up with the South East Queensland ambassadors, including some of our listeners. at Capestone Lake parkrun, which is on the north side of Brisbane. The last time I went there, the course was a large out and back followed by a smaller out and back around a lake. But now it's turned into two laps around the lake with a very small out and back. So it was quite windy. So running down one side of the lake was nice and comfortable, whereas the other side was There was a lot of wind going in my face, everyone's face, should I say. So yeah, caught up with the ambassadors. The previous week, I ventured out to Forest Lake parkrun, and I was absolutely thrown in the deep end by the RD on the day and co-ED Rory. He asked me to do the first time as welcome. I'd only run the course once myself, so I was feeling a bit out of my depth. But luckily, everyone that was there for the first time had done parkrun before, and they really only wanted to know about the Y-shaped course. which was easy enough to explain because in that Y junction they've got a marshal there anyway telling you which way to go. And I've done the first time as welcome quite a few times before as well. So, yeah, that's been my last two weeks. But let's get on to where you have been since we last recorded, Sarah.

00:05:42Sarah Jefferson: Well, Simon Simes. I have ticked off five new events since we last spoke. I ticked off the stunning and absolute prettiest course in the whole of New South Wales being Parama parkrun. If only everyone could see your jaw drop. I loved it. Sydney is without a doubt my favourite city in the world. So what isn't to love about this parkrun? The following week, we kicked off the Beaches parkrun and how lucky we were to be greeted with very soft sand and the second highest tide since January this year. So it was soft. We had an alternate course, but we did have Michael Sharp, Peter and Sonja Pohlman who provided lots of support and encouragement there. throughout the three lap. And despite the crazy conditions, Simon, I actually really loved it. I think it was a true Aussie experience. And I'm proud to say that I have now done a full parkrun completely barefooted. After this, we headed to Japan, where we ticked off Sunshine Beach parkrun in Kyoto. And you did hear a roving report last fortnight from me. I got my first special day parkrun out of Australia at Hidro Kuseki Rishiki Koen parkrun. And there'll be more from Alison later in the pod about this event. And then we went to Yurayasushi Sogo Koen parkrun, which is near Tokyo Disneyland. And I got my post baby parkrun PB to kick off my 37th year. Sorry, very happy with the start of my birthday, and I was very happy that parkrun was on my birthday.

00:07:24Simon Mackley: That was pretty fun.

00:07:26Sarah Jefferson: Unlike other parkruns we've experienced in Japan, we had one was a three-lapper, And one was a four and a half lapper. The parkrun near Disneyland was actually a one lapper. So that was really nice. By the end of it, though, it was actually very warm. So I could imagine in summer pounding the cement would be quite hot for sure. This parkrun had a beautiful snack box at the end, which was quite nice. and a nice unique touch, including lots of sweets, rice crackers, biscuits, et cetera, which were walked around and offered to all of the participants. Just like the other parkruns we visited in Japan, there was an overwhelming amount of volunteers. And that's, I know we've talked about it on the pod, but it's just so evident and it's just such a lovely touch. And it was so fabulous to see so many people on course encouraging others to Since being home, Simon, I need one more run to achieve my P index of 10, and I have got 11 more runs at home to achieve my single ton this year. Both of those are still on track for this year. So it's been really busy since we last caught up on the pod.

00:08:37Simon Mackley: Yeah, a lot going on in Australia and in Japan. What a great opportunity you've had. And I'm sure you would encourage everyone out there to go and do a Japanese parkrun because it is so different to what we see. Did you see the parkrun backpack, the one that everyone turns up with all the gear? Is it? No idea. It's not the tote bag, right? I thought it was a backpack where all of the gear, like all of the parkrun gear, like the flags and the poles and all that sort of thing fit into because they're so, you know, bike friendly or public transport friendly. Like it has to be something that's easy to carry.

00:09:11Sarah Jefferson: I didn't really know to look out for that, to be honest. And by the time we were there, even if we were there early, everything was set up. So I actually, one, didn't know to look for it, but you sort of just get welcomed because you have about four people welcoming you, super friendly, and they had tarps down so they were showing you where to put everything and then they were intrigued as to where you came from. So I feel like as soon as you got there, you didn't really look around or anything. You were just absorbed in the whole experience.

00:09:37Simon Mackley: Yeah, exactly.

00:09:38Sarah Jefferson: But, yeah, that doesn't surprise me and that's a clever way of doing that for sure.

00:09:42Simon Mackley: All righty. Let's hear some listener feedback.

00:09:45Sarah Jefferson: It was so great to hear Johan co-hosting last pod, wasn't it, Simon? Yeah.

00:09:50Simon Mackley: Sure was, yeah.

00:09:52Sarah Jefferson: Yeah, you did a really fabulous job, Johan. I know you said you were nervous, but that did not show. We didn't hear that at all. So thanks for jumping in and helping us out.

00:10:01Simon Mackley: Yeah, definitely. It was good to have a different voice on the pod. Again, we haven't had any email feedback through, so I don't know whether our listeners liked it or not.

00:10:10Sarah Jefferson: From what I've heard, Simon, Johan has been a very popular choice. But I can see, I could see quite a bit of positive feedback under the pod post on our socials, which was great. But as you said, no emails to confirm that. But it does seem like it was very well received, which was great. That's good.

00:10:28Simon Mackley: It's very good. We have had a message from David Messenger, who wrote this. like to thank Lyndell for the shout out on episode 450 after completing the barra and ollie volley challenges at nightcliff in the northern territory christine brown and i listened to following week and heard it while driving around kakadu just before our second int parkrun following up on the comment about the shirts i've created four volunteer alphabet shirt for completing the volunteer alphabet 2025 Achievements shirt, capturing all of the achievements from that year. Christine's first alphabet shirt, celebrating her first full alphabet. And the Barra and Ollie Volley Challenge shirt, making the completion of both challenges. He says, I used to pin A3 printouts to the back of my shirts for special occasions, but now I use a supplier whose shirts are of great quality and whose online design tool lets me customize fonts, colors, sizes, shapes, icons, and more. Turnaround is usually two to three weeks. The biggest challenge is simply hoping everything goes to plan and avoiding unexpected parkrun cancellations once the shirt is on order. I've seen so many creative approaches to custom shirts, both at events and in online forums. It's one of the things I love about the parkrun community. Everyone finds their own way to celebrate milestones and challenges. I'm sure your listeners could have plenty to say about this too, and it would make for a fun discussion.

00:11:52Sarah Jefferson: Yes, thank you, David, for sharing that. Yes, I agree. The only thing would be making sure, obviously, you're designing your shirt ahead of all of this happening. Sounds like David's been pretty lucky so far. But I don't know about you, Simon. It's always a bit of a tricky thing when I'm getting dressed on the Saturday morning. You know, which milestone shirt do I wear? Do I wear my adventurer's top? It's an apricot kind of day. I can't even imagine having all of these personalized shirts. You have one day, most of the time, one day for parkrun a week. And then you're throwing all of those in there. I feel like, for me, decision fatigue will be too much. I don't know about you.

00:12:27Simon Mackley: Yeah, I'm wondering whether there's shirts that he wears outside of parkrun times. Or whether it is actually what he wears at parkrun. Who knows? Maybe David can tell us.

00:12:38Sarah Jefferson: Because, yeah, lots of people do wear parkrun shirts when it's not parkrun day. All right. Moving forward into some news in the parkrun world. We have got some big news. The first parkrun participant has now completed 1,000 parkruns. Congratulations to Darren Woods, athlete number 490, on completing his 1,000th parkrun at Morden parkrun in a time of 33.52. So there has been a lot about this on socials the past weekend. Darren's stats include 1,000 parkruns with nine country flags. Darren has 416 volunteer credits and a PB of 17 minutes and 58 seconds at Bushy Park. He has completed 21 Christmas Day events. Groundhog Day he has achieved 10 times and he has achieved both of his single and his double tons. So congrats, Darren. What an inspiration you are to many and, you know, a long dedication to parkrun. Well done.

parkrun news bulletin

00:13:40Simon Mackley: Yeah, exactly. Massive achievement. First one to do it as a active participant. And I think it makes him the sixth person in total to have the yellow shirt. And then more news. Since our last pod, many of you will have seen the additional milestones that are being added from September. So what we do know is that the 2050 and 250 shirts will remain. They'll be joined by milestones every 100. So there'll be 100, 200, 300, I'm guessing up to 1,000. So that's a new thing that is coming out. And there's new junior milestones as well. There'll be a whole new collection of those as well because I know there was a bit of confusion. I know it's not a big thing in Australia because there's only five parkruns, five junior parkruns, but there were different numberings there. So I think they're coming a little bit closer in line with the adult parkruns. And we have another note here. We've actually got a note from the office lady herself. So many of you will have seen that the office lady has been gauging interest in a white parkrun adventurer's tech cap and or visor. It seems that all of you think it's a great idea. If you haven't seen the post, jump over to Facebook after the pod, that is. And if you don't use Facebook and are interested, please email us. And we will make sure that you hear when the orders do open, which will be soon, I'm assured. And stay tuned for more merch news that's coming soon. And just to help you along, hey, Siri, remind me to look at the parkrun Adventurers tech cap post on Facebook. Let's just see if that works.

00:15:13Sarah Jefferson: Yes, hopefully that sets a reminder for some people. And, oh, Simon, I'm excited that there's, you just said stay tuned for some more merch news. That's exciting. Can't wait to hear what that is. Say no more. I'm assuming your lips are sealed.

00:15:26Simon Mackley: Oh, you know what it is.

00:15:29Sarah Jefferson: I am excited. All right. Now, Simon, this news item is a little bit of a tricky one to share, but we do have some big news to share. Our very own incredible host and passionate adventurer, Melissa Ellis, has decided that it is time for her to step down from her role. as co-host and editor of the podcast. Now, Melissa was hoping to sneak away quietly, but there was no way that we were going to let this happen. Now, if my research is correct, our own Melissa Ellis has hosted this pod for a whopping 216 episodes, a huge effort. To the best of my knowledge, Melissa's first co-hosting episode was with Mel Erbacher, and it was episode 173. on the 13th of September, 2019. So before this time, Melissa contributed many roving reports to the pod. The duo of Mel and Ollie, however, began in episode 216 on the 8th of January, 2021, although they had co-hosted together a number of times before then. I know that I can speak on behalf of so many of this community that Melissa has inspired and sparked a sense of adventure in so many of us, to head out to places we never thought we would head to, ticking off one parkrun at a time. Furthermore, I know that listeners would eagerly await for the pod to be released each and every single week to listen to her epic parkrun adventures, with many living vicariously through her travel plans. It's been a pleasure listening to Melissa's rodeo antics, taking segues around Uluru, waiting with bated breath for her to achieve her stopwatch bingo, her city to surf fun, her gorgeous dog's little toenails tapping away in the background of her recording, her beloved Collingwood Magpies team and Daz's. There is honestly too many things to name. Melissa, you have contributed so much to this community. You have been responsible for connecting so many parkrunners around the world with many finding quality friendships for life. The word thank you does honestly not cut it. We know that we speak on behalf of so many listeners, that your contribution has been so significant and your effect profound. We are so grateful for all that you have done for this podcast, the community and parkrun.

00:17:47Simon Mackley: Very well said, Sarah. And Mel did actually give us a message to read out. And it says, it's been a privilege to be the co-host of the podcast over the last five and a half years. With big shoes to fill, I nervously took the microphone with Ollie back in January 2021, keeping all the well-loved traditions and creating some of our own along the way. While the podcast has stayed relatively the same over the last few years, life has not, and managing the hosting has been an ongoing challenge. But the time has come to step aside and close my pod chapter for good. I'm taking with me all the fabulous memories, many, many, many new friends, and the bar fridge. I don't know what that reference is, but... Damn it, the bar fridge is gone. If you see me at parkrun, come and say hi. I'll still be out there adventuring and enjoying our beautiful country one parkrun at a time. Stay safe, Melissa. So after being involved behind the scenes of this pod for such a short time, I actually don't know how Melissa has been able to manage work, family, travel, pod preparation, pod recording and editing each week for many, many years. among the many other things that she does. Melissa, on behalf of the parkrun Adventurers podcast family, we want to thank you, thank you, thank you.

00:19:05Sarah Jefferson: And listeners, please stay tuned for later in the pod where we're going to actually invite you to share something a little bit later on and help us sending Mel some love.

00:19:15Simon Mackley: Indeed we are. One last thing. So many of you will know that the parkrun app has had some changes recently. So the challenges have been updated. So there's new icons on the challenges. And if you've created challenges yourself, there's actually one specific icon now with all of your own challenges, which I think is like a parkrun flag or something. So yeah, there's a lot coming around about changes in the app as well. And I believe there's actually merch coming out with regards to the challenges also. When I was at the ambassador thing on Saturday, there was quite a bit of talk about what that's actually going to be. So we'll just need to wait for headquarters to actually release what it is. That will be quite interesting to watch.

00:19:58Sarah Jefferson: Now, with all of the news that we've just dropped, Simon, I guess we better get into some stats and some normality of what normally happens on this pod, right?

00:20:07Simon Mackley: Sure thing. Okay, let's head across the ditch. So parkrun New Zealand attendance and milestone stats for the 23rd of May. In New Zealand, there were 72 parkruns with 11,614 parkrunners and 1,228 volunteers. The biggest parkruns in New Zealand were Hagley with 791, Waitangi with 510 and Riverlution with 393. Smallest were Southend Reserve with 14, East Otago High School with 18 and Mangawiro Riverwalk with 29. Closest to the average of the week of 161 was Pegasus with 160. And then last weekend on the 30th of May, there were 71 events with 12,829 parkrunners and 1,216 volunteers. Analysis let us know that tough crater reserve results were unavailable at the time of publication. So those figures will go up a little bit. Biggest parkruns last weekend were Hagley with 790, Waitangi with 508 and Millwater with 413. And the smallest were East Otago High School, 21, Balclutha with 28, and both Lake to Lake and Lost Lagoon each had 45. Closest to the average for the week of 181 was Cappity Coast with 182.

00:21:31Sarah Jefferson: On the 23rd of May, back in Australia, there were 75,400 participants, 6,953 volunteers across 536 events. with 3,009 first-timers. In junior events, all five operated, with 498 youth participating, which were guided by 97 people. The smallest parkruns were Moora, where we had two participants. So this was spoken about last week, and I'm just going to correct. I think it was Moora or something. Anyway, Moora parkrun in Western Australia with two participants, Waterloo Plains with five, Menindee, with seven participants. Hopefully I got that one correct. The largest parkruns with 672 participants was roads. There were 726 runners or walkers at Macquarie University and Albert Melbourne had 834 participants. So there were two new events in the top three this week. On the 30th of May, there were 79,122 participants. supported by 6,948 volunteers at 531 events. All five junior events were held with 501 little athletes and 103 volunteers. The smallest events were Waterloo Plains with three participants, Wowray Park and Nathalia Showgrounds with five participants and Kerrang Regional with eight participants. The largest parkruns were Rhodes with 797 participants Albert Melbourne with 823 people and the Ponds with 831 participants. Again, Albert Melbourne has been kicked off first place.

00:23:24Simon Mackley: So big numbers there. I think it's time we throw over to the roving reports and we get a little bit of a break, Sarah. Sounds good, Simon.

00:23:35[background music]

Roving Adventurers (roving reporter crossovers)

00:23:40Alison King: Kia ora koutou adventurers, it's Alison here reporting in today from, what's the name of our parkrun? [Te Reo Māori: "Hello / greetings to you all"]

00:23:47Takio Kawano: parkrun Nara.

00:23:48Alison King: parkrun Nara, but the full name?

00:23:50Takio Kawano: parkrun Heijokyo.

00:23:53Unidentified speaker: Cool.

00:23:54Alison King: And I'm with one of the volunteers, Takio Kawano.

00:23:57Takio Kawano: My name is Takio.

00:23:59Alison King: Welcome to the parkrun Adventurers podcast. Yes. What was your role today? You were welcoming us when we came in.

00:24:06Takio Kawano: And parkrun and welcome people and I'm also a run director here. And parkrun is maybe, today is 183 times.

00:24:16Alison King: Yeah.

00:24:16Takio Kawano: And three years have passed since we established this parkrun.

00:24:23Alison King: And today is Greenery Day, so it's a special day for parkrun.

00:24:24[crosstalk]

00:24:26Takio Kawano: Right, it's a special day and lots of people come from everywhere in the world.

00:24:32Alison King: Yeah, we had lots of visitors.

00:24:34[crosstalk]

00:24:34Takio Kawano: Oh yeah, sure, we appreciate that.

00:24:37Alison King: And lots of visitors from other Japanese parkruns.

00:24:40Takio Kawano: Oh yes, from Tokyo, from Ibaraki and Nagoya, everywhere.

00:24:46Alison King: Yeah. When did you start parkrunning?

00:24:48Takio Kawano: Say it again?

00:24:49Alison King: Your first parkrun. Oh yeah, sure. When did you start?

00:24:53Takio Kawano: Three and a half years ago.

00:24:55Alison King: Yeah. And were you a runner already?

00:24:57Takio Kawano: In Nara?

00:24:59Alison King: Yeah.

00:25:00Takio Kawano: Yes.

00:25:00Alison King: Yeah. And what do you like about parkrun?

00:25:04Takio Kawano: Maybe it's the best in life. Yeah. And it's a routine work and we appreciate people coming. Yeah. That's my rule.

00:25:15Alison King: Can you tell us about this park?

00:25:17Takio Kawano: This one is the World Heritage and this one is the old capital maybe 1,000 years ago and this place is very... the grass is green and the grass is green every week. Yeah, it's very green. Yes.

00:25:34Alison King: And it's a beautiful palace.

00:25:36Takio Kawano: Yes, yes, it's beautiful and the scenery is perfect and the train is... is passing in the grass that's a very incredible view and we welcome everybody yeah so we almost didn't have parkrun i heard the weather was bad last night oh yes it was raining but all people pray let's stop raining and that they stop raining and it's a very beautiful day sunny day

00:25:54[crosstalk]

00:26:09Alison King: yeah it's a perfect parkrun so arigato for having parkrun today oh yeah sure we appreciate that, bon voyage yeah we loved it thank you thank you thanks a lot [Japanese: "Thank you"]

00:26:14[crosstalk]

00:26:21Matt: i'm here with a parkrun adventurer this is matt welcome matt g'day everyone hey can you describe the course for us today yeah it's a beautiful course so you come in through the north of the park and meet at the start point and then it's four laps four and a half laps correction uh on a sealed path and you've got the beautiful shrines to to view it one of the unique things that i found is um you can see everyone as you're doing your laps. So it's quite a social course and make sure you get some good footage, good photos of people passing through the shore. Flat, so it's nice and fast. There's a headwind on one of the sections today, which I think is a few metres, but that's nothing. So yeah, overall it's a good course. The volunteers are the people that make it. Hello. You're saying hello too. And yeah, the volunteers are a lot of fun. They get really enthusiastic, especially when there's a lot of tourists. It's been a great day. Yeah, it's been a fantastic day. Yeah, it's a good cause. Easy to get to from the station, just a short walk. And we're off to coffee now with the rest of the volunteers, which is only another 10-minute walk south. Cool, thanks very much. Thank you.

00:27:31Johan Duvenhage: Koei parkrun Adventures! It's Johan and I'm in the fresh crispy air of the West Coast Fossil Park parkrun somewhere between Langebaan and... Leonie, where's the other town that's close by?

00:27:44Leonie Vorster: Vredenburg?

00:27:45Johan Duvenhage: Friedenburg. So I'm in the Western Cape again this week after having done Yzerfontein Beach last week and with me is Leonie Vorster who was one of the driving forces behind West Coast Fossil Park. Good morning Leonie. Good morning. Tell me Leonie, so how did you guys come up to want a parkrun in the West Coast Fossil Park?

00:28:05Leonie Vorster: Well as you know I am a crazy runner and I do a lot of events. I really like running any kind of running event and So I've also done 37 different parkruns myself. And when I saw the fossil park has ideal cycling routes that could be used and utilized, I thought it would be a good idea. First of all, I started the Saldana Health Run about four years ago. and on the second one we did have trail runs as well which of one of the trail runs we held here at the fossil park so I knew the facilities would work and I knew the distance and the routes is possible here and then when I came back to the fossil park after the park that trail run was over we actually decided myself and the lady who runs the restaurant here at the fossil park that the fossil park really needs some extra feet and extra business so we contacted the owners of the fossil park and the people who are in charge and we decided to start working on a route and then i contacted the head office of parkrun itself and said to them i am a keen parkrunner and i'm willing to help establish this route here i am just not the parkrun what do you call it run director no i'm not that one because i like running too much i'm too busy every weekend

00:29:22Johan Duvenhage: So in terms of the development of the route, was there any specific things that you had to take into account, this being a fossil park?

00:29:29Leonie Vorster: Yes, definitely. We're not allowed to run on the routes where there are fossil evacuations happening. They constantly find new fossils all the time. So they have certain areas that are demarcated just for that. And there's no running or cycling allowed. And there's also in terms of nature preservation, there's certain pathways and routes that we're not allowed to run on because we could hinder some of the birds that are nesting. so they are quite specific on where we should not run but that said they do have mountain bicycle kind of routes there's actually a bit of a longer route of eight kilometers that one can come and do as well you just pay your fee at the park and you're welcome to come and cycle yeah so there's quite a few options and then of course on Saturdays the demarcated 5k route for the parkrun is individual route it's slightly different from the cycling routes So what has the reception of the parkrun been with the local community? People love it. They like having a different option. Everyone is quite used to doing the Langebaan parkrun. That has for a very long time been the only one in the area. So you have to drive quite far to get to another parkrun. So this is on our doorstep and especially the people from Vredenburg. This is a bit closer for them in terms of kilometers. So they actually, some people even come from either Langebaanweg, the Air Force base, or they come from Friedenburg, they run here, do the parkrun, and run back to where they came from.

00:30:56Johan Duvenhage: Crazy people.

00:30:57Leonie Vorster: Yes, those are there, always.

00:31:00Johan Duvenhage: All right. So, yeah, guys, it was really, it was a beautiful scenic parkrun today. Beautiful weather. We do see that there's a massive cold front coming through over the weekend, and we're glad to have missed that. Signing off from West Coast Fossil Park, and I'll talk to you again in the future. Bye-bye, Leonie. Bye-bye.

00:31:17Leonie Vorster: Thank you very much.

00:31:20Johan Duvenhage: Adventurers, I'm still here at the West Coast Fossil Park, and I've got the pleasure now to speak to Pippa Haarhoff, who is involved with the West Coast Fossil Park Trust that owns the property on which the West Coast Fossil Park parkrun takes place. Good morning, Pippa. Good morning. So, Pippa, tell me, we've now heard a little bit from Leonie about the parkrun course and how the parkrun started, but I'm very interested to know how the fossil park started. Can you give us a brief history about the fossil park?

00:31:53Pippa Haarhoff: Yeah, sure. The fossils were discovered through a mining process, phosphate mining, and it's turned out to be one of the richest fossil sites in the world, dating to around about five million years, so that's early Pliocene times. But the phosphate mine closed in 1993 and that's when the idea came to all of us involved with working with the fossils. as a way of preserving the fossil site, not to backfill the quarry, the last remaining quarry, but to keep it open and develop it for us to carry on doing research, but also opening to the public so that we could do what we call public paleontology. So what type of fossils are you finding here? So many, many, many different species of all the vertebrates. So it's all the fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. We've got representatives of all those groups. It's one of the richest bird fossil sites in the world. We've got over 80 different species of fossil birds. some of which are probably ancestral to some of the living birds that we find here today, like the white-backed mouse bird, for instance. But amongst the mammals, we've got some surprising examples, like the African bear. Nobody knew bears had lived in Africa south of the Sahara before this bear was discovered. And we've got wolverines and giant otters and three different species of elephant and three different kinds of giraffids. We've got the possible ancestor of the modern giraffe, but we've also got sivatheres, which were short-necked, long-horned giraffids.

00:34:15Johan Duvenhage: That sounds very interesting. So, guys, it's not just about the dead things here. There's also a lot of living things and some of the living things that is in abundance here is birds. And I think people are also very interested in birds, I've heard.

00:34:30Pippa Haarhoff: Yeah, so we're fortunate to have two people from our local West Coast Bird Club who come to the park on a weekly basis to do a bird count. And the numbers range from, well, in the quieter months, it's about 35 species, but gets up to 70-odd species. But the total list for the park is around about 115 species. So we've got resident birds and then migrants as well. And amongst the migrants, we've got booted eagles that actually nest in the park, which is amazing. And quite a wide range of raptors nesting in the park or residing in the park. Jackal buzzards. and these booted eagles and rock kestrels and so on but we also have two water bodies that attract other birds and including blue cranes that have also nested in the park for quite a number of years.

00:35:48Johan Duvenhage: They're beautiful and then apart from the birds there's also an abundance of plant life And especially, I think, in flower season, this must be an absolutely amazing place.

00:35:59Pippa Haarhoff: Yes, we do have quite a splash of colour. Many of the white rain daisies, they definitely dominate amongst the spring flowers. But it's really quite a spectacular show. But we mustn't forget that there's always something flowering in the Felton. I've got to know the bulbs, and they tend to flower... In the middle of summer, when it's really, really hot. That's awesome.

00:36:28Katarina: It is awesome.

00:36:28Pippa Haarhoff: They are truly spectacular. And they're remarkable because they're particularly resilient. To be able to do that in the middle of the hot summer, start flowering.

00:36:43Johan Duvenhage: Pippa, thank you very much. I so enjoyed having some background to the West Coast Fossil Park and all the best for the work that you do here.

00:36:50Pippa Haarhoff: Thanks so much. We look forward to seeing you here again.

00:36:54Johan Duvenhage: The West Coast Fossil Park parkrun is located in a National Monument and Provincial Heritage Site near Langebaanweg in the Western Cape, approximately 150 kilometres or a 90 minute drive north of Cape Town where you can step back 5.2 million years into time. Please do spend some time after parkrun to explore this amazing site and its museum. Excellent facilities are available with a restaurant serving good coffee and liquor breakies. We were 39 finishers supported by 5 awesome volunteers.

00:37:23Tony O'Connell: Howdy parkrun adventurers, it's TOC from Inverloch and we're somewhere a little bit less warm today. We've ventured to the northernmost parkrun in the world. We're in Finland and we've travelled by the overnight train up to Pokkinen. I'm with Katarina who is today's run director. Katarina, is this your normal type weather up here?

00:37:47Katarina: I don't know what's normal. I guess if you think about the season it's probably quite normal, yeah. We were actually quite lucky because it had forecasted quite a bit of rain for today and actually it will be catastrophic in the afternoon but we were very lucky today that it's just overcast and maybe a little drizzle. What we can have, we can have really nice spring days with sunshine around this time of year, but Oulu is a city located at the sea, so it can be quite windy. So yeah, I think it was quite a good day.

00:38:22Tony O'Connell: Oulu has been a beautiful town. We spent yesterday walking around the town. Just the parks, the trails, the tracks, and it's actually been a very lovely town to walk around. You've got the beach, you've got rivers, you've got just about everything in the town. I love the place.

00:38:39Katarina: Actually, I like Oulu quite a lot, so I moved here from Germany about 13 years ago and for me it's the right size. It's not too big, not too small, you have all the services you need and in Oulu and also many other Finnish places you have space and you have nature quite close by. As you said, you have the parks that you can enjoy, the park where we have the parkrun. We also have beaches. We have, for example, the Nalikari beach, which is quite popular in summertime. And then, of course, this year Oulu is the European Capital of Culture, one of the European Capitals of Culture. So there should be quite some events on, even though I'm not quite sure how and where and when they all are.

00:39:26Tony O'Connell: But that's a really interesting thing.

00:39:27[crosstalk]

00:39:29Katarina: Thank you. I'm going for the walk. Thank you.

00:39:32Tony O'Connell: Cheers. That's a really interesting thing to touch upon. I noticed that Oulu also hosts the World Air Guitar Championships.

00:39:39Katarina: Yes. Yeah, that seems to be quite popular, I think, for tourists. And I know that, I think it's every year like in winter time, was it? Yeah. But I have never personally been there. It's always like an intriguing thought to just sometimes go, but it's also just upon you and then, oh no, now we missed it again.

00:40:01Tony O'Connell: I had to say I think my air guitar playing skills are probably equal to my Polish parkrun pronunciation skills so we might leave that one there. Look the course is an out and back, you run along a beach. Were they floating saunas or squires out on the beach?

00:40:17Katarina: Yes, so the parkrun route goes along the Oulujoki River close to the sea right here in Oulu and along the beach there's like one floating sauna that's actually maintained by volunteers that's like on like the parkrun side of the river let's say that and they have it's there every summer and they have like a real like wooden fire sauna in it it's really nice But there's another floating sauna on the other side of the river that's kind of year-round and that's more like a commercial business. It's also a wooden sauna. But I think there's also this here, like this, I would call it a sauna cube on the beach. So it's not floating, but it's like basically in the same place. So yeah, Finland has a lot of saunas.

00:41:10Tony O'Connell: Yeah, very beautiful. And your own involvement with parkrun. How did you get involved in parkrun and where did you get involved with parkrun?

00:41:17Katarina: It's actually quite funny because I would say everything started with Covid, funnily enough, because we didn't, I didn't know anything about parkrun but during Covid like I guess everybody was a bit bored so I got involved in a lot of running groups on Facebook and everybody was always talking about how they were missing parkrun and that and I was like curious what it is, because in Finland it wasn't very well known, so I was like, oh yeah, it's happy Saturday, and there's so many people, and everyone comes together, so it's nice to actually have it, and then in that year, they actually, like, there was, I saw this announcement on Facebook, that they were starting this Pokkinen parkrun here in Oulu, and I was like, oh, I should really go, so I went to the very first Pokkinen parkrun event as a runner, I think I quite quickly got involved in volunteering. Because I just love the community. Many of the people that are here have been there from the start. But of course we also get volunteers that just come every now and then. People change because some people move away or some people move to Oulu for studying or work. yeah i've done like more i think probably all volunteer roles that we have because we like we don't have all the roles but we never have marshals because we're usually quite limited in the number of people that we can get to volunteer uh so we usually like uh we have like the the obligatory ones timekeeper scanner tail walker and so on um and but not not not much extra let's say that but i probably after like three or four months I did my first time as an RD because So we don't have that many volunteers, like basically every row was sold out.

00:43:12Tony O'Connell: Well, look, I think we'll wrap it up there. I think it's time to go and get a coffee, the old parkrun post coffee. Thanks for chatting. Thanks for parkrun today. Thanks for making the rain stay away. You said you had a little bit of a drizzle, but out on the course, we didn't really notice it. It was beautiful to walk out past the saunas out on there and Enjoy, and thanks for your parkrun journey.

00:43:35[background music]

00:43:36Unidentified speaker: Thank you very much for visiting.

00:43:47Sarah Jefferson: And we are back from our roving reports. We actually didn't have any from Australia this week, Simon. We heard from Alison King, who visited Heijo Kyuseki Rishiki Koen parkrun. With Matt, I did not even realize that Matt was interviewed. Matt is my partner for those people in the pod who did not know that. So there you go. We had Matt, Hadley, Roberta Winters, and Alison, and of course myself. We're there on Greenery Day. So it was really great to hear Alison talk to Takayako Kawano, I think I pronounced that correctly, about this UNESCO World Heritage Design site representing Japan's ancient 8th century. As Matt went on to talk about, and I alluded to earlier, it is a four and a half lapper, but the palace is so incredibly stunning, Simon, that you actually get to view it multiple times. I guess, plus you continually see everyone on course, which was actually a pro of this multi-lapper. We heard from our very own, and we can totally call him that now, right? Johan, who visited West Coast Fossil Park, parkrun. Johan spoke to Leonie Vorster, who shared of her love of running and a little behind the history of this parkrun, which I found really fascinating. I just love the names of the parkruns in South Africa. They seem really intriguing to me. Johan also spoke to Pippa Harrell. And really interesting to hear that this parkrun has so many vertebrate fossils on the site dating back to 5 million years ago and including so many different species. So I thought that was quite incredible. I mean, it sounds like such a rich ecosystem previously and today. And our final roving report came to us from TOC at Pokkinen, ticking off the world's most northern parkrun in Finland. Tok spoke to... Katerina, the run director, and Simon, oh my goodness, there are floating saunas near this parkrun. Sorry. And I actually love that it's maintained by volunteers. What a great mix of reports we have to share with you this fortnight.

00:45:59Simon Mackley: Exactly. Yeah. And I love that idea of the saunas as well. But yeah, the West Coast Fossil Park was a very interesting list and I was intrigued by that as well. I think it's time we head over to Daz's. What do you think? Sounds good. We've chosen five comments from each of the last two weeks of Dazza's post.

Dazza's

00:46:17Sarah Jefferson: So on Saturday, the 23rd of May, Dazza said, it's National Volunteer Week in Australia. And this year's theme is, it's your year to volunteer. Dazza is curious. What's your favourite volunteer role at parkrun? And why do you love it?

00:46:33Simon Mackley: And we're kicking off with the first of 83 comments that were in there. We're only going to do five, though. So Ryan Stoddart was at Westerfold's parkrun in Victoria. He shared, today I did my first Melbourne parkrun. It was an adventure getting there, leaving Adelaide at 7.45pm on an overnight coach, arriving in Melbourne at 6am, then hopping on another bus to get to parkrun. It was great to catch up with fellow parkrun adventurers who were in the pick. So it was two Queenslanders, two Victorian statesmen and one Tasmanian statesman. Afterwards, I spent the day exploring the city, And now I'm on an overnight coach heading back to Adelaide. I'll arrive at 6am, giving me enough time to get to Thorndon Junior parkrun to do the course check, set up and marshal. Volunteering at juniors in any role is now my new favourite. And there was a picture of Ryan, Irene, Parth, Lance and Robin at Westerfolds parkrun. And you should have stayed on Ryan and collected the Westerfolds Junior parkrun volunteer too. Sounds like a crazy little adventure. Wondering why this event though. was it a Wilson number or you were just wanting to tick off your first Melbourne event? Hopefully all is going well with your travels on the road in South Australia.

00:47:48Sarah Jefferson: Yes, I was quite intrigued, Simon, as well, because we know we've heard on the pod before that Ryan is in South Australia. Supposedly he's travelled or he's going to be staying in South Australia for longer. So with his tourist streak, he actually needs to do some crazy adventures to another state to keep that running while he's staying there.

00:48:07Simon Mackley: Wow.

00:48:08Sarah Jefferson: So, yeah, that's dedication, isn't it? All right. Next, we heard from Michael Sharp at the Beaches parkrun in New South Wales. Michael wrote, I love taking photos. This pic today wasn't mine, but one of our parkrunners who found a Port Jackson shark washed up on the sand and carried it back into the water where it swam off. Today, I was timekeeper. Michael shared photographic evidence of the Port Jackson shark and what a beauty it was. Very pleased to hear that one of the parkrunners actually managed to get it back into the water in time for it to swim off. But what a beautiful experience. See, even though it's tough running on the beach, Simon, what a unique and incredible experience to have this while at parkrun. Thank you for your contribution to parkrun, Michael. You have a whopping 398 volleys to your name. So thank you for that.

00:49:01Simon Mackley: Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, that is definitely a very unique experience. Next, we heard from someone we know very well on the pod, Melissa Ellis. She was at Waikaree Wetlands parkrun in South Australia. And Mel said, drive 730 odd kilometres for a new event and bumped into adventurers Cherie and Jason. Bonus, sunrise. Bonus, silo out. Favourite volley roll has been an unofficial one, roving reporter and host of the parkrun Adventurers podcast. Second favourite roll was ED of Ainsbury Heritage Trail Junior parkrun and Ellis Palace parkrun during COVID. That definitely sounds like another wonderful adventure into South Australia, Melissa. And she shared a photo of Cherie and Jason Cottle with the course and the parkrun flags in the background. Sounds like a great adventure.

00:49:58Sarah Jefferson: We heard from Dan O'Connell at Bushy parkrun in the UK. Hello, pilgrimage. Dan shared, Hi, Dazza. My favourite volunteer role would be run director. It's fun to run an event between 200 to 300 people, but looks stressful at Bushy this morning with over 1,600 people. Between the triple funnels, The resident herd of deers and the sheer number of people, it's quite an operation. Dan shared a photo of himself in his adventurous shirt with the bushy pop-up and there is not a cloud in the sky by the looks. How incredible you have completed your pilgrimage, Dan. Summer has certainly arrived in the UK by the looks and you are the envy of many right now, Dan.

00:50:42Simon Mackley: Indeed he is. Next we heard from Helen Patricia from Woodlands Scarborough parkrun in the UK and Helen posted... My run group pals, the Rise and Shine Runners, did their second volunteering stint in our local parkrun. So proud of them. My favourite role is scanning, which I did today. It gives me a happy vibe. Also, I get VC role given for organising this. I think that must be volunteer coordinator. This gives me a proud parent kind of vibe. Helen posted a photo of 17 volunteers who made the event possible on Saturday. The sun was out and so were the smiles. Well done on organising everyone to volunteer. You should be so proud indeed. What a great initiative.

00:51:25Sarah Jefferson: Yes, you definitely earned that volunteer credit for sure. I'm sure teams are very excited to hear that you have 17 volunteers ready to go.

00:51:34Simon Mackley: We can also see that our club members are growing in the UK. However, our posts in the UK aren't growing at the same rate. This week, actually, we didn't have too many people posting overseas. We aren't sure if this is because there was lots of adventurers in the UK that have been away for the special days and are now returning. But please come into Daz's, even if it's your first time. Everyone is very friendly and we love to hear from you. We might even shout out your name. Don't be shy. Yes, so if you haven't posted in Daz's, this week might be your week.

00:52:04Sarah Jefferson: Jump on in. On Saturday, the 30th of May, Daz's said, Daz's favourite day of the year, without a doubt, it is International Potato Day. How good are potatoes? Was there a potato featured in your parkrun date? We'd love to hear about it.

00:52:21Simon Mackley: And we're kicking off with Sheree Martin, who was at Meadowbrook parkrun in Queensland, and she shared international potato date and parkrun. What a combo. No spuds for us, but I did introduce my gorgeous six-month-old granddaughter, Freya, to parkrun this morning. Mini RD vibes already. Coffee at the local followed with avocado on menu. I missed potato opportunity if there ever was one. And Cherie posted a collage of two photos, one of herself wearing the RD vest with the gorgeous Freya and another with Freya getting ready to attack her bowl of avocado. It's certainly never too early to start parkrun, is it, Cherie?

00:53:02Sarah Jefferson: No. A hash brown on the side would have made that brekkie complete, wouldn't it, Simon?

00:53:06Simon Mackley: Not bad.

00:53:08Sarah Jefferson: We heard from Renata Koch, who was at Fingal Bay parkruns. Renata said, it was Bingle Bay parkrun for me this morning. What a stunning course. Easily one of the prettiest parkruns I've ever done. parkrun Location 101, Aussie Event 79, New South Wales 60, Region of Runners 13 out of 17, Potatoes scheduled for lunch. And Renata shared a photo of herself with two others in the parkrun selfie frame. And I do hope that you enjoyed those potatoes for lunch.

00:53:40Simon Mackley: Yum.

00:53:40Sarah Jefferson: I wonder if Renata looked up to see if there was a koala in the tree. I know when I visited this course, I nearly tripped over my own feet as I was preoccupied searching for koalas in the tree above.

00:53:51Simon Mackley: But it sounds like a lovely weekend. And next we heard from Veronica Lightfoot, who was at West Coast parkrun in Singapore. And she shared Volunteer's Tail Walk at West Coast parkrun in Singapore. My last parkrun of my seven-week holiday where I did 10 parkruns starting in Ireland and finishing in Singapore. She posted a photo of herself in the tail walker vest at West Coast Park parkrun with a selfie frame. Sounds like an amazing time away ticking off 10 different parkruns, Veronica. Sounds like you got yourself some special days as well. Travel safely home.

00:54:26Sarah Jefferson: Yeah, sounds fabulous. We heard from Helen Rubin at Jindabyne parkrun in New South Wales. Helen wrote, Special parkrun today at Jindabyne. My nephew joined me at parkrun for the first time and it was also my third day. For International Potato Day, I bought a meat and potato pie at a country bakery. Helen shared a photo of herself and her nephew in the parkrun selfie frame. We can certainly notice the family resemblance, Helen. What a great idea to grab a meat and potato pie after parkrun to celebrate an important food and I'm going to say an entire food group actually.

00:55:03Simon Mackley: simon it is quite versatile the old potato isn't it definitely and next we heard from ian brown ian shared completed the mate 2026 challenge today with our eighth parkrun in may two in japan four in the netherlands and one each in denmark and germany five saturdays and three special days lots of potatoes consumed in the form of chips or frits and that is impressive effort ian um Congratulations.

00:55:35Sarah Jefferson: I guess for that, we'd need to carb load a bit, wouldn't you, Simon?

00:55:38Simon Mackley: 100%.

00:55:39Sarah Jefferson: Now, before we go into who's receiving the OB this week, Simon, what's your favourite way to eat potatoes?

00:55:44Simon Mackley: There are so many different ways. I'm a big fan of roasty or hash brown, but I've come across a new way to do it recently. I've been influenced by someone on one of the social medias. So we have a waffle maker here at home and I was encouraged to get these tiny little potatoes. You cook them first and then put them in the waffle maker. And then effectively you're making yourself a potato waffle. And then we put stuff on top of that. That sounds delicious. Like a potato toast almost. Exactly. Yeah, it's like a, yeah, kind of like a toasty. And we add a bit of cheese onto it, a little bit of butter. And yeah, like it crisps up like a waffle would.

00:56:25Sarah Jefferson: Yum.

00:56:25Simon Mackley: What about you?

00:56:26Sarah Jefferson: I honestly can't go past like hot chips. I love wedges. I love hot chips. I try not to, if we go out to dinner, I try not to get a meal that does have them or I try not to get them too often because I do really love them. But as you said, like there's so many different ways with potatoes and it's totally its own food group. I really am a believer in that. Versatile, that's for sure.

00:56:49Simon Mackley: Definitely.

the Obi Award — Veronica Lightfoot

00:56:50Sarah Jefferson: All right. I think the obi has just, the obi lobe has just landed in my email, Simon. And this week, the obi goes to Veronica Lightfoot. Congratulations, Veronica. Sounds like a fabulous holiday that you've had.

00:57:01[crosstalk]

00:57:06Simon Mackley: Yeah, I'm jealous of a lot of these people who've had these special days and been in Europe. Probably the better weather is coming now, though. So I guess we will see. And I can't wait to hear what TOC has to tell us in two weeks' time from his adventures as well.

00:57:21Sarah Jefferson: Agreed. Agreed.

00:57:23Simon Mackley: If we've given you a shout-out in Taz's today, send us an email or comment on the post on Facebook to let us know that you are actually listening to us, not just posting.

00:57:32Sarah Jefferson: All right. Moving on to emails.

You've got mail (listener emails)

00:57:34Simon Mackley: You've got mail.

00:57:35Sarah Jefferson: We have an email, Simon. And it says, hi, guys. just wanted to give you an overview on our recent trip to Japan for Greenery Day and three other events over 16 days. I started planning this trip over two years ago, and when we shared the details, we have over 400 people show interest. By the time it came around, we had just over 200 booked and ready to travel. Then the issues in the Middle East threw a spanner in the works. 32 of the group had to cancel flights a month before, and the price to rebook was nearly as much as the initial outlay. In the end, we had 174 in our group and about a dozen more join us as part of their extended vacations. The bullet train passing Mount Fuji and visiting Hiroshima were the top three non-parkrun things on most people's lists. We spoke to the events that we were attending 11 months earlier to make sure they were going ahead and they would be okay with us visiting in such a large number. Events such as Yuka Family Road had four finishes the week before we arrived. We more than tripled their attendance record to 117. By the last week, about one-third of our group had to head back home. That sort of number in the UK would be classed as a small event, but Yoshi, the ED, and his team were already set up when we arrived at 6.50am for the 8am start. We stayed in Kumamoto, about 35 kilometres away, and the public transport would not get us to the start on time, so I hired a couple of coaches. Overall, we broke the attendance and volunteer record at three events and helped beat the Japan national record on our first two parkrun days and the extra day.

00:59:30Simon Mackley: And because this was such a large email, I'm going to take over from here and finish it off. In Tokyo and Osaka, we had Mary Kay Gallagher, wife of the USA parkrun legend Tim Gallagher from Livonia, and finished tokens, and Keith Langdon as a timekeeper. We had lots of other volunteer roles filled by us. At Yodogawa, Kass and Cohen, Hirakata, Chiku parkrun, we had 20 of the group finish an alphabet of various denominations. We also converted at least a dozen of the group to listen to your pod, a sign up as one of their five clubs. Feedback from the events afterwards so heartwarming. They loved our visit and they had meetings before we arrived to plan how they were going to cope. We left every event with a selection of British confectionery as well. If anyone is thinking about parkrunning in Japan, just do it. Everything is safe, clean, organised and friendly. This was the largest group of tourists to travel to another continent for a parkrun, bidding last year's South Africa trip, which had 106. Planning has started for next April's South Africa and St Helena Island trip. where I need to borrow a plane to get 100 people to the island, which is where Napoleon had a holiday home, and we'll be having a group trip to New Zealand and Australia for Christmas slash New Year 2028. Keep up the great work. Andy and Deb Airy, A1083171. Wow, there's a lot in there, Simon. Sure is.

01:00:59Sarah Jefferson: How amazing. I love that Andy was in touch 11 months earlier and all of the records broken. It was great to hear that they took some British sweets as well. That's a really nice touch as well. And I mean, I said many of the same positive things about the events earlier on and you can just see how seriously they take things in Japan and wanting it to obviously be so perfect for all of these people coming to visit, setting up super early. I love that.

01:01:24Simon Mackley: Exactly. When you said 6.50 for an 8 o'clock start, I was like, yeah, that is exactly how it is.

01:01:30Sarah Jefferson: Absolutely. And yeah, crazy sounds like Andy is busy as ever, getting ready to plan a big trip for next year and planning his 2028 trip. So hopefully some adventurers can catch up with Andy and Debbie when they head over to Australia. And it is now time for us to throw to Reginald.

01:01:55[background music]

Club Corner

01:01:56Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III (pseudonym: This is Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III, with Club Corner, where we talk about the what and why of parkrun clubs, and I am coming to you from Arrernte country. Today is the 100th episode of Club Corner, so perhaps it is serendipitous for a Reginald reveal. Should one declare their physical form, or should one continue in the non-corporeal dot dot dot? First, let us be merry with joke corner number four. What word in the English language is always spelled incorrectly? Incorrectly. In Germany, they even have a sausage made out of other sausages. They are the worst of the worst. Oof. I am writing a book about all the things that one should be doing with one's life. It is an autobiography. Hmm, an autobiography... No, I do not think that I will reveal on the pod who I am. If you think you know who I am, feel free to send an email to parkrunadventurers at gmail.com with your speculation, and the team will revel in your astute observations. And then neither confirm nor deny anything winky face. And remember, in parkrun life, all non-milestone clubs are unofficial and unsupported by parkrun, so stay tuned for our future club corners.

Joke corner

01:03:05[background music]

Reginald

01:03:19Simon Mackley: Oh, Reginald, you are such a joker. So we are encouraging you, our dear listeners, to email us with your guess as to who you think the person behind Reginald actually is. We'd love to know who you think it is because we all know in the smaller pod presenter group that you would love to know who you think it is.

01:03:41Sarah Jefferson: Reginald's very clever and very cryptic. So I do wonder, yes, what we will hear. Simon?

01:03:48Simon Mackley: Mm-hmm.

Consolidated Club Report

01:03:49Sarah Jefferson: All right, rolling on to our Consolidated Club Report for Saturday the 30th of May. Of a total of 928 members, 646 took part on this date in 14 countries across 333 locations. Locally, there were adventurers at 57 events in New South Wales, 56 events in Queensland, 55 in Victoria, 19 events on the west side, 11 events in South Australia. Tassie had 10 events. ACT had five events. There was one adventurer in the Northern Territory, seven events on the North Island, and two events on the South Island. Internationally, there are adventurers at 80 events in the UK, eight events in South Africa, four events in Singapore, Three events in the Netherlands and the U.S. of A. Two events each in Austria, Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Norway. And one event each in Poland and Sweden.

01:04:56Simon Mackley: Not many countries we've missed there. I'm trying to work it out. Malaysia? Malaysia, Japan, Lithuania is what I'm thinking so far.

01:05:05Sarah Jefferson: Yeah, so there are a few missing.

01:05:07Simon Mackley: Yeah, there are a few. Okay, let's move on. We will go to our largest frond. And oh my gosh, I did not look ahead for this one. I'm going to say Wantij Park in the Netherlands. And there was Christopher Miles, Debbie and Andy Airy, Ellie Soper and Colin Hare. That was on the 23rd of May. And then on the 30th of May, probably no surprise to our UK listeners, it was a front of nine at Morden in the UK. And that was Stuart Henderson, Dave Thornton, Debbie Airy, Alexander Kington, Denise Evans, Louise and John Garrett, Danny Norman and Tina Drury. And that would have been for Darren's 1,000th event.

the Frond

01:05:51Sarah Jefferson: But Darren's name's not there, Simon. Yeah. He might have run 1,000 parkruns, but he's not an adventurer yet.

01:05:58Simon Mackley: Danny hasn't told him to do it yet. Maybe he has five affiliations already. We won't complain.

01:06:06Sarah Jefferson: On the 23rd of May, there were two people making their pilgrimage. They were Dan O'Connell, as we alluded to earlier, and Donna Markwick. So congratulations. And on the 30th of May, we also had an adventurer at Bushy. It was Wendy Smith. So congratulations to the three of you. Here we go.

01:06:27Simon Mackley: Sometimes we don't get any, and then we get three in two weeks. That's great. Moving on to our Aussie largest front. So on the 23rd of May, we had a front of seven at two events, and that was Penrith Lakes. And that was Sarah Brett, Sam and Luke Schroeder, Andrea Dayton, Linda Coe, Fiona Hinchcliffe and Vicenzo Coco, as well as Shellharbour, where there was Julie Wells, Joanna Trimby, David Foster, Julian Gordon-Turner, Amy Kent and Kristen McKenzie. And then last weekend, there was a Fronde of Seven again at two events. And actually, they're all in New South Wales. So Rhodes, which was Alana Troy, Ingrid Botha, Wayne Whiteley, Kathy Ray, Caleb, Timothy and Tabitha Amos. And that was the Octogenarians meetup. And then also seven at the Ponds, which was Jeff Robinson, Dennis Peden, Natalie Wilson, Manish Bindru, Kim Mahoney, Rosie Allo and Catherine Perotta.

01:07:34Sarah Jefferson: And this week we did have a special event day. on the 25th of May, and it was Whit Monday. Simon, if only the listeners could see what you're doing. You are partying, celebrating, cheering. I feel like I have a frog in my throat. Do you mind taking over the next section for me, please? I desperately need a drink of water.

01:07:57Simon Mackley: Oh, I can see them, sure. Sorry. Of a total of 928 members, 56 took part on this date at 10 events across the Netherlands. We had four people at Maksima parkrun, four at Golfut, there was one at Arpendonski Plus, there was two at Kagazum, three at Sjotebos, eight at Jelsterhut, four at Beatrix Park, eight at Oosterhut, five at Zuiderpark parkrun. and 17 at Hood Wurundjeri parkrun. I think that last one might be the new one that looks, the course actually looks like a windmill.

01:08:43Sarah Jefferson: Yes. Thanks for that. Gosh, I desperately needed a drink. I'm feeling much better now.

01:08:47[crosstalk]

01:08:48Simon Mackley: I'm going to stitch you up with this Polish launch coming up then. All righty. So, yeah, more adventurers travelling all over the place. So remember, if you are travelling, you can always send us a roving report especially if you're travelling to a destination to trip up the hosts. Like poor Sarah with her throat just then.

01:09:08Sarah Jefferson: That's right. But we didn't hear any Australian roving reports this week. So it's always great to hear, you know, some of the ground here in Australia. So you don't have to be on this, you know, huge European adventure or heading to a special day to, you know, pull your phone out, look in voice memos and send us some audio. And just remember, like Andy did above with all of his members, you can add the Adventurers Club as one of your five affiliations on your parkrun profile. Now, on the 23rd of May, there were five launches in five different countries. Karamu Stream parkrun launched in New Zealand. It is located in Havelock North, which is south of Napier on the North Island of New Zealand. There were 169 participants and 15 first-timers tackled this course, ably led by 13 volunteers.

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

01:09:57Simon Mackley: Right, back in Australia, there was Long Point parkrun launched in Western Australia, located in Port Kennedy, just south of Perth, between Rockingham and Mandurah. 153 participants on that launch with 10 first-timers and 18 volunteers.

01:10:15Sarah Jefferson: The next launch was Lingda. parkrun launched in Denmark with 159 participants. There were 24 first-timers and nine busy volunteers. The location of this parkrun is north of Copenhagen and sounds quite easy to get to from the capital.

01:10:34Simon Mackley: And next we move over to the UK where Pomeroy Forest parkrun launched with a tidy 100 participants, 17 first-timers and 18 volunteers. It's located west of Belfast. and southeast of Derry slash Londonderry and not far from Omaha.

01:10:53Sarah Jefferson: The next launch was in Japan. Unoki parkrun was launched with 155 participants, 41 first-timers and 27 volunteers. Unoki is located very close to Tokyo Haneda Airport between Tokyo and Yokohama. Only a few weeks too late for certain hosts to have gone there and achieve another U. That's okay. I was happy with my adventures there.

01:11:18Simon Mackley: Oh, no, I'm sure you were. And then on the 30th of May, there were five launches across five countries again, kicking off with Blair Lodge parkrun in Scotland. It launched with 15 participants, five volunteers, and 10 of those were first-timers to parkrun. Now, this is actually a closed event, so its location is unavailable. So, yeah, it's one of those events inside a correctional centre.

01:11:44Sarah Jefferson: The next launch is Kapusa Sea parkrun in Germany, located southwest of Berlin near Potsdam. There were 75 participants, 20 volunteers with 30 first-timers.

01:11:58Simon Mackley: And then moving over to Japan, Naegawa Koen parkrun in Japan, located north-northeast of Osaka. There were 78 participants, 25 volunteers and 10 first-timers.

01:12:11Sarah Jefferson: We have Owamaru Public. gardens parkrun in omaru new zealand hopefully i pronounce that okay located east of queenstown on the east coast above dunedin 117 people participated there were 19 volleys with 64 genuine first timers which is 55 percent not bad yeah that is a huge first timers amount and of course i have absolutely stitched myself up here with park zamkovi [Polish: "Castle Park (translated on air by Simon)"]

01:12:43Simon Mackley: which means Castle Park, in Żywiec in Poland. There were 144 participants, 25 volunteers and 32 first-timers.

01:12:54Sarah Jefferson: So a nice spread across different countries in terms of launches from the past fortnight.

01:12:59Simon Mackley: Yeah, most of them Northern Hemisphere because obviously they're coming into that weather. So, yeah.

01:13:05Sarah Jefferson: That would be expected. I now have two in Western Australia to complete. We've had two over the last two weeks. launch so lucky one should be my statesman one will be easy I won't race down there I'll give it a little bit of time to settle and then yes the other one is about 14 hour drive so they'll take a little bit more planning all right looking ahead Simon I would like to invite all of the listeners out there to give Mel some love and show a collective thank you to her to all that she has done for the pod So for the next fortnight, we invite you to include some black and white love hearts. We all know that she loves Collingwood Magpies. A lot of us don't, but I couldn't find a magpie emoji. So let's show her some love with some black and white love hearts when we're posting under the episode post on Facebook or when you are posting in Daz's. So that would just express some love and gratitude to Melissa.

01:14:06Simon Mackley: Thank you.

01:14:08Sarah Jefferson: All right, Simon, where are you headed next parkrun day?

01:14:12Simon Mackley: I'm actually undecided. I may volunteer. I was actually looking at some of the closer events to me, see if they need volunteers this weekend. Most of them didn't. So I may end up running and maybe trying to increase my re-index because I'm getting close to that target of 50 now. I think I'm on 47 now. So, yeah, I'm not far off. Yeah. Where are you headed?

01:14:36Sarah Jefferson: I'm going to head down to Rockingham parkrun for event 639. I'm actually going to a retreat this coming weekend. So I'm going to sneak out for a parkrun. When I was looking back at this, I've actually only visited Rockingham parkrun once, which is crazy. I thought I'd been there more than once. I haven't been there since the 19th of August in 2021. So it is certainly time for a return visit, I say.

01:15:03Simon Mackley: Definitely is. Thanks for the catch up. It's been an absolute treat having you back from Japan. As much as I enjoyed recording with Lyndell, it's nice to have you back in the hot seat.

01:15:14Sarah Jefferson: Thanks, Simon. It's nice to chat to you too and reminisce about holidays. But next week, Simon, or next fortnight, Lyndell and TOC will be back. And let's hope that TOC is over his jet lag after his incredible time away. And like you said before, I also can't wait to hear about all of his adventures. It's been a busy, busy time for TOC, that is for sure.

01:15:36Simon Mackley: It's been busy for all of us actually keeping up with where he is. True. And the paperwork.

01:15:41Sarah Jefferson: The paperwork in this office, honestly. There's papers everywhere. We need some order back.

01:15:47Simon Mackley: Piling up. We need the builder to come and organise it for us.

01:15:51Sarah Jefferson: A filing cabinet would be great. Yeah.

01:15:53Simon Mackley: Well, now that that mini fridge is gone, we could probably put another filing cabinet in. Anyway, as always, you can contact us via Parker and Adventurers on Facebook, or our email address, which is parkrunadventures at gmail.com. That's it for another episode. We'll see you all next time for more adventures. Here it is for the final time. Wait, scrap that. No more Collingwood magpies, I say.

01:16:10[outro theme playing]

01:16:17Unidentified speaker: Bye.

01:16:18Simon Mackley: Bye.