Episode 455 - Tantrums, Tears and Tribulations

Episode details · 222 speaker turns · sound cues from audio analysis

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

00:00:29Sarah Jefferson: Welcome to episode 455 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.

00:00:43Simon Mackley: And I'm Simon Mackley coming to you from Quandamooka country, Quandamooka Yarra Bindra.

00:00:49Sarah Jefferson: Kaya, Simon!

00:00:50Simon Mackley: Kaya, Sarah.

00:00:52Sarah Jefferson: Simon. Firstly, I need to say thank you so much for your patience already this evening. There's been tears. There's been a few tantrums and lots of tiredness. Not from me, of course, but from my toddler. But it's certainly been an afternoon here. So thanks for sticking by me through all of that.

00:01:08Simon Mackley: My pleasure. I could see that Hadley had very red cheeks. And when you told me that she was teething, I could totally empathise with that. So it is all very, very good.

00:01:20Sarah Jefferson: Yes, it's hard. I've also been at work today. So it's quickly come in, say a quick hello and then disappear. Didn't go so well for me this evening. Yeah, this is life. That's right. All right, let's get straight into it. What have you been up to in the past month?

00:01:35Simon Mackley: So I have actually only run one parkrun in the past four weeks. So I started off with the 10k race at the Gold Coast Marathon weekend on Friday. Saturday in early July. And what a supportive and amazing weekend. I saw Eman out on the course when I really needed to see him. So I can't remember how many Ks in I was, but I was starting to falter a bit. It was quite warm by the time I got to where he was. And I saw another one of our listeners as well. That was Tony, who was from Redland Bay parkrun. He called out to me. Then the next weekend, this is when I actually did my parkrun. I went to Robelle Domain in Springfield. That was to increase my p-index to 48. So as I've mentioned on the pod before, I'm trying to get to my 50th re-index by the end of the year. So I am getting close to the target. I ran a course PB and then I went out and did part of the second part of the course with fellow ambassador Matt, who actually looks after Rebel Domain. Then two weekends ago, I was so knocked about with a cold and decided to search around on Friday. to see who needed a volunteer around my local ones. And I was lucky enough to find a Marshall position at Fodder Forest, which was quite good. I haven't Marshalled at Fodder Forest before. And then last weekend, I was Marshall again, but this one was well planned out. I was at Pallara parkrun to celebrate their eighth birthday. and to say goodbye to their co-ed brian who is moving to the mornington peninsula and he'll be making rosebud his his home parkrun but yeah he's driving down on wednesday so yeah a bit of a volunteer and outside of parkrun event month yeah well simon congratulations on your gold coast nk it did sound like it it took quite a lot out of you in the end giving you

00:03:21Sarah Jefferson: you know fell sick not too long after and great that you saw Eman out on course as well I know he was pacing the three-hour marathon group which is just insane that his fitness I know it's next level but pacing the three-hour marathon group but most importantly I hope that you're feeling a little bit better now I'm feeling better I'm Carolyn now has it as well really badly but yeah like I've still got the cough and the sniffles and that sort of thing but I'm

00:03:46Simon Mackley: I'm definitely feeling better than I did two weekends ago, that's for sure. But what about you, Sarah? Where have you been?

00:03:52Sarah Jefferson: So since we last caught up on the pod, I have got two or four parkruns. So I did three repeat events and I did clock a new event. I checked out Korean Glades parkrun, which I mentioned I was headed to in the last pod. Now there was actually a beautiful fairy garden, which I've actually not seen before along the path. And it's in an old tree stump. So there were lots of kids stopping to check it out, little fairy figurines and little toadstools. So that was really nice to see. The following week, I visited Bibra Lake. parkrun and caught up with a friend. And following week, I did head home to Cottesloe to notch that up to 90 visits now. So I am still aiming for 10 more visits this year, and I am still optimistic that I can get that done. However, the past weekend, I headed down to what was Western Australia's newest parkrun. Well, it was until the Saturday just gone, Long Point parkrun.

00:04:49Unidentified speaker: It was their 10th event, and it's located approximately 60 kilometres southwest of Perth.

00:04:55[background music]

00:04:55Sarah Jefferson: And I actually recorded some audio on the morning with Steve Howe, who was the run director on the day. So we'll throw to that now so you can have a listen. Good morning, parkrun Adventurers. It's Sarah here from the west side, and I am at Long Point parkrun for Event 10. And I am here with the Run Director, Steve Howe. Good morning, Steve.

00:05:22Steve Howe: Good morning. How are you?

00:05:24Sarah Jefferson: I'm good. We had a great morning. The sun is shining, so thank you.

00:05:27Steve Howe: Gorgeous day, isn't it?

00:05:29Sarah Jefferson: It is.

00:05:29Steve Howe: And welcome to our parkrun.

00:05:30Sarah Jefferson: Thank you so much. You did mention kangaroos. I didn't see any kangaroos on course.

00:05:34Steve Howe: So me and Rob went out and ran the course beforehand just to check that it was all good. And we saw about a dozen kangaroos that were out there first thing. Just as sunrise. It was very, very beautiful. Beautiful.

00:05:46Sarah Jefferson: Can I please get you to describe the course for the listeners, please?

00:05:49Steve Howe: Okay, so this is a fairly straightforward course. It's all on sealed tracks. It's right by the beach. We start at Long Point parkrun, sorry, at Long Point Car Park. So we've got toilets and everything else here. It's just a two and a half K out and back, fairly flat. um quite child friendly push to friendly so yeah and you run past i saw the new brewery we do we go past long point brewery which is just open which is fantastic and we've got birdies here so we've got a cafe for cooked breakfast and coffee nice

00:06:17[crosstalk]

00:06:27Sarah Jefferson: Can you swim here? You can.

00:06:28[crosstalk]

00:06:29Steve Howe: You can swim. It's a pretty nice beach. So a little bit cold for that right now. But when we get into the summer months, we'll absolutely be out there.

00:06:41Sarah Jefferson: Now, I hear that you're involved a little bit in the setup of this parkrun. Can you tell us a little bit about how that went, how long that took?

00:06:48Steve Howe: sure so this one was actually reasonably straightforward i've been talking about kicking off a parkrun at this location for about the last 18 months because i'm building a house about 500 meters down the road oh i love that um but jesse our event director got in and put the paperwork in he was a regular at rockingham parkrun which is getting quite large now 350 400 on a regular basis um so felt that there was you know now was the time to get a new parkrun and kind of dilute out the numbers and make it a little bit safer. So myself, Jesse and Jennifer, who's our area rep for parkrun here, got together, got the ball rolling with the council. The council are really supportive here in the city of Rockingham. This is the third parkrun in Rockingham city. So they're really, really behind us, really helped us out, took us through that process. That was quite straightforward. And As you'll no doubt know, we need to come up with a decent chunk of money to get our parkrun off the ground. The land developers here sponsored the parkrun and came up with all of that money because they felt that it was a good community engagement piece. um because there's a lot of houses being built in this area right now yes awesome i did notice uh yeah not too far away yeah the housing development so you're building a house yeah so um a lot of new families a lot of younger families um so this this is quite a nice flat sealed course and and that was you know we've got quite a family vibe here which is quite nice

00:08:09[crosstalk]

00:08:27Sarah Jefferson: Yeah, definitely a nice vibe this morning. Now, you also mentioned that you're run director and I think event director at Tamworth Wetlands parkrun.

00:08:35Steve Howe: Yeah, I'm event director at Tamworth Wetlands Up the Road, which is the best parkrun in WA.

00:08:39[crosstalk]

00:08:40Sarah Jefferson: Heard it here first.

00:08:41Steve Howe: Yeah, it's trail, it's shaded, it's just next to Baldivis Shopping Centre. Absolutely fantastic event team, you know, really great group of people, nice community vibe.

00:08:54Sarah Jefferson: Yeah, nice. So you are...

00:08:55Steve Howe: quite involved in parkrun i guess you do a little bit of volunteering then i'm a little bit of an obsessive yes and what about an adventurer i am a little bit of an adventurer i am five parkruns away from wa statement statesman so a little bit obsessive

00:09:10Sarah Jefferson: So we've got, I think, 63 as of today, parkruns in Western Australia. Can you tell me your top three? Now, on this podcast, you're not supposed to talk about your home parkrun.

00:09:21Steve Howe: Not supposed to talk about my parkrun. Well, obviously, Tamworth Wetlands is the best parkrun in WA. But I am quite a big fan of Mundy because it's a little goat track. That one's obviously the hardest parkrun in Australia. Hands down. Agreed. It's a bit of a goat track. A little bit crazy. The South Perth looks like a pretty good one. And I'm a really big fan of Applecross. Applecross is quite nice. But I think my favourite down here, other than Tamworth Wetlands, which obviously is the best one, would be Jarrahdale. Oh, yes. Yeah, so Jarrahdale's really nice, reasonably close to here. Nice trails, really, really nice team. Great places to go for breakfast afterwards. Yes. Because you need somewhere for a decent coffee, right?

00:10:08[crosstalk]

00:10:10Sarah Jefferson: Yes, yes, exactly. And that is a beautiful community feel to that parkrun. Now, I hear you've also had some crazy adventures to get to doing all these parkruns in Western Australia. Would you like to share maybe one or two of your crazy stories, please?

00:10:24Steve Howe: So the only real crazy one was Karratha. I flew up to Karratha recently and hadn't really checked the weather.

00:10:32Sarah Jefferson: Oh dear.

00:10:33Steve Howe: And a cyclone came through. Oh dear. So not only did I get stuck there for three days waiting for the cyclone to pass before I could get a flight home, but they cancelled parkrun. So I didn't get to do parkrun, which was a bit of a shame.

00:10:43[crosstalk]

00:10:46Sarah Jefferson: And there is not much to do in Karratha, is there? No.

00:10:49Steve Howe: It's a very beautiful place. Absolutely fantastic. Very welcoming people up there. But there is not a whole heap to do.

00:10:55[crosstalk]

00:10:55Sarah Jefferson: Well, I guess when there's a cyclone as well, you can't really do anything.

00:10:58Steve Howe: There's even less to do.

00:10:59Sarah Jefferson: There's even less to do. Oh, no. It's an expensive weekend.

00:11:01Steve Howe: It certainly was. But went up to Kananara recently. The team up at Kananara were absolutely lovely. Very, very welcoming. And they let me run direct the second week that I was up there. Oh, wow. So that was really nice.

00:11:10[crosstalk]

00:11:12Sarah Jefferson: So you've run directed at three that we know of. Is there any other...

00:11:16Steve Howe: places that you've run directed at? No, I think that's it. But I've volunteered a whole bunch.

00:11:22Sarah Jefferson: Amazing. Is there anything else that you'd like to share about this course or your journey of parkrun, I guess?

00:11:27Steve Howe: Oh, look, I think... parkrun's just got a really, really nice community vibe. And the thing for me is being part of a community and getting to know people. And, you know, I'm a blow-in from the UK. We can hear the accent. I welcome you. But it's a nice way to get to know people. It's a nice way to be part of the community and part of the running community. Definitely.

00:11:39[crosstalk]

00:11:50[crosstalk]

00:11:52Sarah Jefferson: And great when you move places, as you say. You can, yeah, make new friends.

00:11:56Steve Howe: ready-made group of people that you can kind of hook in with.

00:11:58Sarah Jefferson: Yeah. Well, the last thing, have you done Bushy parkrun?

00:12:01Steve Howe: I have not done Bushy parkrun, but we are planning on going back to see family next year in the UK. So Bushy will definitely be on the agenda if I can get there from Cornwall.

00:12:12Sarah Jefferson: So it sounds like Bushy parkrun next year and WA Statesman next year.

00:12:16[crosstalk]

00:12:16Steve Howe: Yeah, I reckon so. Awesome, big year of parkrun for you. And also I'm going to try and get to a Zed, probably in Holland, because it's less drama to get to Holland than it is to the ones here in Australia.

00:12:22[crosstalk]

00:12:27[crosstalk]

00:12:27Sarah Jefferson: Crazy to fly halfway around the world and go to one in the same country, right? Yeah. Oh, well, thank you. Thank you for volunteering this morning.

00:12:32[crosstalk]

00:12:34Simon Mackley: And welcome to our parkrun.

00:12:35Sarah Jefferson: Thank you. It's a lovely parkrun.

00:12:37Simon Mackley: Thank you. Well, that was a great rundown of one of WA's newest parkruns. I love it when a councillor's behind getting more parkruns started in the area. I had a look at Steve's stats as I was a little interested to see how an ED could also be a WA statesman. And his volunteer ratio is a whopping 87%. So he's done 166 parkruns and 146 volunteers. So Steve mentioned South Perth as one of his favourites. Where do you think he meant, Sarah?

00:13:07Sarah Jefferson: Yes, so he would have actually been referring to Sir James Mitchell parkrun. So this is a problem, isn't it, Simon, as we've talked about on the pod before? Yeah. that I knew exactly where he meant, I knew where the suburb was, but for someone who's not a local, having a city or a town or a suburb not listed in the parkrun name can be a little bit problematic in terms of locating it, but he would have been referring to Sir James Mitchell parkrun. He's actually running... opposite perth cbd and along the river as is apple cross so i know he referred to that one as well so it seems that steve yeah is quite partial to these courses that we have by the river in perth and another thing that i really liked when i was speaking to steve it's so refreshing to hear and i know i've heard of a few courses as well with housing developers throwing money at getting a parkrun up and up and running. So, you know, Steve's house 500 metres away. It's amazing. And there's going to be so many people and families, you know, living there. So hopefully that can foster some more community and, you know, reducing, you know, traffic as well. It's really great. Dare I say these housing developers make enough money. So it's great that they're putting some money back into community, I say.

00:14:16Simon Mackley: Well, Stockland used to be a sponsor of parkrun many years ago. So They had that initiative that they were going to put parkruns in all of their new developments. And it's a good thing for the developer to say, you know, we have a parkrun. Like it's a bit of cross-pollination, I guess. I think it's great. Let's jump into some episode feedback. There wasn't a heap. A couple of things that have come forward. Obviously, Palm, the date and the location has now been announced. So if you've missed it, we are going to Burley Griffin parkrun on the... was it the 20th of March? Yeah. So we are looking forward to seeing as many people as possible coming along to that. Simon, have you booked your flights yet? No, no, I haven't. Let's just see how my employment status goes further down the track.

Episode feedback

00:15:04Sarah Jefferson: Fair enough. Well, I haven't, if it makes you feel better, I haven't booked mine yet either. Not because Like I will be there. I'm not sure of my work days for next year. So they've just put a call out and I've put that in and submitted that this week. So as soon as I know if Friday happens to be a work day, I might have to, I don't know, I'll just have to shuffle a few things and whether it means like we might stay on a little bit longer. But if I had to work Monday, we'll have to come home earlier. So we'll just see. I'm tracking, but I haven't booked either.

00:15:33Simon Mackley: I think I'll probably have to, like now that you've said that, I'm going to have to book my flights and probably hold some accommodation, maybe booking.com and get that locked away with a free cancellation and that sort of thing.

00:15:44Sarah Jefferson: I think it's a good idea to always book earlier if you can, definitely. So another positive is that we have seen that people have started receiving their merchandise, which is really exciting. We've also heard that some people have received some packing labels saying the hunting lady is sending a package. So if you've received one of those messages, that's where our merch is actually coming from. I actually haven't got mine yet and I haven't received a packing label either. But it seems like people who have ordered the caps and the hats are actually getting their orders a little bit earlier than others. I did order a hoodie as well, so that's probably slowing it down on my end. But what about you, Simon? Have you got yours yet?

00:16:28Simon Mackley: I ordered a hat and a hoodie as well, but I did get my email with the label, like the shipping label or whatever, from the hunting lady this morning. No idea how long it'll take to arrive, but I understand from the office lady that it's actually ahead of schedule. that it's actually coming out. So that is good news.

00:16:45Sarah Jefferson: Definitely. So in some parkrun news, Festival Green parkrun will be joining the parkrun family in late August, which is exciting. So what I hear you say, or why are they announcing launches? Well, this will actually be parkrun's first location in the Caribbean on Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands. So it's actually launching with a lot of support from the Ministry of Health, Environment and Sustainability's Step into Wellness campaign. I didn't know if this will actually be the only place in the world to have a 6.30am start for parkrun, March through to October. It will be a 7am start, November through to February to account for the later sunrise. So that's really exciting, Simon. We're getting another country flag to parkrun. We are.

parkrun news bulletin

00:17:35Simon Mackley: We are indeed. First one in the Caribbean. And yeah, let's hope that there's many more to come in the Caribbean because there's a lot of Commonwealth nations there, as we're seeing on the Commonwealth Games at the moment.

00:17:47Sarah Jefferson: Yeah, certainly. So watch this space, I hear you say. Yes, indeed.

00:17:51Simon Mackley: And next, we've got some news. So congratulations to friend of the pod, Em Nico, who celebrated 10 years as the event director of Kira parkrun on the southern end of the Gold Coast. So I'm sure many of you have met Em at a palm somewhere or have had the pleasure of completing Kira parkrun.

00:18:11Sarah Jefferson: Thank you, Em, for your hard work over those 10 years. All right, Simon, let's get into our stats for this fortnight.

Fortnightly attendance and milestone stats

00:18:18Simon Mackley: All right. We will start across the ditch, as we always do. So parkrun New Zealand attendance and milestone stats for the 18th of July. There were 75 parkruns with 11,489 parkrunners. 1209 volunteers. The biggest New Zealand parkrun was Hagley in 691, as it normally is. The smallest was East Otago High School with 15, and the closest to the weekly average of the week of 153 was Pegasus with 158. Then last weekend on the 25th of July, there were 75 events again. There were only 8,025 parkrunners, but a similar amount of volunteers as 1,214. The biggest New Zealand parkrun was Waitangi with 346. which is about half of what Hagley had the previous week, but Hagley came in second. The smallest was East Otago High School again, also 15 from last week. Closest to the week average of 107 was the University of Waikato with 108.

00:19:28Sarah Jefferson: Back in Australia on the 18th of July, 60,990 participants enjoyed parkrun. Of those, 7,031 volunteered at 554 events with 17,737 first timers. Juniors data was unavailable at time of recording. On this date, the smallest parkruns included Railway Park with four, Puckapunyal with five, Kerrang Regional and Waterloo Plains with seven. The largest parkruns were South Bank with 580, The Pond, 589, and Albert Melbourne with 785. On the 25th of July, about 10,000 extra people were added. So 70,789 people participated in parkrun with 7,042 volunteers at 555 events. In junior events, all five operated with 401 youth being guided by 106 people. The smallest parkruns were ZN Golf Club with two, Railway Park with four, Chaferley Park with five. And the largest parkruns were Rhodes with 639, the Ponds 672, and once again, Albert Melbourne with 728. All right, Simon, I think I'm going to give my voice a rest and we might throw to some roving reports.

Roving Adventurers (roving reporter crossovers)

00:21:02Ingrid: This is Ingrid and I've had a lovely morning at Chipping Norton parkrun. I'm here with a special guest and I'll get Paul to introduce himself.

00:21:10Paul Power: Yeah my name is Paul Power and I'm involved with Sanctuary Runners Australia which is a new running and walking group that's been started just in March this year which brings together people who are quite new to Australia with Australians of all backgrounds and you know I'm involved with the Refugee Council of Australia and we've been involved in bringing the Sanctuary Runners idea to Australia. It's actually based on a movement which is very successful and widespread in the Republic of Ireland and there were 42 local groups around Ireland have been running since 2018 to connect people who are refugees and migrants and asylum seekers who are new to Ireland with Irish people through running and walking and yeah it's a We've started in March at Auburn Botanic Gardens parkrun. I've got a team of runners getting ready for the city to surf and today we went to Chipping Norton parkrun for the first time as a group.

00:22:09Ingrid: Yeah, so I was listening to the podcast from last week on the way out here and I heard Ali Shepherd mentioning Irish group and I thought what a coincidence so I needed to get some audio. So why parkrun?

00:22:19Paul Power: Well, because I'm a mad parkrunner myself, later this year I'll reach the 250 milestone and perhaps even the 50 volunteer milestone. So, yes, I've been encouraging people to join the parkrun sect for years. But the, yeah... The whole idea of a group that's reaching out to people who are quite new to the country, many people who are newly arrived refugees or migrants, being able to pay lots of money to participate in fun runs and whatever, is a little bit beyond... people's means, but to be able to participate in a community-run volunteer event which is free, and to actually join a running and walking group which is also free, removes barriers that people might have to getting involved. Yeah, so I mean parkrun's a fantastic movement and really what we're trying to do is to actually bring new people to parkrun and particularly people who don't know very much about or are unaware of the parkrun movement and probably haven't been involved in running in this form. It's a fantastic way, as we all know, of getting exercise, good for your physical health, good for your mental health and for people who are new to Australia, a fantastic way to make connections.

00:23:44Ingrid: So tell me about your parkrun story. How did you find parkrun?

00:23:47Paul Power: Well, a friend of mine mentioned it to me. I live near Camden and a friend in Camden said, oh, there's been a parkrun started, you know, a few months ago in Camden. I didn't know what parkrun was about. I'd been involved in a bit of running. I'd taken up running a bit late in life, probably my early 50s. So I thought, well, I'll go along and have a look at Camden parkrun. It was fantastic and also discovered Picton parkrun because I live just as close to Picton. It's a flatter course. I can do faster times. Slightly smaller number of people there. So I've been a regular visitor to Camden and a regular at Picton parkrun since about 2019. And I haven't missed too many weeks, actually. So I got into the cult pretty quickly.

00:24:35Ingrid: Fabulous. It's not a cult. It totally is. But we all do know that so many of us know the connection that it does give you to community. So it's fabulous that you've got that and been able to bring your crew to be able to have that same connection to community. So you guys have been running at Auburn, but you're at Chipping Norton. Are you planning to continue at Auburn or visit different parkruns?

00:24:58Paul Power: Yeah, we're making it up as we go along. We're going to be back at Auburn next week. In fact, we've also encouraged the Assyrian Run Club, which is a new run club for the community of Assyrians who are originally from Iraq and Syria. It's a fairly significant community in the Fairfield area of Sydney. They're coming along to Auburn parkrun to run with us next week. And we'll probably continue at Auburn for a while, but we're also looking at opportunities to develop groups in other parts of Sydney where there are a lot of people who are new to Australia. uh yeah and also ones that are close to transport because we're realizing that people who are newest to the country still haven't um got themselves established enough to have uh you know to have cars so um relying on public transport and getting to parkrun it's a bit of a challenge because the best courses are not necessarily um close to railway stations so uh yeah but Our hope is to be able to develop a few groups in Sydney over time. We're also talking to friends in Hobart and Adelaide and Melbourne about establishing groups in areas there which are close to where newly arrived refugees and migrants are living. We've also got interest in Darwin and Brisbane. So, and very, very open to anyone else who would like to support us. I mean, yeah, basically our mission is to get people involved in running and walking who might not otherwise do so. Yeah, with a particular focus on people who are new to the country.

00:26:32Ingrid: How do people get in contact with you if they're interested?

00:26:35Paul Power: Well if you Google Sanctuary Runners Australia it'll take you to a page on the Refugee Council of Australia website and the information is there and people can register and connect with us. As I say we're interested in hearing from people around Australia who would be interested in helping us to develop similar groups in other places. All the information is there, and just like parkrun, it's free to participate. We're really, really thankful for the great support that we've had from parkrun directors and volunteers, because we've been to a number of places to scout out options beforehand, always been really well received. The team at Auburn Botanic Gardens are fantastic. They're really, really welcoming. It's such a positive movement. It's great to be part of it.

00:27:27Ingrid: So I've got a group of people here who are Sanctuary Runners and I just thought I'd ask you guys, how did you get involved with Sanctuary Runners?

00:27:35Unidentified speaker: So I saw a post on LinkedIn from Paul Power from the Refugee Council Australia because I work in migration research and I thought it sounded like a really great initiative and I could see that it was really popular in Ireland and I thought it'd be great if we could get something off the ground here as well.

00:27:48Unidentified speaker: Hi my name is Zyngren, I've been working in refugee health for a couple of years now and I was at the recent refugee trauma agency conference and Paul got up on stage and was promoting this initiative and I think running is a great way to meet people and build community and I know personally how great it's been for my mental health. So I think it's a wonderful way to help bring people into the fold who are newly arrived here in Australia and especially who've come from a refugee background and looking to build community and find their feet as well. So I think it's a great way and encourage everyone to come down and check it out.

00:28:26Angela: I'm Angela, I work in health and I work in Western Sydney so a lot of my patients I interact with come from migrant backgrounds and include a lot of refugees and when I saw and heard from my friend Leah that the Sanctuary Runners were starting up in Sydney, I'm a runner and I'm a committed parkrunner, I thought what a brilliant way to try and help people to meet others but also to keep fit because the infrastructure is there. It's really good for your mental health to be out in the daylight, to be among people and among community. There's a real sense of community in parkrun and I thought it's what a perfect way to bring things together so I wanted to show some support and come along.

00:29:01Alison Fraser: Kia ora koutou adventurers, it's Alison here across the ditch and this morning I've come to Warkworth Showgrounds parkrun in the town of Warkworth north of Auckland and with me is today's event director and run director Michael Jenkinson so welcome to the pod Michael. Thank you. Can you tell us about how has Walkworth finally got a parkrun? [Te Reo Maori: "Hello / greetings to you all, adventurers"]

00:29:22Michael Jenkinson: Well, as you know, I've been event director for Western Springs for nine years, but I've moved up more local to Warkworth, so I really wanted to set up a parkrun. And I was at Northern Pathway, and I met a guy there who was from Warkworth, and he was interested in setting up a parkrun, and he knew a lot of the runners here. And he said he wasn't keen to be the leader, and I said, Well, I'm keen, so I'll put my hand up if no one else wants to. And so that's how we sort of started the inkling of it. And there's a very good running community here in Walkworth. We've got a big WhatsApp group and there's a lot of runners. They organise a lot of things. So first up, we put a little bit of a post saying, hey, we want to set up a parkrun. Would anyone be interested? Within an hour, 22 people put their hands up to help out and, you know, to get it started. So it was really awesome.

00:30:21[crosstalk]

00:30:21Alison Fraser: Definitely crying out for a parkrun then.

00:30:23Michael Jenkinson: Definitely crying out for a parkrun.

00:30:25Alison Fraser: Can you describe the course for us today? Just like what's the setting here? What can people expect if they listen and come for a look?

00:30:34Michael Jenkinson: I've never run the course, but I've walked it, obviously, to wheel out the distance. It's all on gravel path. It's around a sports ground. There's a bit of a hill that you've got to do a couple of times and you get quite a good view of the whole sports complex and sports grounds. um coming up the hill and then on the way back you get a nice an alternate view of the bush and and the tracks and and because we're running right next to the bush it's really nice i really like it yeah even though it is a bit of a hill for that view once you're at the top it is so beautiful to see the sports ground below and you can

00:31:05[crosstalk]

00:31:13Alison Fraser: you know, see the parkrun and people finishing or the volunteers getting the finish ready. So yeah, I enjoyed that bit.

00:31:17[crosstalk]

00:31:20Michael Jenkinson: Yeah. Well, you know, with the out and back course, it's always awesome, eh? Because you get to see all the other runners come back and and, you know, as you're heading out or the other way around. Yeah.

00:31:29[crosstalk]

00:31:31Alison Fraser: So very sociable.

00:31:32Michael Jenkinson: Yeah, it is very sociable. And the other thing is we're having Sheep World as our cafe. And Sheep World is run by a charity organisation which supports youth in the community. So it's a really good community thing. They are a wraparound service for youth counselling. They look for jobs for them and really good support. So it's a really good thing that they've got on board with us and helping us support our parkrun as well. Yeah.

00:31:59Alison Fraser: So it sounds like a win-win because you're supporting youth with parkrun and for them to be active in a non-competitive environment, you know, with people of all ages, but then that cafe aspect as well.

00:32:11Michael Jenkinson: Yeah, yeah, it's really good.

00:32:14Alison Fraser: Now I know you, Michael, I've known you for quite some time, so I know you do like to do a bit of parkrun tourism yourself. I do. You are an adventurer. So without too much thought and not naming either Western Springs or this your new home parkrun, Can you think of three amazing experiences you've had at parkrun and where they might be?

00:32:35Michael Jenkinson: Well, my favourite, and I'm not paying favourites here, but this is my favourite, is the Rotorua one. You know, running through the thermal park is just amazing.

00:32:49Alison Fraser: No money exchanged hands for that, by the way.

00:32:51Michael Jenkinson: Yeah, every time we're in Rotorua, we have to do it. It's just so good. Other parkruns...

00:33:03Alison Fraser: or any trips that might stand out for other reasons?

00:33:06Michael Jenkinson: Well, being parkrun obsessive, I got up at 2am one morning and drove from Auckland to New Plymouth and did the New Plymouth parkrun. And it was really awesome. The cafe and the people afterwards, and plus the course and the views. Did you see the mountain? Yes. Oh, so lucky. Yes, we got to see the mountain. It was really good. And then after coffee, I drove all the way back to Auckland. So that's my longest road trip in one day. So I'm at 47 New Zealand events and I'm really wanting to try and knock a few more off this year.

00:33:22[crosstalk]

00:33:45[crosstalk]

00:33:47Alison Fraser: We're growing so rapidly.

00:33:49Michael Jenkinson: Yeah, we are.

00:33:49Alison Fraser: Which is this, number 73, 74? 73.

00:33:52Michael Jenkinson: And then we've got another Auckland one starting next month as well.

00:33:56Alison Fraser: That's right. So yeah, listeners can keep an ear out for that one.

00:33:56[crosstalk]

00:33:59Michael Jenkinson: So it'll be 14 parkruns across Auckland.

00:34:01Alison Fraser: Yeah.

00:34:01[crosstalk]

00:34:01Michael Jenkinson: Yeah, it's fantastic. It is.

00:34:03Alison Fraser: Because Western Springs, the one that you were originally [event director] for, was number three for Auckland.

00:34:09Michael Jenkinson: It was number three, yeah.

00:34:10[crosstalk]

00:34:10Alison Fraser: Yeah, so we've come a long way. Yes, we have come a long way.

00:34:13Michael Jenkinson: Yeah. And we started at Western Springs with just 50 runners. So for the first six months, you know, it was just a small number. And look at it now. It's really growing. parkrun across New Zealand has just taken off. It's so cool.

00:34:25[crosstalk]

00:34:28Alison Fraser: I don't know what token I got today. I'll have a look at the picture I snapped later on. But it seemed like whoever was here has had a really good time. So congratulations on a successful launch. Thank you. Apart from the little mud at the end.

00:34:36[crosstalk]

00:34:40Michael Jenkinson: Yes, we had a few people slip over. We had to move the course over a little bit, the finishing thing to stop it.

00:34:42[crosstalk]

00:34:46Alison Fraser: All right, well, I'm off for coffee. So thanks very much, Michael.

00:34:49Eman Vergara: Okay, you're welcome.

00:34:54Rio: morning parkrun adventurers this is iman uh joining me today at the ponds parkrun is co-event director rio uh rio how was your morning today hi good morning emmanuel it is really good i mean um parkrun is always my saturday morning ritual and tradition it's really great to be at parkrun every saturday especially this morning you're here

00:35:17Eman Vergara: Yeah, it was a fun morning. I had a nice walk run with Juno, who had a big personal best, and Christine ran today. A beautiful morning in the ponds. Tell me, Rio, how did you start the event? I understand with your co-event director, Tarina.

00:35:35Rio: yeah it was like a history it started with a small newspaper article i found in the newspaper and then i contacted the head office the telephone number and yeah i searched in website and i saw there's a parkrun at the paramata i went there and i saw i i saw the atmosphere the community feel the happiness of everyone i felt like i was at a home running at Parramatta and that clicked me. And I said, oh, we should bring this at the Ponds. And 11 years ago, we're here at the Ponds.

00:36:15Eman Vergara: Yeah, and I think over those 11 years, we've seen the Ponds grow into one of the biggest parkrun events in terms of participants every week. Why do you think there's so much attractiveness to people doing the Ponds parkrun?

00:36:31Rio: I think I'm biased, but I will say, yeah, we have a very friendly community here at the Ponds. And the location is perfect. It's at the heart of a big and fast-growing community, the Ponds. And I think everyone is enjoying the atmosphere. You could see that we have like 80 years old. We have four years old. We have people, the prompts, dog. It's like a family event. That's inviting everyone and we're welcoming everyone as well, regardless of their ability, culture, their interest. We have like seasoned athletes here, the triathletes. And we also have like a massive walkers, park walkers. So this is like, I could feel that everyone is welcome at the ponds and they keep coming and we welcome them every week.

00:37:28Eman Vergara: Yeah, that's great to hear, Rio. And I guess a couple of those points really lent itself to the next question is, you know, what does parkrun mean to you?

00:37:37Rio: parkrun is life for me. For 11 years, I mean, I have a very stressful job and I don't think I will survive without parkrun. Every Saturday, this is my stress reliever, my fit. It was really on the ground and I could feel the renewal and revival of myself at parkrun. This is life for me.

00:38:06Eman Vergara: That's awesome. And then just to round it up, I know we were talking about some of the parkruns that you do outside of the ponds. Can you tell us a couple of memorable parkruns that you've enjoyed visiting or doing?

00:38:18Rio: Wow, the best one that I could say is visiting bushy parkrun. So when we went to London, I made that like a point that we had to go at bushy. And then we did other parkruns in Japan. And in October, we'll be going to Amsterdam for parkrun in Amsterdam. But locally, we are also arranging our tour or vacation where parkrun is. I have long list for 11 years.

00:38:48Eman Vergara: I think everyone's got a long list, so that's great.

00:38:50Rio: Indeed.

00:38:51Eman Vergara: Yeah, but that's amazing you've done the pilgrimage in Bushi, and that's something that our family are looking forward to doing in October this year. But for all our listeners out there, thank you so much for your time, Rio. It's been great doing the Ponds parkrun today. And if you haven't done this Ponds parkrun, it's a nice, relatively flat out-and-back course, beautiful setting and really good community, especially the coffee after. With that, I'll hand over to you guys. Thanks.

00:39:15[background music]

00:39:18Rio: Thank you so much, and thank you for visiting us.

00:39:22Eman Vergara: No worries.

00:39:32Simon Mackley: All righty. So we've just heard three roving reports, one from Ingrid at Chipping Norton, who was talking to Paul Power about the sanctuary runners and what they do for refugees and people new to the country, et cetera. So that was very interesting, Ingrid. Thank you for sharing. Then we went across the ditch with Alison at Warkworth Showgrounds, and she was talking to Michael Jenkinson, who was the former event director of Western Springs parkrun on the North Island. And then we heard from E-Man at the Ponds. So that was his and the Vergara family, their last one before they headed off on their trip around the world, 50 parkruns for the year. And he was speaking to Rio about the growth of the Ponds and what it means to her. And coincidentally, last week, the Ponds actually won Community Group of the Year at the Blacktown City Council Awards. Alrighty, I think it's time we head over to Daz's. And we've chosen five comments from each of the last two weeks of Daz's posts.

Dazza's

00:40:34Sarah Jefferson: On Saturday, the 18th of July, Daz has said, it's Celebrate Dazza Day. He just made that up and he wants to know what you love about popping in here every weekend. So come on in and tell us about your morning. So there were 101 comments this week and we had to choose just five.

00:40:54Simon Mackley: Starting off with Wendella has a Winkle Pool at Fort William parkrun in Scotland where Wendella said... Happy Dazza Day, we're currently in the Scottish Highlands and enjoyed a great parkrun at the bottom of Ben Nevis. It was an undulating trail run and I found it rather challenging. After the parkrun and coffee with cake, we went up the mountain by cable car or gondola as our granddaughter likes to call it. From the top of the cable car, we walked up higher and enjoyed a lovely view. I always love hearing about other people's parkrun adventures. So Wendella posted a photo of herself with the Fort William pop-up, looks like lots of greenery in the background. And we can see the incline of the trail behind you. Sounds lovely heading up the mountain via cable car, Gondolala, after parkrun. Magical.

00:41:45Sarah Jefferson: Oh, that sounds like such a fun morning, doesn't it? It does. All right, next we heard from Ingrid Paris at Cow Pasture Reserve parkrun, Camden, New South Wales. Ingrid shared, I ran my fastest parkrun in about two years today. Yay! I love seeing the photos and getting to know the adventurers. And Ingrid shared a lovely photo, including herself, Sam and Luke Schroeder, and Lynn and Catherine in the parkrun selfie frame, all looking very happy. Congratulations on your fastest parkrun in quite some time, Ingrid.

00:42:18Simon Mackley: And we're going south to Dan O'Connell at Beaufort Lakes parkrun in Victoria, where he posted, this morning was a cold and foggy event at Beaufort Lakes parkrun. Coming off the back of both volunteer and run milestones, didn't think I'd have an accomplishment to report today, but ended up running a 28.43. my best time since 2021 well done dan that's amazing afterwards basically the whole event went to the flywheel cafe and good coffee and toasties were had so what do i love about popping in here sharing stories about tourism and other parkrun related accomplishments of course so dan shared a photo of himself in the parkrun selfie fame looking very misty in the background that's for sure Congratulations on your PB, like five years in the making. So it seems like there was something in the air for this, this week. We agree with you and love hearing everyone's adventures, including those that you've recently shared with us when you took a trip overseas.

00:43:16Sarah Jefferson: Yeah, so Ingrid's got a PB this week. and Dan as well. So definitely something in there, Simon.

00:43:23Simon Mackley: Sure.

00:43:23Sarah Jefferson: Next, we heard from Gareth Arnold at Kalgoorlie Boulder parkrun in Western Australia. Gareth wrote, near or far, Dazza brings us all together. So cheers, Dazza. Off to hunt down some tea and cake. Now we've finished Kalgoorlie Boulder parkrun. Gareth posted a photo of himself and his son, Owen, with the parkrun flag in the background. So I actually happen to know that Gareth was in Kalgoorlie for the pipeline marathon event, which is more than marathon. It's rather an ultra marathon at 50 kilometers. Gareth came in at seventh. with a cracking time of four hours and 46 minutes. And I just want to add in that apparently the conditions on the day were actually quoted as horrendous, with it being described as treacherous underfoot, with lots of people slipping and mud aplenty. So kudos to you, Gareth, and your son, Owen.

00:44:17Simon Mackley: I know that Gareth and Owen ran a cracking pace at parkrun as well. I think they came in like seventh and eighth at the parkrun and then obviously Gareth rounded it out the next day with 50k ultra. in horrendous conditions, as you say.

00:44:31Sarah Jefferson: Definitely athletes, for sure.

00:44:33Simon Mackley: Definitely. Then we're going to hear from Amanda Lake at Kerang Regional parkrun in Victoria, where she shared, today I was brave enough to do run director for the fourth time. I was originally down for scanning, but said to the RD, if no more people turn up, I can RD. We had a total of seven people today. Love checking in with Dazza to see where everyone has been going. There wasn't a photo posted by Amanda today. However, we'd like to congratulate and thank you for run directing for your fourth time. It's great that you could facilitate a run for those seven people. Well done.

00:45:04Sarah Jefferson: Absolutely. Well done, Amanda. On Saturday, the 25th of July, Dazza said, it's International Red Shoe Day. What colour are your shoes? Welcome to Dazza's where the coffee is hot, The snacks are delicious and Dazza is usually wearing sensible shoes. Come on in and tell us about your parkrun day. And this week we actually had 143 comments. So our job got a little bit harder, didn't it, Simon? We still had to pick five, but we had way more comments this week.

00:45:33Simon Mackley: Yeah. We, what's that, 40% extra on the previous week. So first of all, we're going to head across the ditch with Alison Fraser at, I'm going to say, Mangare Bridge parkrun on the North Island of New Zealand. First, we're going to do this in time order this week. So let's throw to New Zealand, the place in the world where parkrun is experienced first each Saturday. Alison shared, a couple of pairs of red shoes amongst the tinsel at Mangare Bridge parkrun this morning got the pick just before the rain arrived. And Alison shared a stunning photo including herself and seven others all wearing their ugly Christmas shirts. There was a very green background, some water and a bridge in the background too. In fact, everyone in the photo was wearing a different ugly. I'm not sure if it was planned, but great representation of the bin chicken, budgie, snowman, magpie, platypus, etc. Plus, the selfie frame looked very impressive with a printed map of the course attached to it.

00:46:27Sarah Jefferson: So I was just thinking, is a bin chicken an Aussie saying? Like, is it something that we say or is it something that's known around the world? I'm just wondering if our UK listeners would know which animal we're referring to.

00:46:37Simon Mackley: I don't know. Strawnecked ibis is the real name, but we obviously call it a bin chicken because it pilfers the bins. But yeah, I don't know if it is actually anywhere else in the world.

00:46:48Sarah Jefferson: I wonder where that originated from. But anyway, I guess for our listeners, yeah, it's an ibis. If you weren't sure what a bin chicken was. Heading up to Queensland now, we heard from Lee Cabarita. So she was at Weipa parkrun. Lee wrote... I wore my well-worn black Brooks runners to tail walk at the most Northern Australian parkrun I've done to date, Weeper. It's the running festival weekend and I met Paralympian Michael Roeger. That's him and I in the pic, who let me wear his silver and bronze medals. What a lovely guy. He's hoping for gold at the next meet and will no doubt smash it tomorrow at the running festival. Weeper parkrun is a nice little out and back along a black concrete path that runs alongside the red dirt and trees, a beautiful setting as the sun rose around 7am. I'd been to Weeper 15 years ago when I drove to the tip of Cape York, but parkrun wasn't a thing back then. The locals were so surprised when I told them I'd travelled from Sydney over a month to do a parkrun. A lovely welcoming community, super easy flat course and a surprise running festival with a Paralympian. What a lovely parkrun day. Lee shared a fabulous photo of herself and Paralympian Michael in the Weeper selfie frame. And there was not a cloud in the sky by the looks. We love that you've ticked off Weeper, Parker and Lee. Such a dedicated adventurer you are.

00:48:14Simon Mackley: Done a little research on the old bin chicken while you've been talking about Lee. Native Australian bird, definitely. Formerly used to live in the wetlands, but because of the growth of communities, they are now in the cities and that sort of thing. And as I say, pilfering our bins.

00:48:30Sarah Jefferson: So Australian, there you go.

00:48:31Simon Mackley: Yep, definitely. So we'll head on over to Maz Strong, who was at Maribyrnong parkrun in Victoria, where she posted, my shoes are serendipitously red. I paired them with a red volunteer vest, barcode scanning at Maribyrnong, then took them and the fluffy ugly to my first ever indoor rowing race. 5,000 meters in 21 minutes, 42.7 for a W55 to 59 adaptive world record. So Maz posted a few photos, one of her on the rower donning a big smile in her ugly shirt, as well as a photo of her red slash pink and black shoes. Congratulations on this adaptive world record, Maz. That is very impressive indeed.

00:49:15Sarah Jefferson: Well done, Maz. Continuing our journey west, we heard from Rodney Glossop at Murdoch University parkrun in Western Australia. Rodney shared, yesterday I donned my yellow parkrun shoes. Can you spot them in the photo? I like to wear these when I'm run director and yesterday was extra special as I was helping launch Australia's newest parkrun, Murdoch University parkrun. It was also my ninth different location as run director and was a fantastic morning. Rodney shared a photo of himself in his yellow run directing shoes with the stellar volunteers from the launch event. So edging up closer to having run directed at one sixth of the events in the state that he lives in, which is very impressive.

00:49:59Simon Mackley: Especially when the state is so big, as you know. And then we're going to head across to the UK where Adrian Luscombe was at Lullingston parkrun. He wrote, shoes are a very dusty colour after a brutally hilly and very warm Lillingston parkrun. Happy Christmas in July. Adrian posted a photo of himself in his crocodile ugly with the Lillingston pop-up as well as his dusty coloured shoes. Great to see the adventurer's buff on Adrian's wrist too. Looks like a lovely trail slash grassy parkrun, Adrian. Listeners, if we have given you a shout out in Dazza's today, send us an email or comment on the post on Facebook to let us know that you are actually a listener.

Listener emails

00:50:37Sarah Jefferson: Okay, let's head over to some emails. Simon, we have mail. It says, hi team, hope you are well. We've been staying close to home lately, but we do have a few new parkruns still to do on the South Island with Mortu Iha, my hometown, Mandeville and Oamaru Gardens planned in the next few weeks. Still listening to the pod each fortnight, usually at home on a Saturday morning after parkrun, although I often save them for my work trips. Sadly, we won't make Palm 27 as we already have two trips planned across the ditch and Also, we have a conflict with dates that weekend with a classic car and rock and roll weekend booked. We are coming over at Christmas to do a roadie with Beck to Adelaide and back to Melbourne along the Coast Road, which will include four parkruns. Then next year, we are back in Oz again in October for the Rugby World Cup and we will include a parkrun in Sydney and Melbourne while we are over. Tanya has her 250th parkrun planned for Mutu Iha in a couple of weeks. And I have my V100 coming up later in the year. So still plenty of goals ahead. Keep up the good work. And that's from Brett and Tanya Bailey. Cross the ditch. So that's a shame that they won't be able to make Palm 27, isn't it, Simon? But it sounds like they have a very jam-packed year ahead of some social activities already.

00:52:01Simon Mackley: Exactly it's a shame that we got the date out so late for them already had plans but you know we tried our best yeah we can't please everyone but it would have been great to have seen Brett and Tanya at Palm in Canberra.

00:52:13Sarah Jefferson: I'm sure they'll be in touch with some of the adventurers that weekend to hear all about the festivities and I'm sure they would have been there if they could have.

00:52:20Simon Mackley: Oh definitely yes.

00:52:21Sarah Jefferson: All right, Simon, we are now going to throw to our friend Reginald. Music

Club Corner

00:52:30[background music]

00:52:30Reginald Yardley-Pomfrey III: This is Reginald Yardley-Pomfrey III, with Club Corner, where we talk about the what and why of parkrun clubs, and I am coming to you from Aranda country. When I began speaking at you with Club Corner No. 51 back in 2024, I started a series on parkrun volunteers. In those 13 elucidations, I neglected to raise the very important ambassador roles. Hence, today, I am going to talk about parkrun ambassadors. Paraphrasing variously from parkrun themselves, event ambassadors, aka EA, are the most common type of ambassador. All parkrun events have a nominated EA who provides guidance and support to the event team, acting as a friend. Event ambassadors support teams through the event activation process, and they provide ongoing support and the first point of contact for the event team. Regional event ambassadors, aka REA, oversee a designated geographical area. They provide support to the event ambassadors in their region and allocate new and existing events across their region. REA lead the recruitment of EA within their region. As you can imagine, in Australia, REA can cover many thousands of square kilometers. Aside from these air quote regular ambassadors end air quote, there are a number of specialist ambassadors, some of whom are in our loyal listenership exclamation point. Outreach ambassadors are used by parkrun HQ to find ways to increase participation amongst groups that are underrepresented at parkrun. Translation ambassadors handle the translation of internal parkrun documents, public-facing articles, social media posts, etc. There are many translation ambassadors worldwide, supporting at least 12 languages. You can imagine what social media ambassadors handle, the comments and posts across various social media channels. It is not generally HQ having to deal with the brickbats and bouquets, rather, it is a parkrun volunteer. I bet you know what video and photography ambassadors do, right? They dovetail with social media creation, for example the Facebook cover image used by country pages use each week. Continuing with specialist roles we have content creation who, well, you know, create content. Grist for the Mill, health and well-being ambassadors provide advice, support and expertise to parkrun on health and well-being related issues, things like how teams might debrief after a critical incident. When parkrun is finished and results are due, there is live event processing support performed worldwide by ambassadors. They staff the chat and help results get resulted. Also busy during parkrun may be the critical incident line, staffed by volunteers who help guide events through tricky circumstances. Perhaps less glamorous, but nonetheless essential, there are grant ambassadors who identify, write, submit, and complete acquittals for the many grant applications to secure funding for prospect and established events. Grant writing is a particular set of skills that people generally have little understanding of, until they need to speak corporate and try to get money for parkrun. National coordinators handle the development and implementation of health and well-being plans, and develop and manage relationships with key stakeholders to promote parkrun and support growth and expansion. Did you know about these dozen additional volunteer roles within parkrun? They are recruited from time to time, and some are used more frequently than others. e.g. there is always something to be translated, so keep your eyes open if you are keen to get involved, or contact parkrun HQ via support. Phew, and remember, in parkrun life, parkrun now hosts various renamed non-milestone clubs in their app, so they are now official and supported by parkrun, so stay tuned for our future club corners.

00:56:10[background music]

00:56:26Simon Mackley: Thanks, Reginald, for highlighting the work being done behind the scenes by our ambassadors. So he went through event, regional event, outreach, translation, social media, video and photography, content creation, health and wellbeing, results support, critical incident line and grant ambassadors. So there are a lot of people behind the scenes that most people don't get to see that they're actually doing this work. They're probably at your parkrun amongst you, but they're doing a lot of work behind the scenes. So coincidentally, last week, I actually had the pleasure of meeting parkrun Global CEO Lil Duggan in the APAC office with fellow event ambassador Mark, Christine and Rhonda, who are South East Queensland regional ambassadors, Jane, who's the new New Zealand country manager, and Carol and Sean from the global volunteer team. So ambassadors were one of the things that we're actually talking about. So with the growth across APAC, the team are always looking for ambassadors to support that growth organically. If any of our listeners are actually interested in exploring a role in APAC, reach out to support at parkrun.com, letting them know, because that actually goes to the global email box, but letting them know that you're interested in becoming an ambassador in APAC. And I know there's currently some opportunities across APAC and regional areas are somewhere that they're trying to focus on getting ambassadors as well. So keep an eye out in your country specific emails for opportunities at any time. I know that they're looking for people in Malaysia, Singapore and Japan as well.

00:57:59Sarah Jefferson: I love that Lil was out here in Australia, Simon.

00:58:03Simon Mackley: Yeah, it was amazing to meet her. So I've met a couple of the global CEOs. in the time. And yeah, Lil was definitely more laid back, but it could have been because she was probably still jet lagged after that trip out from the UK. And it was after work, so she was probably quite exhausted. I know she'd been on the phone to the UK as well, just before we met with her. Great pitch.

00:58:25Sarah Jefferson: She's coming out and meeting some ambassadors and getting out on the ground in Australia.

00:58:30Simon Mackley: Yeah, definitely.

Consolidated Club Report

00:58:31Sarah Jefferson: It's now time for the Consolidated Club Report. The Adventurers Consolidated Club Report for Saturday, the 25th of July. Of a total of 951 members, 644 took part on this date in 14 countries across 360 locations. This fortnight we are going to represent our stats as a percentage of how many people attended events in a state or territory or a country. So locally there are adventurers at 47% of the events in Queensland, 46% in New South Wales and 42% of events in Victoria. In Western Australia, 33%, South Australia, 25%, Tasmania, 46%, ACT, 80%, North Island, 14%, the South Island, 12%. Internationally, they're adventurers at 10% of the UK events, 5% in South Africa, 4% in Ireland, 3% in the USA, And there were two events in Canada, Italy, Netherlands and Sweden, and one event each in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Singapore.

00:59:50Simon Mackley: Apologies, I couldn't find the country numbers for those last couple. So no percentages there, unfortunately. We're going to head over to the largest international frond. So on the 18th of July, there was a frond of seven at one event, which was Green Park in the UK, where Ian Thompson, David Wright, Nigel Arnold, Pippa White, Nicholas Stott, Cass Castleton, and Dan Houghton were there. And then last weekend, there was a Fronde of Four at one event, and that was Kingsway Park in Urmston. And there was C.D. Whitehead, Callum Burrell, Ruth Perkins, and Samuel Schumann.

the Frond

01:00:28Sarah Jefferson: On the 18th of July, we didn't have anybody doing their pilgrimage, but we did have three people on the 25th of July. They included Julie Clasm, Michael and Tanya Charlton.

01:00:40Simon Mackley: And heading back to Australia with the largest front, on the 18th of July, there was a frond of 11 at McIvor Creek Trail in Heathcote. And that was Nathan Castle, Darren McLeod, Melissa Flentjar, Andrew Reynolds, Gary Murphy, Stuart Brown, Carolyn McRae, Fiona and Ben Turner, Tracy Ryan and Jan Maness. And then on the 25th, there was a Fronde of 10 at 1 event, which was Nathan Road Sports Ground. That was Samantha Harding, Darren and Lucille Peed, Christy Payne, Louise Clements, Fern Patterson, Kate Kremen-Rose, James Kremen, Therese Marty, Erin Phillips, and Lyndell was volunteering. And this was their last event before closing.

01:01:26Sarah Jefferson: While there were no special days in the past fortnight, there is one coming up in Singapore before the next pod comes out. So it will be on Sunday, the 9th of August. Simon, I feel like I am the only West Australian adventurer not going to this. Even my partner is going. I've elected to stay home. We're not sure if I've made the right decision here, but anyway. We booked flights to Singapore after we did an overnight flight back from Tokyo or not long after. And with a toddler, I didn't really sleep. So I didn't really want to get on another international flight. Anyway, Matt will have a great time and all of the adventurers will have a great time. Yeah, it's cheaper for us to go to Singapore and it's in the same time zone. It's crazy. It's cheaper, sorry, than for us to go to another capital city in Australia. It's cheaper for us to go up to Singapore. Yeah.

01:02:22Simon Mackley: That's nuts.

01:02:23Sarah Jefferson: I'm sure we'll get some big numbers of adventurers in Singapore. I really think we will.

01:02:28Simon Mackley: Which one's Matt going to do?

01:02:30Sarah Jefferson: Oh, well, we've already done all of them. So this is a deciding factor for me too. I think Matt's just going to go along with the masses and whoever's done, I think, Bedok or Bedok Reservoir. I think he's pretty keen to do that. We did that one last time and he really loved that. So I think that's operating on the Sunday. And then I think he'll just go with whoever wants to. Yeah, he'll go with the crowds basically. Yeah, okay. With the adventurers and wherever there's going to be a front, he'll meet up with people. Nice. I think he's just going just to, well, who knows? He's probably just going to have a proper night's sleep. It's a very expensive way to have a full night's sleep, isn't it? And escape the winter down under.

01:03:10Simon Mackley: Is he not burning frequent flyer points that he's earning from work or anything like that?

01:03:14Sarah Jefferson: I think we paid for these ones, actually. As I said, it's actually not too expensive. Better off using frequent flyer points to go to Canberra. Canberra's really expensive from Perth. I don't think there's too many flights, so I might have to look up if there's any points flights going once I know my work days for next year.

01:03:29Simon Mackley: Alrighty, adventurers, we would love to hear from you in a roving report. especially if you're traveling to a destination that might trip our hosts. We currently have 10 roving reports in our backlog, which you're going to hear in the next couple of episodes, but don't let that stop you from recording an interesting story from your adventures. Maybe you can add the Adventurers Club as one of your five affiliations on your parkrun profile.

Watching the numbers

01:03:51Sarah Jefferson: Simon, it's that time. We are reintroducing a parkrun Adventurers segment. It is called watching the numbers. So for the next few pods, we will be watching the numbers at plantation forest parkrun. So this is a segment where we select a parkrun of interest. And as the name suggests, we watch the participation numbers. So this parkrun has been going for three weeks now. And interestingly, the numbers have stayed very consistent with week one's participation being at 76 week two. at 76 and week three at 75. Another interesting fact is that 27 out of the 75 participants in the past week were unknown. So it is actually hard to know exactly how many people are newbies. I know that it's new to St Helena, but let's hope that as time goes on and education starts to spread about how to sign up to parkrun, we will see more people's names attached and more profiles being created.

01:04:54Simon Mackley: Let's hope that this is a lot of the locals because that was the whole health initiative to get it there as well. So yeah, the fact that the numbers are staying very, very steady is amazing.

01:05:03Sarah Jefferson: It's so great, isn't it? Surprising, actually. I didn't really know what to expect. Anyway, we'll be watching those numbers, so stay tuned. On the 18th of July, there were four launches across four countries.

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

01:05:14Simon Mackley: All right, we're going to start in the Netherlands first with Jagerplas parkrun. It's located north of Zaandam and running around the lake. It welcomed 223 finishers at the launch, supported by 18 volunteers and 82 or 37% of the runners were first-timers to parkrun.

01:05:34Sarah Jefferson: The UK welcomed Jeskyns Community Woodland Cobham parkrun. The course is located east-southeast of London. And only seven out of the 663 finishers completed their first ever parkrun. The event had 54 volunteers, so it sounds like they expected a big turnout. And a big turnout they did get, didn't they?

01:05:57Simon Mackley: They sure did. That's quite a launch. And then we're going to head over to the US, where Millennium parkrun Grand Rapids launched with a course that is one lollipop loop. That was the way they described it. So 11 volunteers supported the 36 participants, of which six were first timers.

01:06:14Sarah Jefferson: Rounding out the launches on the 18th of July was Star Raceway parkrun in Klirpsdorp, South Africa, located west-southwest of Johannesburg. The launch had 361 finishes, 10% were first-timers, and 26 volunteers supported this event.

01:06:34Simon Mackley: And then last weekend, on the 25th of July, there were three launches across two countries.

01:06:39Sarah Jefferson: Ae Forest parkrun in Scotland launched with 109 participants, 19 volunteers and two first timers to parkrun. It's located north of Dumfries. The course is flat on a mixture of hard path and trail with occasional trip hazards. It's an out, do two anti-clockwise laps, then it's back alongside the river to the finish.

01:07:04Simon Mackley: Staying in the UK. Bittersby Country Park in Lutterworth, UK, which is located east of Birmingham and south-southwest of Leicester. So it launched with 297 participants, 35 volunteers and zero first-timers. So everybody, like all 297 had been before. So it starts near the entrance of the country park. There's a short out section followed by three laps around the lake. At the end of the third lap, participants return back to the start towards the finish area. The entire course is on compacted gravel surface. And the final launch?

01:07:44Sarah Jefferson: for this week was back in Australia, Murdoch University parkrun in Murdoch, Perth, Western Australia, kicking off the first event with 205 participants and 26 volunteers. It was so secret that the event page isn't even live yet at time of doing the show notes, which is on Monday. So this event, Simon, is actually close to my nearest event to home, actually.

01:08:09Simon Mackley: Okay.

01:08:10Sarah Jefferson: Yeah.

01:08:11Simon Mackley: So not only is it your NENDY, but it is actually almost nearest to home.

01:08:14Sarah Jefferson: Yeah, it would be very close to actually being my closest, I think. So I'm sure I'll get there in the next few weeks.

01:08:22Simon Mackley: Let it settle in a little bit.

01:08:23Sarah Jefferson: Definitely.

01:08:24Simon Mackley: Not racing there for sure.

01:08:25Sarah Jefferson: All right, Simon, where are you headed next parkrun Day?

01:08:30Simon Mackley: Well, I will be adventuring. I'm knocking off another Sydney event that I haven't done yet. And this one started after we moved to Queensland. So Jackson and I will be at Macquarie University parkrun Day. with a few friends, including the office lady and Luke, and a coalition of dirty cheaters. So where are you going to be, Sarah?

01:08:50Sarah Jefferson: I'll be heading somewhere local. I'm picky of going back to Bibra Lake, I think. It's actually very close to where I live as well. And I think that I might even work on this for my next P-Index rise.

01:09:02Simon Mackley: Putting in the work now.

01:09:03Sarah Jefferson: I think so.

01:09:03Simon Mackley: Well, thanks for the catch up again this fortnight, or this month, really, because we don't get to record for another four weeks.

01:09:10Sarah Jefferson: Yes, that's right. It was nice to catch up and Thanks again for putting it with the tantrum.

01:09:14Simon Mackley: It's all good.

01:09:15Sarah Jefferson: Just a little note that obviously Lyndell and TOC will be back next fortnight. However, we do have a special roving report from the previous parkrun day from Lyndell herself. And we will add this in at the end of this podcast. So stay tuned to hear where Lyndell was and where she got up to. So a little bonus roving report for you right at the very end.

01:09:37Simon Mackley: And as always, you can contact us via parkrunadventures on Facebook. or our email, which is parkrunadventures at gmail.com. And the office lady has re-engaged our Instagram page. So if you are an Instagram person and you're not following us, go and add us on there. We are the parkrunadventures on Instagram. So that's it for another episode. We'll see you all next time for more adventures.

01:09:55[background music]

01:10:07Lyndell Murray: G'day parkrun adventurers, it's Lyndell and today I am at a very, very special event on the lands of the Gubbi Gubbi people out on the Redcliffe Peninsula in the Moreton Bay region just north of Brisbane. I'm at the last dance of Nathan Road Sports Ground parkrun. And I've tracked down Matt. Matt, how did today go?

01:10:33Matt: It was organised chaos, I think. It was a great atmosphere. We had 428 people, which surpassed what we expected. We were thinking maybe a couple hundred at top. So really good atmosphere, quite enjoyable, even though a little bit chaotic.

01:10:50Lyndell Murray: Now, that's nearly three times. Your record prior to that was like 150 or something.

01:10:56Matt: Yeah, 151. That was on our first event. Since then, we usually average around about 60. So, yeah, 400 was unexpected, but good fun. Yeah.

01:11:08Lyndell Murray: Brilliant, brilliant. Now, Matt, we've spoken before. I interviewed you a little while ago, just when you were a new baby event. Yes. At seventh event, I think it was, I came out and chatted to you and your co-ED at the time. That was episode 263 for those listeners who might want to go back and have a listen to that. And we were reflecting then that it was a new parkrun and it was a new community and there was still a lot of construction in the area. And your goal was to create a community for your community. How did you go with that? We've said that it's generally a little small parkrun, but how did you go with creating that community map?

01:11:53Matt: I think it went well. So we at this parkrun have always been quite small in numbers compared to others. And I think that that has always added to that sort of community feel of this parkrun. It is mostly locals. We have a really strong volunteer group that come along each and every week. We've met a lot of people in the area. It's been really wholesome. It's been really enjoyable. Yeah, definitely a good little community group we have here. that is brilliant now what's it been like to have to say to those people we have to stop what we're doing here or pause it yeah i think that's been it's been a bit um emotional i think to be honest it's as i said we have created quite a good community we've become quite familiar with each other so it's a bit of a shame but we i guess in in our case we are looking at opening and

01:12:51Lyndell Murray: parkrun nearby so it's it's not the end so um it's bittersweet but you know we've got something to look forward to for sure absolutely all right now um small community here happy community now matt for you what's it been like for you what would you say for you has been the biggest thing out of starting this parkrun

01:13:15Matt: For me, it's actually meeting the people, the regulars, hearing their stories. It's always fascinating to me. I've always enjoyed learning what motivates people to come to an event like this, their backgrounds, that sort of thing. So I think for me, it's really the people. That's why I started this. I wanted to... try and bring the community together. And I think we succeeded at that. And yeah, I think for me, it's definitely the people. Yeah.

01:13:46Lyndell Murray: Brilliant. And I see that now. I've been here a few times and I definitely feel that for sure. Alrighty. Now, there will be a new location. Stay tuned. I hope that that process goes well. Is there anything that you want to say about that at all at this stage or just that it will happen?

01:14:06Matt: We can't say the exact location, obviously we don't want to, at the moment it is still in the works, so we are negotiating with council, we are negotiating with parkrun, so we don't want to get people's hopes up or commit to something too early. However, it is looking positive, it is going to be quite near to where we are now. Arguably we think it might actually be a better location, so it's going to be exciting. it'll hopefully attract a lot of attention once we get to the point where we can announce it brilliant okay and in the meantime what will your community do I think it's going to be, it's, you know, I thought about this and for me it's like, oh God, what will I do? But I think it will be an opportunity to get out, try different parkruns. I have really committed myself to this parkrun for the last five years, as have all of our run directors and volunteers. So I think it's almost a bit of breathing space for us to actually go out and enjoy parkrun as a participant. Yep. So I think, yeah, whilst it's bittersweet that we won't have our community here, it'll be nice to go out and explore until we get the new one up and running. Yeah.

01:15:23Lyndell Murray: All right. Matt, is there anything else that you want to say signing off at this point?

01:15:31Matt: For me, I would like to thank the volunteers who have made this parkrun what it is. That has really been the, I guess... The anchor of this parkrun is our volunteers and being able to bring it to the community every week wouldn't be possible without them. And I don't even just see them as volunteers. These are friends made through parkruns. So my biggest thing is the volunteers. Thank you for all the support that you've given, the time you've given over the last number of years to bring this event to the community and look forward to new beginnings.

01:16:10Lyndell Murray: All right, well, Matt, enjoy your adventuring over the next little while at different parkruns. I hope that you have some joy and space and fun doing that. And thank you, Matt. Thank you for everything that you have done for this community and for what you will do with a new community, hopefully, fingers crossed, if that comes to fruition. Hopefully you will have the pleasure of doing this again for another community close by.

01:16:35Matt: Yeah, thank you. We're looking forward to it. It's been great.

01:16:40[outro theme playing]

01:16:40Lyndell Murray: Thanks so much, Matt.

01:16:41Matt: Thank you.

01:16:42Lyndell Murray: See ya. Bye.