Episode 456 - The hype team

Episode details · 187 speaker turns · sound cues from audio analysis

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

00:00:30Lyndell Murray: Welcome to episode 456 of the parkrun Adventurers podcast, a podcast about life, if your life is all about parkrun. My name is Lyndell and I'm recording in Mianjin on the traditional lands of the Turrbal and Yugara. Cooee, TOC!

00:00:46Tony O'Connell: Cooee Lyndell, this is TOC and I'm on Bunurong Country and it's great to catch up. The last time we spoke, I think I started with saying I hope things are warmer in Queensland than they are down here. Well, the last week down here, I think we've had about four inches of rain or 100 mil for those that are a bit more modern. We've got paddocks underwater, we've got roads cut, it's bitterly cold and we've got a south-westerly wind coming straight off the Antarctic. So I'm still hoping that things are warmer up where you are than they are down here.

00:01:16Lyndell Murray: Yeah, well, they are warmer, but we have got our echo winds in Tock. So Brisbane gets Ekka winds in August when the exhibition comes to town, our royal show. We say that it blows in from the country just like the cows. So it's been nice and sunny, but there has been a few winds around keeping it nice and chilly.

00:01:37Tony O'Connell: Cool. And tell me, Linda, what have you been up to since we last caught up?

00:01:42Lyndell Murray: Well, I have managed a couple of adventures since we last caught up, Tok. The week after we last recorded, I did a solo road trip out to Chinchilla to Charlie's Creek parkrun. And that was a really great little event. I loved it out there. It was so fun. They've got a really inventive little course making the most of what they have in a small little park beside the creek. But just running along beside that creek is really pretty. And the community is really nice out there. They go to the RSL for post parkrun Brekkie. There was a newcomer to parkrun the day that I was there who'd moved up from Melbourne. So we took him to the RSL and got him signed up as a member on the spot. And yeah, it just felt really welcomed out there. It's a really great little town. They have a biannual watermelon festival. And to commemorate the festival, they have a giant slice of watermelon in the main street all the time. So that was really cool to get my photo taken with the big melon.

00:02:48Eileen: The other thing I did was stopped by the Tardis Stop.

00:02:51Lyndell Murray: Now this is a really interesting little story. So if you do get out to Charlie's Creek, drop by the TARDIS and get your picture taken with the TARDIS. There's a fellow out there that has renovated a motel with lots of different themed different rooms and he has a full-size police box out the front and he'll take your photo use a bit of AI to make you look like you're chasing Daleks and posted on his Facebook page. So that was a really cool little adventure. The other places I've been since then, I volunteered at Nathan Road Sports Ground, which we heard about in the last episode.

00:03:26Eileen: And I also got down to the mid-north coast of New South Wales and checked in at Gloucester District parkrun.

00:03:34Lyndell Murray: It was a bit chilly down there, let me tell you, but it was a lovely little town, super friendly parkrun. I met a couple that were visiting from Woy Woy, had a great chat to the locals and went to a really excellent bakery for breakfast.

00:03:47Tony O'Connell: post parkrun brekkie so that was me tock what have you been up to in the last few weeks well linda i think you've missed a very important stage of what you've been up to my research department tells me that you're the preservative queen the preservative well i'm looking at a certificate at the moment from the echo which is the royal queensland show that says you might have got a prize in the cookery preservative section

00:04:16Lyndell Murray: I did gloss over the Ekka, didn't I? I talked about the winds and how cold it is. That is correct. I have created a new tradition with my dad of making marmalade. So we've entered the ECHA twice now. We entered last year and this year. Last year we got a highly commended and this year we got a second place.

00:04:38Tony O'Connell: Well done.

00:04:40Lyndell Murray: So we're pretty happy with that. Pretty happy with that. It does mean that we have used up our two years in the novice category. And we have to move up to the open category next year. I don't know how successful we're going to be against people who've been making marmalade all their life, but we're going to give it a crack.

00:04:59Tony O'Connell: So are we taking orders for Palm or what's the story?

00:05:02Lyndell Murray: Oh, it's a very boutique set up that Dad and I have. I don't know that we're up to taking orders, but you never know. I might be able to sample some into my suitcase.

00:05:11Tony O'Connell: No, that's not good. I saw catalogue number 1263 and thought, oh, she's got 1,200 jars of this stuff. I'm in for a jar or two.

00:05:19Lyndell Murray: Yeah. Sadly not. That's a lot of marmalade talk.

00:05:27Tony O'Connell: No, well done anyway, Lyndell. Yeah, really well done. I don't know people who cook well that enter a lot of competitions, but yeah, congrats. But back to my highlights.

00:05:37Johnny: Yes.

00:05:38Tony O'Connell: I had a really great road trip. My highlight for the last month's been a 10-hour road trip each way, which is just up the road. We went to Ulladulla parkrun. Jack and I picked up Melissa Ellis on the way. So we picked up Mel, went on a road trip. Mel used to come on a lot of road trips with us. It was good to get the band back together and go up to Ulladulla on the lands of the Yuin people. And we met up with Yvette Turner on the Friday night, went out for tea, had parkrun. Ulladulla is a great little course. You run out around a headland and the track is all asphalt and it's windy through the headland and There's all these little cool sculptures and all that as you run around. All in asphalt. I actually thought it might have been gravel and I was looking forward to a bit more running, but it was all asphalt. But that was cool. There was a Christmas in July theme and it just happened to coincide with Ugly Christmas. So we rocked up. I didn't know that it was their Christmas in July, but we rocked up in our car. ugly christmas stuff so we fitted right in they had a full-size grinch running around they had a snow machine set up at parkrun and they got these awesome pictures of people running through the snow machine oh it's just a great day had breakfast and then in the afternoon we went for a walk around another headland and we just sat and watched some whales oh how terrific how terrific i did see pictures of that and i thought it was incredible the the snow machine and the full-size grinch how fantastic

00:07:02Lyndell Murray: I love it.

00:07:02Tony O'Connell: Yeah, no, really great day. I've also had a few visits to other parkruns. I'm sort of copying you a little bit here, Lyndell. I've decided to have a bit of a streak. My streak's only at 19. It's only about 20% of where you were at. For me, I've got another couple of events to go to get up to my longest ever streak, which is only 21, so it's not a big number. But we've had visits to Newborough, to Grand Ridge Rail Trail, where we caught up with Errol Poole, and across to Traralgon last weekend, where we caught up with a few friends as well. So, yeah, we've been getting out and about a little bit. It's been a bit of fun touristing.

00:07:38Lyndell Murray: That's brilliant. All tourist streaks start somewhere. And look, it's about a PB. If you're breaking your PB, whether it's streaks or times, I'm here for that talk. So go you.

00:07:52Tony O'Connell: It's actually interesting. I've never been someone to look at my street number. It's just been one of those numbers that appears on the app and I've never really looked at it. But now that I'm at 19 and my PB, as you put it, is 21, I'm planning, I'm really going for it. I'm going to get to 22 and then probably call it.

00:08:12Lyndell Murray: yeah it don't look it's it is hard to keep up but you know little things break your pb and then next time maybe you'll get to 25. yeah and that that was the reason we went to trogan on the weekend was to work on a p index um and

00:08:28Tony O'Connell: For those who have a lot of parkruns close by, you'd appreciate P-indexes are fairly easy. For us, Tarelgan's probably the nearest one we need to work on. It's about an hour and a half drive each way. So it makes a bit of a day trip out of it, but we always fill our days in at parkrun.

00:08:44Lyndell Murray: Yeah, absolutely.

Feedback

00:08:45Tony O'Connell: We actually got a fair bit of feedback, Lyndell, from our last episode. It's really good. Some weeks we get crickets, some weeks we get a bit of feedback. And this week we heard back from Val Warwick who commented on Facebook. Thank you so much for the additional roving reports. They're my favourite section of the pod. And then in brackets, and Reginald is Steve's favourite. Val also appreciated Ingrid's report featuring the Sanctuary Runners.

00:09:10Lyndell Murray: It was great to hear from Val. Okay, our next bit of feedback came from Ali Sheppard, who also commented on Facebook. Great episode. Just a quick note for Sarah. Dumfries in Scotland, one of the new launches, is pronounced Dumfries. I know, I know. There's no logic to it. But the fun fact that Ali gave us was that people from Dumfries are known colloquially as Doonhamers.

00:09:38Tony O'Connell: i don't know i don't know about that talk i think we might just leave that one there the scots have always got these funny little um linguistic things don't they so linda we know what my pronunciation of towns is like i would have looked at that and probably had a crack at it and i would have been even further wrong than uh sarah might have been on the day so uh Let's move on with the pronunciation. I think we might need some official pronunciation ambassadors appointed to the podcast.

00:09:38[crosstalk]

00:10:07Lyndell Murray: Oh, I don't know. I think we just keep winging it and having fun with it, Tolk.

00:10:12Tony O'Connell: It's who we are. Say it confidently. No one will ever know.

00:10:16Lyndell Murray: 100%.

00:10:17Tony O'Connell: We also heard from Alison Fraser, who wanted to clarify that the tinsel at Mangere Bridge did not coordinate ugly T-shirts. And it was a lucky coincidence that they were able to represent so many different designs.

00:10:30Lyndell Murray: It's the thing about ugly Christmas, isn't it? You get the variety. Okay. Lastly, we heard from Yvette Turner. And Yvette says, Hi, team. Another interesting podcast. Thank you for keeping me company or at least part of the way on my 25K training block this morning running around Lake Burley Griffin and the surrounds in Canberra. The Sydney Marathon is getting very close and I'm nervous, excited and terrified. It's my first marathon. And I wonder if other parkrun adventurers are running the marathon too. Bill and I both received our parkrun adventurer hoodies and my cap, and we really like the fabric. But sadly, we won't need them when we head off to Singapore. We're running at Bedok Reservoir on Saturday and West Coast Park on Sunday, as I need my Wilson number 395. I'm really looking forward to catching up with other adventurers over there. Yvette also let us know through that post that she's really excited for having a home palm. And I can vouch for that. It is really cool to have a palm close to home. So just on that with palm, the team are working on the program events and we'll have details out in due course.

00:11:45Tony O'Connell: Righty-o, Lyndal. I'm taking two things away from Yvette's post there. The first one is we kept the company on a 25-kilometer training run. So I reckon I can go get some cake because I've done a 25K run. And my second takeaway from that is home palms. There's a novel concept. Maybe one day we need to have one in Victoria.

00:12:06Lyndell Murray: You need to experience it at least once, Toc. It is pretty fun.

00:12:09Tony O'Connell: Well, that's our feedback for the week. But if you've enjoyed the pod, we'd love it if you could rate and review us on Apple, Spotify or whatever other platform you listen to us on. It helps people find us and it helps us to keep spreading the adventuring love.

00:12:25Lyndell Murray: It sure does. Okay, another update from the merch lady. We have been seeing on the socials that the merch deliveries have started. So look out for those. And just a reminder that the shipping notices for your merch will come from the hunting lady, which is a little bit of a random business name that they have. So if you're looking out for your merch, still looking for that hunting lady on your emails from Australia Post.

00:12:55Tony O'Connell: Yep, I've got mine. I love my windshield. I've worn it now a couple of times to parkrun in my hoodie. And with the temperatures we've had in Victoria, an extra hoodie's gone down pretty well. And they're pretty comfortable to run in as well. I ran the first lap at Tarelgan on the weekend in it, then had to shed a layer. But, yeah, no, they're very comfortable. Yeah. Great little fleecy tops.

00:13:16Lyndell Murray: I did the same at Gloucester. One lap with it on, one lap with it off.

00:13:20Tony O'Connell: Right. In some fairly significant news, Linda, event teams were advised midweek that Managing Director of APAC, Renee Gimbert, has stepped away from parkrun. Coomera parkrun posted on their Facebook with a really nice post, and their Facebook page said, We'd like to acknowledge one very special person today, Renee Gimbert. Renee's parkrun journey began on the 2nd of April 2011 at Main Beach parkrun's event number one, and that was when parkrun started in Australia. She went on to launch our own Coomera parkrun in July 2012, and we celebrated our 14th anniversary of this just two weeks ago. Four years later, Renee became only the second full-time employee of parkrun Australia, taking on the role of National Operations Manager. Over the following decade, she rose to Chief Operations Officer for Australia, then Territory Manager for APAC, and finally Managing Director for parkrun APAC. Tim Oberg, who founded parkrun in Australia, described Renee as one of the kindest and most thoughtful people he's ever met. When asked why she loved working for parkrun, Renee once said, I love being part of a movement that has such a positive impact on the lives of so many people. Renee finished up as MD for parkrun APAC this week after 10 years of leading parkrun through enormous growth and change. So we thank Renee, not just for starting Coomera parkrun, but for the extraordinary impact that she's had across the whole APAC region over the past decade. Thank you.

00:14:49Lyndell Murray: Yeah, great words there from Coomera parkrun about their founding event director and the leader of parkrun for so many years. Thank you. Okay, TOC, changing gears just a little bit. We're in August and what that means is that Streaky September is just around the corner. There's only one more pod that will be released before the 1st of September, so we all need to start thinking about whether or how we are going to participate. The great news is that our Streakmeister, Pippa, is back on board with the parkrun Adventurers for Streaky September. And she's recorded a little intro for us all to remind us about Streaky September or introduce it for those of us who are new to the pod. So let's hear from Pippa now.

Streaky September

00:15:38Pippa: Hi, parkrun adventurers. Streaky September, what's it all about? This is our annual reset. Streaky September is very, very simple. Get out, do some intentional exercise each day for the month of September and tell us about it in the Facebook group. It started off as either a run or a walk for two kilometers. And over the years, it's sort of morphed a little bit. So if you're gonna go out on the bike, we suggest 30 minutes. If you're going to go for a swim or do some yoga, then we're looking for a 30 minutes intentional activity. Just do it. Somehow roll out of bed or when you get back in from work late, stick some shoes on, get out the door. Once you've done it, there's a Facebook group and you can be intentional and tell us what's happened. So if your winter has been about being slow and eating all the lovely, nice winter foods, then this is a moment to make a change up. If it's been the British summer, which has been very hot this year and you've got just too hot to go out and run, then it's that intentional reset, restart, move into the joy of winter exercise. As well as that, just do the run or the walk, we also have a bingo card and over the month there'll be different activities to do. I've still got my favourite from my first one ever where I spent 30 days wandering around London looking for a gnome outside a house to tick off a point. So there are different challenges, different activities. some might involve parkrun but others are just about getting out and enjoying being in your local community so very simple it's intentional we're not going to challenge you so if you say i've been out and walked we believe you and trust you this is this is you and being accountable in the same place so what do you have to do to get ready smile grin work out where your shoes are And we will then do little top ups each week. And I'll put a video on the Facebook group as I started getting almost acceptable at them last year, where we think about different challenges. So Streaky September. Oh, I can't wait. It's that reset. I really love it. Here's to 2026. Happy streaking.

00:18:10Lyndell Murray: All right. So as Pippa says, find the Facebook group and join that so that you can share your streaks with the team. noting of course talk that streaking is about not breaking the habit and it's nothing to do with your clothing or attire and it's great news that we're going to have a bingo card again so toc what are you looking forward to seeing on the bingo card this year

00:18:37Tony O'Connell: I don't know, we've had some really great random things, things like finding cats in windows, we've had finding street numbers, we've had all sorts of things to get out and do. One of the things I love about it is it takes me outside of my normal, we have a very set walk that we do nearly every morning and then quite often in the evening we do the reverse of it it's a 5k loop around Cape Paterson and we just about wear the asphalt out when we get to streaky september because you get these little bonus things to go out and find you've actually got to go out hunting and i love that it just gets us out into somewhere different one of the things i don't look forward to about streaky september is it's also swoopy september yes and the magpies come out i know i was up in greg garner's hometown a couple of years ago and got pinged fairly uh brutally by one of these local magpies up there yeah that that's one of the the negative things about september for us particularly in the south i guess down here where we just have so many magpies out and about no there's plenty of them up here talk don't you worry about that plenty up north as well cool but yeah no the bingo card's great and i love the way that we have a bingo card and then you have some level up challenges that come out during the month so it's not all there right at the start and you're rushing around trying to tick everything off there's extra challenges that come out during the month so just uh yeah keeps it interesting for the whole month yeah it's good to mix it up and i think the bingo card really does

00:20:11Lyndell Murray: achieve that i'll tell you i'm up for anything but i'm telling one thing that i hope is not on the bingo card is something to do with birds i recall one of the bingo cards did have something about a picture with a bird i'm not interested sorry it's swoopy september yeah leave the birds alone leave the birds alone probably actually probably really good advice at the moment with uh absolutely

00:20:36Tony O'Connell: The influenza going around the bird colonies. Let's leave the birds alone this year, guys. Whoever's designing the bingo card. Yeah. Rightio. The next one I've got, it's a personal appeal from me. Long-term listeners probably know I've been doing Not parkrun for forever and a day, and it feels like forever and a day, and the numbers around Australia and globally are dropping, and I don't want to see it disappear. So I'm just asking everyone for one week only, I'd love to see a spike in the numbers, and it might just send a message to people that, hey, let's keep this thing going, and it'd be great to see how many listeners actually... out there can log into their Noddy and record one. In Australia last week, there were 87 people who logged a Noddy. Globally, there were 917. So I'd love to see us get up over 100 and up over 1,000 globally. So there's a bit of a challenge. You don't have to log in on a Saturday. It can be a Monday walk. It can be a Thursday run around with the kids. It can be any time you want at all. In fact, I think everyone should pause the pod right now and go out and do a Noddy and come back to this podcast

00:21:44Lyndell Murray: once you've logged your naughty yeah or get your headphones in and keep going yes now our research department has kindly let me know that you are currently on 2245 consecutive not park ones you've been logging these for a long time talk so i can totally understand why you want them to continue and you want to make sure that it becomes part of other people's rituals as well because You've probably had so much joy out of logging your noddies and you want to share that with others.

00:22:18Tony O'Connell: We talk about Streaky September becoming a habit and I'm just trying to find... I know there's a whole heap of listeners that are on the same number of streak days that I am. We all started... One Streaky September. And I think it was about six or seven years ago. And we've all managed to basically keep the streak alive and keep it going ever since. Our own streak at the moment is on 2,901 days. And there's a few listeners I know out there that are on exactly the same number. So there's a few other nutters out there.

00:22:52Lyndell Murray: Yeah, it really does build community. It really does. Okay, so you heard it here first. Get out there. Log, you're not parkrun. Tok, if you've never done it before, how would I go about logging?

00:23:06Tony O'Connell: The easiest way to do it, Lyndal, is to find your last parkrun results email, and where it goes, edit my details, click on that link, and it'll take you through to where you can log a knotty, or you can use the app. The app actually has a section in it. The parkrun app has a section where you can go and log a knotty in there as well. So it's really easy to find. I'm just opening up the app to find exactly where it is. I should have had all this planned and organized. But it's really easy through the app.

00:23:37Lyndell Murray: Yeah. Okay. Well, our adventurers are obviously very familiar with the app. I'm sure they'll be able to find it. But if you need any help with that, please just get in touch. We'd be happy to help point you in the right direction.

00:23:51Tony O'Connell: So we all know the app. So you go into the extras down the bottom of the app, into toolbox, and it just has Adnot parkruns. You just tap on the button. Easy as. Come on, let's see if we can get over 100 in Australia and over 1,000 globally. And that'll give us a good idea, too, of where the listeners are actually participating from because if the global number jumps a heap and the Aussie number doesn't, come on, Aussies, we've got a challenge out there.

00:24:16Lyndell Murray: All right. Let's go. Let's do it. All right, Tok, it's time for some stats.

Attendance and milestones

00:24:24Tony O'Connell: Speaking of lots of people out there doing lots of things, New Zealand attendance and milestones. For the 1st of August in New Zealand, there were 73 parkruns. There were 8,869 parkrunners and 1,181 volunteers. The largest was Watangi parkrun. So it's the second week in a row, I think, that Hagley have not been the largest in New Zealand. And I think they must be getting a fair bit of wet weather over that way. I think that's the reason that they've been down a fair bit. Smallest was East Otago High School. And across New Zealand on the 1st of August, 49 had higher attendance than the week before, but the number had actually dropped across parkrun New Zealand, which was interesting. And 23 of their events had a lower attendance. On the 18th of August, there were 72 parkruns. There were 9,323 parkrunners and 1,170 volunteers, plus any pending results. And the rest of my information is very scarce for that week because our source is currently over in Singapore enjoying the extra long weekend.

00:25:32Lyndell Murray: Indeed. Alrighty, let's check in with Australia. And on the 1st of August in Australia, there were 69,410 participants, 6,870 volunteers at 541 events. On the 8th of August, we had 66,583 participants involved. 6,830 volunteers at 534 events. And there were 2,280 first timers, which is an incredible number of people. And also on the 8th of August, one attendance record was set, and that was up in Cairns in sunny far north Queensland. Our junior events, I've got the stats here for the 8th of August. And so this last parkrun junior day on Sunday, there were five events conducted with 357 little legends guided by 104 volunteers. Now, for our largest and smallest events over the last two weeks, we've got a really good spread across the states of Australia. So let's look into that and dive into that a little bit, Tok. Queensland and Victoria both have largest events, with Albert Melbourne being the largest event both weeks and South Bank in Queensland being in the top three largest both weeks. Tasmania's Zeehan Golf Course and Western Australia's Moora tied for the second smallest on the 1st of August, both with eight participants. South Australia's representation came from the smallest parkrun on the 8th of August, and that was Meningie with five participants. And New South Wales had the third largest event on the 8th, and that was Rhodes with 611 participants. So we've covered all of our states in the smallest and largest, but neither of the Australian territories. They must be just a little bit more average.

00:27:30Tony O'Connell: It's actually a good spread of events, Lyndell, to have representation. And I love hearing some of those little names. We know the big names. We know the Rhodes and the Albert Melbourne and the South Bank. They're names that are well and truly ingrained in the parkrun, I guess, folklore in Australia. If you come to Victoria, everyone seems to want to do Albert. If you go to Brisbane, South Bank seems to be the one of choice quite often. But I love to hear those little ones. And I've been to quite a few of the little ones that came up on our list. And they just... You get that flash of the course in your head and quite often like Zine, you know, it's the breakfast afterwards. We sat in a little cafe, you know, and just sat around and talked. You get those sort of things. You know, Meningie was great. They got the little statue with the guy riding a pelican and that sort of thing there, you know, just those sort of things that flash up in your memory. So I actually love hearing the events named like that.

00:28:27Lyndell Murray: Yeah, I have those same kind of memories of doing Railway Park in Proston. It's a very small event and I went and had a coffee with the event director after the parkrun before I drove my two hours back to wherever I was going. So yeah, those little events really do stick with you, don't they?

00:28:46Tony O'Connell: Yeah, they're pretty cool. And when you've only got such a small number, you get to know everyone's name at an event. You can't rock up at a big event and name everyone. But yeah, just those little community events, they're real groupers.

00:29:01Lyndell Murray: Although I will say South Bank, which we've often named as one of the largest, what they do to counter that, this is actually a really special thing. When you volunteer at South Bank, they print up a little name badge for you. So even though they have 600, 700, 800 runners and 20 or 30 volunteers, whatever number it is, it's a big volunteer team as well. You can always say hello to the volunteer by using their name. Yeah, it's a really nice touch that they have at South Bank.

00:29:29Tony O'Connell: Yeah, that's really cool. That's one of the things I really miss about the way we've gone to some of the barcodes and that now is when you were scanning in the old days when someone came up with a printed barcode, you'd always say, well done, Lyndell, and they'd look at you and say, how do you know my name? In fact, it's in front of you. Yeah, no, it was really good. It's just that personal thing about it.

00:29:48Lyndell Murray: All righty, Toc. That's probably enough from us for a bit. Let's hear from others and let's hear our roving reports.

Roving Adventurers (roving reporter crossovers)

00:30:04Alison Fraser: Kia ora koutou adventurers, it's Alison here reporting in from across the ditch and across the Cook Strait. Today I'm at Motueka Beach Reserve parkrun. It's been a glorious morning and I'm with the co-event director Eileen. So welcome to the pod Eileen. Thank you. Can you please tell us how Mochiwika got a parkrun? I think this was the final district or region of New Zealand to get a parkrun. So how did we get a parkrun here? [Te Reo Māori: "Hello / greetings to you all, adventurers"]

00:30:30Eileen: Well, we had a lot of people asking for one and no one was doing anything and Nelson got up and running, but a lot of people found a big trek from over here to get to Nelson. So we thought, well, why not plan the course and the rest is history.

00:30:44Alison Fraser: So was there already a running community here that was aware of parkrun?

00:30:48Eileen: Not really. There was probably half a dozen, but I put an article in the paper and said I wanted to get one underway. And I got out of that 22 people only wanting to be volunteers, not necessarily even wanting to do it.

00:31:00[crosstalk]

00:31:00Alison Fraser: That's an event director's dream.

00:31:02Eileen: Yeah. So we just took it from there and formed a little group on WhatsApp. And we had about five times of checking out the course, having input, deciding on a name. And then the big job of putting the paperwork together and contacting councils and things.

00:31:21Alison Fraser: Now, I heard just earlier from another parkrunner that it didn't take you too long to do that, just a matter of months.

00:31:26Eileen: No, I started looking into it November and our first one was March 21st. But I'm lucky I'm retired. I could put a lot of time into it. And it was a lot of time. But I also had some very good people willing to come down on a Saturday and give it a crack and see what they thought.

00:31:43Alison Fraser: Yeah. So we're at Mochureka Beach Reserve itself, standing on the grass. And can you describe the course to listeners, please?

00:31:50Eileen: The course is an out-and-back course which runs right along the Great Taste Trail. And it starts at the beach reserve, obviously, where the motorhomes all park up, which is quite nice because we get some motorhomers joining us. and they just go out past the Janey Seddon wreck, have beautiful sunrises as we go, and then turn around and come back exactly the same way. You cannot get lost.

00:32:13Alison Fraser: No, and it's a stunning thing. You go past the saltwater pools as well.

00:32:16Eileen: Yeah, saltwater baths if you need a dip afterwards.

00:32:18Alison Fraser: A bit chilly today, though. Yes.

00:32:21Eileen: Although, as we were running, I did see someone having a swim. Oh yes, they're very keen here. We get a lot of kayakers and paddleboarders and yeah it's always something to look at. And we're really lucky because a lot of people at our particular parkrun just walk their dogs or walk. We have probably a third of them are walking not running.

00:32:39[crosstalk]

00:32:39Alison Fraser: Yeah, which is great to see. Yeah, fabulous. Quite a few buggies too.

00:32:43Eileen: Oh yes, we have our little baby buggy bevy. Yeah, it's good.

00:32:50Alison Fraser: So you said you put an article in the paper. Yes. How did you find out about parkrun?

00:32:56Eileen: Oh, well, I've been a member of Harriers for a long, long time, and we kept getting approached to start a parkrun in Nelson years ago. But we used to struggle getting helpers even for our athletics and Harrier club, so we sort of kept putting it on hold. And then, of course, Ruth and Graham in Nelson got their one up and running, so we thought, oh, well, we can't let them beat us too much.

00:33:18Alison Fraser: A bit of competition between the two of you.

00:33:20Eileen: Well, everywhere I'd go, I'd run in Blenheim Park, run and I'd run in Queenstown. They're all saying, why isn't there one in Nelson? And I said, well, no one's done it yet. So, yeah, so that's how, I mean, I've been very aware of it for a long time. Just getting going.

00:33:34Alison Fraser: And it's great for this part of the country because it is beautiful. Oh, stunning. Yeah. I was commenting as we were going along, I feel like I'm in a different country now.

00:33:37[crosstalk]

00:33:42Eileen: Yeah, like we're regularly, for a small town, getting 90-plus runners, walkers every week. And this isn't even holiday season. And we've been really lucky we haven't had any rain yet. Oh, wow.

00:33:55Alison Fraser: What is it that you yourself love about parkrun, Eileen?

00:33:58Eileen: Do you know, I think it's the ease that it runs and it's like clockwork. And as Graham and Ruth told us in the beginning, you can't do anything wrong. It's just easy. And it's quite minimalistic, really. You don't have to spend hours setting up courses and hours clearing up. And yeah, I like the ease of it. And I like the friendliness. People are so enthusiastic. And being a free event, I think... yeah the expectation isn't what it is if you go to a major event where you've spent hundreds of dollars to enter you know so it's much less stress yeah and I think it's all about community well for me it's community it's community and then we all hop off for a coffee afterwards and I've met some people that I would not have met otherwise it's really cool

00:34:36[crosstalk]

00:34:43Alison Fraser: And when you go around the country, as I was telling you before we started and hit record, come to parkrun today. We're at the top of the South Island and I've bumped into a couple, Rebecca and Graham from Masterton and Gail and David who live in Dunedin. And none of us expected all of us to be here. So it's been really, really awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much, Eileen.

00:34:58[crosstalk]

00:35:01Eileen: No worries. My pleasure. Bye.

00:35:04David Bravos: Good morning Adventurers, David Bravos here. I'm at lovely Town Beach parkrun in Broome with Bruce, the Run Director for today. Apologies if the audio quality isn't great, it is something very strange is happening here, it's windy. It's below 20 degrees in fact, which I was not expecting at all. Good morning Bruce, how did today's event go?

00:35:25Bruce: Yeah, today's event went pretty well. Considering that we had to make some changes to fit in with another event, cut off part of our normal course. So, and the wind for this time of year is sort of fairly normal. But it usually only lasts for a couple of weeks at the most. But yeah, weather's unpredictable I suppose, but yeah. Only warm without this cold wind.

00:35:53David Bravos: So what got you involved with parkrun?

00:35:55Bruce: I got introduced to it in Brisbane when I was over there when I was travelling around Australia in about 2015. and a friend of mine just took me along and I just kept it up since then and when I was travelling, continued my travels. I was trying to do parkruns wherever I came to if I was there on a Saturday or a Friday night.

00:36:21David Bravos: So do you consider yourself a Broome local now or is this just another step?

00:36:25Bruce: Yeah, I've been here 14 years now. 14 years. Well, there you go.

00:36:29David Bravos: Yeah. 2015 was still a fair while ago now. Yeah. Yeah, so what's the story of this parkrun in particular? What motivated the group to get it set up?

00:36:39Bruce: Yeah, I think it was just time that Broome had a parkrun. There was always some locals. There's a couple of strong local running groups and they just get involved in parkrun and with a stable location regular. I was thinking that 14 years doesn't add up, does it? I actually came to Broome and then I left again and then came back. Yeah, I actually originally got here in 2012.

00:37:06David Bravos: Yeah I have noticed it's usually a fairly strong turnout here so is it a good mix of locals and tourists?

00:37:15Bruce: Yeah there's a thing here called what we call locals called broom time which is so usually at the start of every parkrun there's a bunch of visitors, travellers, tourists. um and they get a first time as tall and they're uh they're looking around and there's sort of no one here and then all the brown locals turn up within with a minute to go which is sort of what happened again today so it's a real phenomenon um phenomenon um and it um Yeah, I think it's part of the character of Broome. But yeah, we normally get, we've always consistently got around, you know, 80 to 100 participants. I think our best one, one week I was director, we had 220, and then we had to rope in a few extra marshals that morning, and we don't know where they came from. And then towards the middle of the dry season, we'll probably go up to about 150, which is sort of about our standard. for that coming up this that time of year again now um and then through the wet season we might drop down to about 40. um because you've got to be pretty die hard because it's very very humid 90 100 humidity and uh yeah thank you very much yeah it is an interesting course isn't it not everyone likes the luck forest but um but most mostly we get very good feedback about it and and We're limited by parkrun rules about how your courses have to be set up, not crossing the road and having a toilet nearby. But it's a nice park. And we've got the jetty.

00:37:41[crosstalk]

00:38:06[crosstalk]

00:38:59David Bravos: That's brilliant. It's a lovely part of the course, going out on the jetty four times a week.

00:39:00[crosstalk]

00:39:02Bruce: Sometimes the tide's in, but today it's out. So that's just the way it is.

00:39:06David Bravos: Awesome. Thank you very much.

00:39:07Bruce: No worries. Thanks.

00:39:11E-Man: Hey guys, Eman here, checking in from Ambleside parkrun, which is located in Vancouver. This is our first of 50 different parkruns in the Vergara family. I'm very excited to be joined by Johnny, who was the first time brief person this morning, as well as the park walker. I have to say it was quite entertaining. There was a lot more tourists this morning than locals, but I'll pass it over to Johnny. And firstly, tell us about this course.

00:39:41Johnny: Well, we probably have one of the most beautiful courses because we run along the Pacific Ocean and we see seals, we see bald eagles and it's flat and nice and we have happy people around us. So it's just a great, great course.

00:39:58E-Man: And I understand today is also the fourth year anniversary. Johnny, when did you start parkrunning in this event?

00:40:04Johnny: I started three years ago and I have enjoyed it ever since. Try to make as many as I can. And everywhere I go, I travel. I want to put in a parkrun so I have something to prepare because I can see what we have and what others are doing. And then as a volunteer, we can try to do it better and better and better.

00:40:24E-Man: And did you find out about parkrun from this event or were you parkrunning before?

00:40:28Johnny: I was not parkrunning at all. I was out for a walk with my wife and she saw a sign and said, we should do that and force ourselves out to actually do something. We've been running before, but just not structured the same way. And it's just a wonderful community, great people, great surroundings. So every Saturday morning, nine o'clock we are just happy to be here yeah wow and then in terms of the actual course itself you said it's an out and back is that right it's pretty much two and a half kilometers out and then back the exact same way so it's easy for people to find it and it's still beautiful because we run along the water and see nature and we are surrounded by, we have right now where we are walking, we can see our main gate, our main bridge. The Lions Gate Bridge. Lions Gate Bridge. We have Stanley Park on our right. We have people who are out fishing, etc. So yeah, it's just a wonderful experience every Saturday. It's a nice boost to the weekend.

00:41:32E-Man: Yeah, wow. And it's certainly true. It's so picturesque right here. The weather is beautiful. Definitely come here in summer. Last question, Johnny. You mentioned you've traveled internationally and done some different parkruns. What are some of the memorable or some of your favorite parkruns outside Ambleside?

00:41:47Johnny: Well, I have to say, unfortunately, that my favorite parkruns, my favorite parkrun is by far Ambleside. But I also, other parkruns in Vancouver are pretty good. But the ones I've experienced outside Vancouver, they do not compare.

00:42:05E-Man: Would you name any of the others that we should check out while we're in Vancouver for the month?

00:42:09Johnny: Well, there's definitely one just across the water at Spanish Banks. That one, but it's very, it's along the water, but it's just back and forth where we do a little bit more of a curl to that one.

00:42:23E-Man: Yeah, wow, awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time, Johnny. It's been great chatting to you. And yeah, I look forward to doing the rest of this course and checking out other parkruns in Vancouver. E-Man signing off. Thanks.

00:42:30[background music]

00:42:41Tony O'Connell: Righto, Linda, that's another brilliant set of roving reports there. I love that we're getting such a diversity of different courses, but this week we've got two beach courses in there, which was really cool, or towns with beach in the name. We heard from Alison at Machuka Beach parkrun in New Zealand. She was talking to Eileen, who's a co-ED, and they were actually the last district in New Zealand to get a parkrun. So every district in New Zealand now has a parkrun within the district. They're located pretty well at the top of the South Island. Next, we heard from our very own editor, Mr. David Bravos at Town Beach parkrun, running up in Broome, which is towards the top end of WA, with Bruce. And a bit of a comment there about running in humidity. I'm not a big fan of that, but... One of the things that you do to get through every event in the state and become a statesman, Dave. And finally, we heard from E-Man at the start of their tour. E-Man came to us from Ambleside in Vancouver. E-Man actually sent an email in and it said, greetings from Vancouver. Our parkrun world trip has officially begun with our first of 50 different events. And that was at Ambleside in Vancouver today. Not sure if this has been featured before, but this is a standout picturesque parkrun event. Rivaling Parama in terms of views of the city. I chatted to Johnny who conducted the first time as brief and park walker. Today we had more tourists than locals and we also celebrated Ambleside's fourth birthday. So there was cake, snacks and coffee afterwards. So three great reports there, Linda.

00:44:17Lyndell Murray: Brilliant. Absolutely. It's great to hear from all of our friends with the roving reports. Okay, Tok, let's head over to Daz's. And Like always, we have chosen five comments from each of the last two weeks of Daz's posts. It's always really hard to pick a selection because we are just getting more and more comments on our Daz's posts, which is great. We love your comments. It gives us a quandary every week though when we put together our selections. But here we go. On the first of August, Dazza said, it's homemade pie day and Dazza has all the pie ready for you. Pop in, grab a slice and tell us about your morning. So from the 126 comments in Dazza's this week, these are the ones that we've selected.

Dazza's

00:45:11Tony O'Connell: Rightio, we're going to start off with one of our friends, Rex Green, who came to us from Wauchope in New South Wales. Rex has sent us a big dot point list, and I'm going to read through these because there's a lot of things in here. There's a lot of things to unpack in Rex's comments. Adventures before Pi, unfortunately. You think, unfortunately, before parkrun? But let's go through them. Dot point. Last minute decision to drive three hours to Nendi. Tick. Book motel. Tick. Drive to within 30 kilometres of destination without hitting a roo. Tick. Hit roo. Tick. Don't know if that one should have been a tick there, Rex. It should have been a cross. Start submitting insurance claim online. Tick. Wait one hour for a tow truck. Tick. Go to motel. Tick. Have not so good a night's sleep. Tick. Don new adventurous cap to go with adventurous T-shirt. Tick. Jog to parkrun. Any other choice? No. Cars are panel beaters. Tick. Meet the most excellent crew at Warchoke parkrun. Tick. Run fastest parkrun in over a year. Tick. Get photobombed while having a picture taken with the venue photo frame. Tick. Enjoy good company at the parkrun breakfast. Tick. Try to get a hire car to go home. Tick. Decide to stay another night because no cars are available. Tick. Give up adventuring because of misfortune. No way. Tick. Hope to continue to meet adventurers out in the wild. Tick. And the picture was of Rex in his adventurous T-shirt and cap with the selfie frame and the water in the background. But he's half obscured by a photo bomber. So I don't know if it was a good set up picture, Rex, or you really were bombed, but they've done the job really well.

00:47:05Lyndell Murray: Well, when I looked at Rex's photo, I wondered whether he was photobombing somebody else's photo, to be honest. It was quite a funny photo. And just a quick correction before we get the emails, Toc, it's Warhope. The C is silent in Warhope.

00:47:22Tony O'Connell: Yep, that's me. That's a town to pronounce, and I've butchered it again. Warhope. I love you, people at Warhope. Don't come at me with pitchforks.

00:47:33Lyndell Murray: No, not at all. Okay, next we heard from David Westaway. And David said he settled for a toasty after Werribee Park Mansion. And David and a group pictured in front of the mansion. It looks like it might be a pick of the volleys for the week, but the research department tells us that none of them are adventurers. So, David, you should have signed them up. We did have two other adventurers at Werribee Mansion. Carolyn McRae also posted in Daz's celebrating her 63rd birthday with her 63rd placing and her 163rd different Australian event. That's incredible. Well done, Carolyn. The other adventure at Werribee Mansion was Jan Matters.

00:48:20Tony O'Connell: And Jan and Carolyn are often travelling together. They're a bit of a bunch where one turns up, the other one generally is. So well done, ladies. Rightio, our next one was from Chloe Bravos from Shipwreck in WA. And Chloe said, Dave's a bit under the weather and Shipwreck needed a timekeeper. So we jumped in the car and took this cutie pie, homemade, to them. Oh. What a lovely, friendly parkrun it is and such a killer playground. And the little cutie pie that was pictured in the selfie frame is none other than Lucy Bravos. I've also heard a lot about the children's playground at Shipwreck parkrun, so that's one to add on to the list, Lyndell.

00:49:00Lyndell Murray: Yeah, it was a good one for Chloe and Lucy to be able to get up to with that playground up there. Okay, next we heard from Claire who was at Zegerplas, Netherlands. And Claire was with Helen Patricia, Lucille Peed and Andrew Rutter. And the picture that they posted was that group of adventurers with a few more adventurers and in front of the pop-up with Zega Plus Lake in the background. And it was a beautiful blue sky day. We also had a visit to Daz's from Helen Patricia. She had pancakes for breakfast, not pie.

00:49:39Tony O'Connell: Moving up to your neck of the woods to Queensland. Barbara Werther came to us from Kawarra Beach. Did I get that one right?

00:49:48Lyndell Murray: I don't know.

00:49:52Tony O'Connell: I shouldn't have asked. I should just say confidently, Barbara Luther came to us from Kawara Beach. Barbara said, we enjoyed a return visit to Kawara Beach this morning for Roger's 550th parkrun. It's one of the most scenic parkrun courses. Barbara and Roger pitched with the selfie frame and with the beach in the background.

00:50:12Lyndell Murray: It certainly does look like a really scenic place to be. Thanks for posting and thanks for visiting Daz's, Barbara.

00:50:18Tony O'Connell: That's all for the 1st of August. On the 8th of August, Daz opened up his cafe again and Daz has said, it's International Cat Day with a cat emoji. Are you a cat person or a dog person with a dog emoji? We welcome everyone at Daz's, whatever your preferences, so come on in and tell us all about your morning.

00:50:39Lyndell Murray: And firstly, we heard from Sonja Pohlman at the beaches. And Sonia very simply posted three cat emojis and a beach umbrella as her comment. Her photo was of her volunteering at the beaches wearing the red volunteer vest and a furry pink hat with little cat ears. It was very cute.

00:51:00Tony O'Connell: Our next one was Adrian Luscombe. Adrian said, feeling like the cat that got the cream at Old Showfield parkrun in Froome, Somerset, celebrating my blue shirt milestone. And Adrian posted a picture of himself in his new 500 milestone shirt in front of the Froome Crit Club on a board.

00:51:21Lyndell Murray: Congratulations, Adrian. Next, we heard from Veronica Lightfoot. Veronica says, I have two cats and two dogs, but neither of them came to park at Redcliffe this morning. And the picture that Veronica posted was sunrise over Redcliffe Beach.

00:51:38Tony O'Connell: Back across to where West is best. David Messenger came to us from Bibra Lake. David said, both Christine Brown and I are dog people. Today we ventured out in the rain to Bibra Lake parkrun where Christine achieved a V4 status by handing out the finished tokens and I walked towards my V14 status as a pacer. It was our second year anniversary last Monday and I compiled a multiple page photo gallery of our adventures and one of the pages was devoted to parkrun. Christine also orders both parkrun adventure tops which arrived on our anniversary and we wore today. And David posted a picture of the photo gallery with pictures from various adventures across New Zealand, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia.

00:52:27Lyndell Murray: Next we heard from Val Warwick and Val said... These oldies are neither cat or dog people, but we did have fun at our 50s-themed fourth birthday at Bell's Parade parkrun, where Steve was towel walking and I was photographer. Now, the photo that Val posted of the two of them was really noteworthy, I thought. Val was wearing her beautiful floral skirt, a lovely cardigan, pearls, cloche hat, and T-Strap Mary Janes. And Steve looks like a 50s ad executive with a very dapper suit, his trilby hat and a briefcase. Very, very smart. So well done Val and Steve for I'm sure winning the prize for the best dressed at Elles Parade parkrun.

00:53:15Tony O'Connell: It was a great photo. I just saw so many resemblances in that photo and I said to you right at the start of the show when we were having our little chat, I thought I was looking at an episode of The Sullivans there for a minute.

00:53:27Bruce: Yep.

00:53:29Lyndell Murray: but a great picture, and Steve and Val always go that extra, extra step so well done guys absolutely so thanks to everyone who posted pictures of their cats for international cat day and I have to give a special shout out to Johan who posted yet another adorable picture of him and Levi so thank you for everybody who posted in Daz's in the last couple of weeks Tok are you a dog person or are you a cat person

00:53:59Tony O'Connell: I'm probably not much of either. I love dogs occasionally, but with the amount of travelling we do, a dog is just not practical. My son had a dog, Little Raz, and I love Little Raz. Raz was a great pup. But, yeah, look, with the amount of travelling we do, it's just not practical. And the estate that I live in actually is a cat-free estate. So, yeah, no cats anywhere near our estate. So... Sorry, Sonia, don't shoot me for that, but, yeah, we're a cat for a state here, and I'm quite happy about that.

00:54:35Lyndell Murray: All righty.

Obi Award — Chloe Bravos

00:54:37Tony O'Connell: We need to have an obi, and I think you might have the envelope this week, Linda.

00:54:43Lyndell Murray: Yes, here it is. Okay, the obi this week goes to Chloe Bravos for the cute little cutie pie pictured on homemade pie day.

00:54:53Tony O'Connell: Well done to Chloe, and that's a great picture, Lucy. And Lucy grows up every time we see a photo, Lyndell. I think the same with all our Western Australian friends. You don't see them often enough.

00:55:04Lyndell Murray: Yeah, they're a long way away over there.

00:55:08Tony O'Connell: Righto, everyone. If we've given you a shout-out on Dazzers today, send us an email or comment on a post in Facebook to let us know that you're a listener. It's always interesting to see who listens and who just jumps in on Dazzers on the weekends.

00:55:22Lyndell Murray: Sure is. Okay, Tok, it's time for your segment, emails. And we have an email this week.

Emails

00:55:29Pippa: You've got mail.

00:55:30Lyndell Murray: This week we heard from Ali Shepherd, who confirmed that ibis do exist outside Australia, but bin chickens do not. So Simon and Sarah were correct in saying that bin chickens is very much an Australian term. So Ali sent us a great story about her experiences of ibises she loves her bin chicken ugly christmas shirt because she's had some really notable encounters with ibises some real ibises and some turned out to be statues so thanks so much for emailing us ali and for weighing in on this very important topic all right that's our emails for this week so now it's time to check in with our friend reginald

00:56:10[background music]

Club Corner

00:56:18Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III: This is Koo-ee-ee from Reginald Yardley Pomfrey III, with Club Corner, where we quiz the hosts and listeners with Who Am I, and I am coming to you from Aranda Country. I am continuing with this unasked for, and unwanted format smiley face. Who am I is an easy game to play. I will ask questions and you will shout the answer when you think you know it. I will continue asking questions and you will, or will not, realize how wrong you were, and then at the end, all will be revealed. Let us get going. Who am I? Pause if you need. Question 1. My state or territory has not been featured on Who am I? Question 2. I am on an island. Question 3. I have many neighbors. Question 4. I am at the bottom of this Northern Island. Question 5. I was something new. Question 6. I operate on a stop bank. Yes, I needed to look up what is a stop bank. And finally, Question 7. I was the number one event in New Zealand. Who am I? I am Lower Hutt parkrun, in New Zealand, on the Northern Island. That is your lot for the week, 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.

00:57:50[background music]

00:57:52Tony O'Connell: Reginald is really on a roll with all my eyes. I had no idea about this event and I had to look it up. Fun facts, Lower Hutt is 711 events old and they get a couple hundred finishes every week. And yes, I had to go and have a look at what a stop bank was. I had to look it up using Dr. Google. But Reginald, I've got a question about... Question four, is Lower Hutt at the bottom of the island? I think our friends at Watangi might dispute this as they're the southernmost parkrun on the Northern Ireland. So are they really at the bottom of the island?

00:58:28Lyndell Murray: Well, they're definitely not at the top. They might not be the most southerly, but they're definitely not at the top of the island. So I think I'm with Reginald on this one. It's at the bottom of the island. But Tok, I had to look up Stop Bank as well. And I always have a chuckle. New Zealanders have lots of little colloquialisms like this, like chili bins and judder bars. So I thought Stop Bank was another great little term.

00:58:55Tony O'Connell: Linda, what on earth is a judder bar? When is it, is it something where you go for like a drink after work or?

00:59:04Lyndell Murray: No. Well, New Zealand colloquialisms are what they say. All right. So a stop bank is a bank to stop the water. Chili bins are things to keep things cold. Jutter bars are things that you go over to make you go slower. A jutter bar is a speed bump.

00:59:23Tony O'Connell: Ah, right. Well, why don't they call it normal things like we do? It's not like Australia has any colloquialisms. We just talk normal English. I'm sure we do.

00:59:33Lyndell Murray: Oh, come on. We just had a conversation about bin chickens talk. But yeah, I had heard of Lower Hutt before. I have been to Wellington, but I wasn't able to get a parkrun in, but it didn't stop me doing the research just in case. So I did know about Lower Hutt and knew it was in Wellington straight away. All right. It is now time for the Adventurers Consolidated Club Report for this episode. And great news, TOC, our membership is over 950. So we've really grown. At the beginning of the year, we were wondering whether we would hit 900. And here we are at 950. So that's great news. In both of the last couple of weeks, we have had at least 650 Adventurers complete parkrun events. And in terms of which events we've been at, Queensland topped the table on the 1st of August with Adventurers at 64 events. New South Wales topped the table on the 8th of August with adventurers at 58 events. On both of the last two parkrun weeks, we covered all of the states and territories in Australia and we covered both the North and South Island of New Zealand. Internationally, on the 8th of August, we had adventurers at all the events in Singapore. And all the events in Malaysia. So that's great news. But there does seem to be a bit of a slight drop in numbers of events in general on the 8th. And that's compared to how many events we covered on the 1st. And I think with so many of us traveling over to Singapore from particularly Australia, both

Consolidated Club Report

01:01:08Tony O'Connell: eastern western states maybe that had a bit of an impact and so the number of Australian events went down a little bit on the 8th I think that might have had a fair impact on it Lyndell I certainly know and I know we associate with people that do this sort of thing I get that we're probably not the normal parkrunner We are a little bit on the edge, a bit more extreme. But I certainly know a lot of people that were heading over to Singapore. So that would have had an impact on the number of different Australian events, certainly. But it was interesting that nearly every state and territory across Australia between the first and the eighth dropped in number of events. So it was pretty widespread, the drop.

01:01:49Lyndell Murray: Yeah. We'll have to get the research department to do more research. Or maybe we just leave it and move on. Yeah.

01:01:56Tony O'Connell: I think if we're going to get the research department to do more research, we'd have to give them a bigger budget. We don't have a budget, so let's move on.

01:02:03Johnny: Let's move on.

The Frond

01:02:05Tony O'Connell: Rightio, we're going to go to our largest international frond. And on the 1st of August, the largest frond was at Stanborough in the UK. And that included our very good friend Danny Norman, Lorraine Hare, Colin Hare, Maria Wicks and Branca Moss. On the 8th of the 8th, not surprisingly, the largest frond was one of the Singapore events. This is a frond of 18 people at Bedok Reservoir. And they included Amos Vague, Oscar Ryan, Rodney Glossop, Chris and Karen Gore, Dan Baldwin, Matthew Stevens, Cameron Story, Brenton Pullman, Sarah Iles, Rebecca Simpson, Angie Martin, Andrew Yeatman, Yvette and Bill Turner. Sal Turi, Sarah Janshah, Abdul Mohammed Isa. That was a very big group. It was a big group to go through.

01:02:57Lyndell Murray: Big group to go through, Toc. Well done. Moving on to our pilgrimage. And on the 1st of August, we had Tony Reeves doing his pilgrimage at Bushy. And on the 8th of August, our very own roving reporter, Calum Burrell, was there with Phil Corker.

Pilgrimage

01:03:14Tony O'Connell: Rightio, moving back into Australia to the largest Australian fronds. On the 1st of August, we had a frond of nine at two events, and I'm going to pick one of them at random, and I'm going to pick Albert, Melbourne, and that was Ryan Stoddart, Oliver Andrews, Jason Andrews, Chris Parker, Deborah Jessop, Jane Bryan, Dawn Branton, Christine Hewitt, and Simon Ruse. On the 8th of August, once again, we had a front of nine at two events, so we seem to be getting that nine going fairly regularly. The one we've picked is Parama parkrun, and the nine people were Bill Troy, Joshua Jackson, Alistair Buchanan, Abigail Cooper, Em Nico, Trent Avery, Joe Richards, Joe Singo, and Emma Champion.

01:04:07Lyndell Murray: And of course, we had our special day in Singapore as well, Tok, on the 9th of August. So on this special date in Singapore, we had 40 adventurers take part at two locations. So East Coast Park had 23 adventurers. and West Coast Park had 17 adventurers.

01:04:26Tony O'Connell: The 9th of August is Singapore's National Day and it celebrates the day that Singapore separated from Malaysia in 1964. And I know a couple of years ago I was over there in the preparations for Singapore Day and they certainly put a lot into their National Day, a lot of marches. And we actually were there about a week before and we were watching, they were doing rehearsals for the National Day. It was amazing to think of what they were doing.

01:04:51Lyndell Murray: Yeah, fantastic. I'll have to put that on my list and go one day. Remember, you can add the Adventurers Club as one of the five affiliations in your parkrun profile. Tok, this is the segment that we've all been waiting for. Watching the numbers at Plantation Forest parkrun. Now, we really do have to try and get some budget so that we don't have to sing that.

Watching the numbers at Plantation Forest parkrun

01:05:13Tony O'Connell: Or we need to get some extra budget so we can afford a singer to come in and do backing vocals for us.

01:05:19Lyndell Murray: Yes, so many ideas and so little budget. So on the 1st of August, there were 50 finishers, including nine unknown runners and eight first time ever parkrunners. On the 8th of August, there were 35 finishers, including seven unknown runners and two first time ever parkrunners. And there were nine volunteers on that day. So overall the numbers are dropping back a little bit but the number of unknown numbers are also dropping so perhaps there's some local parkrunners there that are converting into registered runners and if that's the case that is really great news. It looks like there were a few of those first timers from the first that did come back on the 8th so that pattern does seem to be you know, happening and people are registering and coming back to parkrun. The other thing I noticed in looking at the first time is a couple of them had done a number of parkruns many years earlier. So they'd done a, you know, a dozen or so parkruns in 2017 or 2018 and then turned up at Plantation Forest. So I wonder if these people are parkrunners who have moved to St Helena and they live on the island and they've just haven't been able to access a parkrun until now.

01:06:35Tony O'Connell: I think it's great that they now have the option. I think the other thing that would be interesting, Lyndal, is we look at these as straight numbers, but it'd be interesting to even look at weather patterns, you know, and is the drop down to 35, was it a particularly ordinary day? You know, I know numbers across Victoria and Australia generally, and we often joke about the sugar people at Bushy Park, you know, the numbers over there, you know, drop by well over a third quite often when it's rainy and wet you know is it a case that you know over here they've dropped down a bit was it a wet weekend so it'll be interesting to see what the numbers do in the next couple of weeks absolutely we'll tune in with simon and sarah next time and keep an eye on it rightio i've had a bit of a deep dive and i i like my stats And I've done a bit of a deep dive into the global launches for the first six months of 2026, just to see how they're being distributed around the world. This is what we've found. Globally, there were 104 launches in the 5K parkruns. in the first six months. I haven't included juniors in this. That's a whole different set of stats. UK led the way with 34 launches and they were pretty broadly spread across the UK. Australia had 16 launches, including six in Victoria, four in Queensland, three in Western Australia, a couple in New South Wales and one in South Australia that was in a closed facility that launched the day after we drove past said closed facility. Germany had 11 launches in the same time. new zealand had eight five of those were on the north island three were on the south island poland south africa and usa all had six canada had four netherlands three denmark island japan and lithuania all had two and there was one launch in both norway and sweden and i guess one of the things i find interesting about that and looking at the numbers We look at the UK with 800 or 900 parkruns, 34 launches, Australia, 530-odd parkruns, 16. The actual percentage or the proportion of parkruns is relatively even across those. I think some of the really big hitters there are like New Zealand with those five particularly, or the eight in total, but the five on the North Island, that area up around Auckland has just gone crazy for parkruns. And Germany, you know, 11 parkruns, that's another fairly good increase off their number base that they have. So, yeah, a little bit of interest, 104. Let's see how we go in the back half of the year.

01:09:10Lyndell Murray: Yeah, absolutely. It's really great to track those. And, yeah, I think you're right. It seems like the distribution is pretty even across all of our territories, which is fantastic. And speaking of launches, let's get into our new events talk. On the 1st of August, there was one launch globally called And it was Spinnaker parkrun in Queensland, Australia. So this is located in a parkland on the Harbour Breakwater in Gladstone. The previous parkrun course in Gladstone has been closed. And so Spinnaker parkrun replaces it. And I tell you, it looks really great. with water views the whole way around it just looks like a really delightful course to go and check out one day so on week one there were 204 finishers and there were 17 volunteers and the cafe is right in the middle of the course you run past it a few times so who knows they might be able to set up something for you to get your order in as you head back to the finish line so it's ready waiting for you when you get there

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

01:10:09Tony O'Connell: Being that far up in Queensland, you might be putting an order in for a cool smoothie to pick up on a second lap or something to take with you.

01:10:15Lyndell Murray: That's a great idea.

01:10:18Tony O'Connell: Quick takeaways. On the 8th of August last weekend, there were only two launches worldwide, and I find this really interesting. We've had one on the 1st, two on the 8th, but we came off the back of about six or eight weeks of consecutive four and five launches. The numbers really... And Dan, I'm just trying to think back a few months as to what the reason might have been. parkrun's, for those that don't know, once all the paperwork and that goes in, it's generally about an eight-week window before a launch occurs. And I'm trying to think, you know, what was happening back late May, early June that seems to have impacted on the numbers quite significantly? I know we don't have a lot of launches in the March period. april period because that's when we're coming out of the christmas break for submission but anyway on the 8th there were two launches worldwide the first of which was crofton park parkrun in the uk and it's another course to study i think you've just got to go to a map to have a look at this i'm not even going to try to describe it because it is linguistic gymnastics i think in the course located southwest of birmingham but more importantly and the key thing about crofton park when you look at it on the map is it southwest of Cadbury World, so the southwest of a chocolate factory so i'm in me too talk sign me up The launch attracted 432 finishers and they had 40 volunteers.

01:11:44Lyndell Murray: Okay, also in the UK there was West Bay parkrun, Dunoon and on its launch day there were 119 finishers and 19 volunteers. It's a two-lap out-and-back course, and it runs alongside the Clyde River. And Dunoon is west of Glasgow in Scotland.

01:12:05Tony O'Connell: That's a very small wrap-up for launches for two weeks there. Looking ahead, I think we're reaching that point of the show, Lyndell. Looking ahead, I'm looking forward to a couple of weeks away. I've got another road trip planned. I'm going to go over to Tassie to complete Hobblers Bridge, which is near Launceston. And I'm really hopeful that I catch up with Leanne and Lee Evans over there. Lee's the event director there. Leanne's over at Kate Reed. And I think they've got family that look after one of the other parkruns as well. So they're a very well-known parkrun family in the Launceston area. What about you?

Looking ahead

01:12:37Lyndell Murray: Well, I am looking forward to climbing up some buildings. I've got some stair climbs coming up, Toc, which I'm not as prepared for as I would like to be. But it's like the carnival of stair climbing is coming to southeast Queensland. We have three events in four days. So one in Brisbane, two on the Gold Coast. So that is going to be me in a couple of weeks' time.

01:13:00Tony O'Connell: So by the third event, your legs are screaming out.

01:13:05Lyndell Murray: Yeah, well, the third event is the biggest building and it's the one that, it's the blue ribbon event, I think. I think it's the one that most stair climbers look two as being the benchmark and it's the last one so I don't know they probably need some better event planning I don't know although it is great having them all together because it means that stair climbers from all around the country can come and do all of the events that we have here in southeast Queensland so that is great oh look it's fair to say Lyndal and speaking from experience that training's overrated you just rock up and do the event and hope for the best absolutely

01:13:40Tony O'Connell: And there's always a potential of going to Cadbury World as well. So work that one out.

01:13:44Lyndell Murray: Yes, there's got to be something down there where there's chocolate.

01:13:48Tony O'Connell: So I found out things about you tonight, Lyndell. You like chocolate. You're one of my people. I like that.

01:13:54Lyndell Murray: Always, always.

01:13:55Tony O'Connell: Rightio, Lyndell. Where are you next parkrun day?

01:13:59Lyndell Murray: I will be at Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan parkrun. I hope I have that name of that parkrun correct. Yes. And I think there will be a whole bunch of adventurers there celebrating our office lady. How about you, Toc? Where are you headed?

01:14:14Tony O'Connell: I was going to go up to there and celebrate with everyone and then I realised I have a work function booked in Melbourne itself that we need to be at by 11 o'clock. So we're going to be running at a parkrun somewhere between our home and the work function and somewhere where we can find a shower on the way before we get to a full mentioned work function because I don't think people want to be sitting in a room with me parkrun fresh for the day.

01:14:39Lyndell Murray: Yes, so you've got some logistics to work out, Toc. Yep.

01:14:42Tony O'Connell: Yeah, it'll probably end up being a P-index calculation or a Wilson index calculation. And if we just look at the map and decide, hey, that was a really cool event, let's go back there.

01:14:53Lyndell Murray: Sounds great. All right. Before we sign off, of course, we would like to thank the team behind the podcast. Our Office Lady, Dave the Editor, Reginald and the Belinda Fairy.

01:15:05Tony O'Connell: As always, you can contact the team via parkrun Adventurers on Facebook. Send us your roving reports to our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. That's it for another episode. We'll see you next time for more adventures.

01:15:20[outro theme playing]

01:15:20Lyndell Murray: Next episode, you'll be hearing from Simon and Sarah.

01:15:23Tony O'Connell: Bye, everyone. Bye.