Episode 457 - Legs Eleven

Episode details · 238 speaker turns · sound cues from audio analysis

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

00:00:15Sarah Jefferson: episode 457 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.

00:00:27Simon Mackley: And I'm Simon Mackley coming to you from Quandamooka country, Quandamooka Yarrabindra. Kui Sarah.

00:00:34Sarah Jefferson: Kui Simon.

00:00:36Simon Mackley: I cannot believe that we're back in the hot seats already. The year is definitely flying by, isn't it?

00:00:41Sarah Jefferson: It sure is. Simon, guess what?

00:00:44Simon Mackley: What?

00:00:45Sarah Jefferson: I've done my meniscus in my left knee. Can you believe it?

00:00:51Simon Mackley: Oh, dear. For the uninitiated, can you explain where the meniscus is and how much pain you're actually in? I would really like to know.

00:01:00Sarah Jefferson: So, yes, I guess it's the bit of cartilage that sits inside the knee joint. So the part that I can feel is basically under my kneecap to the right-hand side. So... I guess if I get it at the wrong angle, it kind of feels a bit like a stabbing pain. Ouch. Yeah, it's not great. But fortunately, I've actually had my meniscus done on my other knee before and it was what they call a bucket handle tear and that actually requires surgery because it gets caught. So this one, from all of the tests that I've done, it seems that it's not the bucket handle tear because it doesn't get caught. Sorry. Fingers crossed, I can get on top of it with rehab, just resting it. I think it might be the universe trying to tell me to slow down, I think. Yeah, have you ever had any knee injuries or done anything like this?

00:01:56Simon Mackley: I've had a sore patella in the past, but, yeah, I've never had anything that bad. And I'm glad to hear that even though this sounds painful, that it's not a surgery fix, that it's hopefully a rehab and that sort of thing. But, yeah. Knees aren't great.

00:02:13Sarah Jefferson: Yeah, it's not great. So, yeah, when I went to the physio, it was basically, yeah, I think I have a bit of PTSD. As soon as I heard it, I was like, oh, no, I went to a worst-case scenario. Yeah, like what happened last time with my knee. But anyway, fingers crossed. It could be worse. But, yeah, no significant injury at the moment, which is certainly not ideal. That is for sure.

00:02:36Simon Mackley: Fair enough.

00:02:38Sarah Jefferson: All right. Shall we move on to your parkruns for the last month? Let us know where you've been.

00:02:44Simon Mackley: Yes. So it's been a busy four weeks for me, to be honest. I have adventured around quite a bit. So it all started back on the 1st of August at Macquarie University parkrun. It's a course that weaves its way across the campus twice. I had a great chat with my friend Glenn, although I did drop him a few hundred metres out to make sure that I stuck under my goal that I'd set for the year. And I beat it by one second. So I was very happy that I had done that. because I'd been running and talking the entire time. There were quite a few adventurers who came along as well, and I had breakfast with them, and that was the Office Lady and Luke, Peter and Sonja Pohlman, and Dirty Cheaters Dorota and Paul, as well as Listener Helen, who joined us as well. So I'm another event closer to regaining Rayfarers, if I ever catch up, so I've still got three to go. Then on the 8th of August, I went a bit more local. I was back in Brisbane, went to Rocks Riverside as it was close to where I needed to be a little later that morning. So apart from speaking to the ED Danny, Kind of flew under the radar there a bit. They had pace a week and I started well behind where I needed to be. 27 minute, 30 second pacer started in front of me. And due to the sheer size of the field of almost, no, it was over 500 runners. It took me more than a kilometre real in that pacer. And I did end up running a 25.57. So I was very chuffed. at the end of that. And the next weekend, the 15th of August, I made the trip up to Noosa with Peter Pohlman to meet up with Dorota and Josh. And adventures are great, but when you hit an accident on the return, it does get very ropey. So Peter and I were in the car two hours up, and I think it was probably closer to three hours on the way back, just because we hit some traffic and a couple of accidents. And then last Saturday, I went out to Old Esk Railway parkrun with some of the South East Queensland ambassadors. So only a 90-minute drive this time. It's an absolutely fantastic event. A mix of concrete paths. back trail and grass that goes around Esk showground. It was their 100th event and they had a larger than normal crowd, not just the ambassadors. It wasn't just us that was swelling it. So they normally get about 40 to 50 and they got 85, I think. And then afterwards, we went to Brisbane Valley Roasters for breakfast and a chat and it was well worth it for the coffee and food. Yes, I'm specifically calling out that place because it... They looked after the parkrunners, they gave us a 10% discount, and they apparently put in some of the money for the launch of Old Esk Railway. So they deserve a shout out because they're supporting their community. So for those of you in the southeast Queensland area or visiting, it is one to add to your list. An added bonus on the day as well was that there was a koala high above us in one of the huge gum trees a few hundred metres into the course. So we had four opportunities to spot it because it's an out and back parkrun. But I waited until I'd finished to go and have a good look. I did try and look while I was running, but I could not see it. And even when I walked up to it, I had to get someone else to point it out. But as soon as I saw it, I was then able to go, other people, oh, no, it's there. It's in that tree. It was really cool.

00:05:54Sarah Jefferson: Wow. What a nice experience. Such an Aussie experience, Simon. Exactly. It's great to hear that you caught up and you finally got the adventurer's bug. How many of those were new events?

00:06:07Simon Mackley: Three, actually. Three out of the four were new events, yeah.

00:06:10Sarah Jefferson: Wow. That's impressive. That's got to be a record.

00:06:14Simon Mackley: For me, yes.

00:06:15Sarah Jefferson: Yeah. Yeah, sure. Finally. Well done. Impressive. But, yeah, in all seriousness, yeah, fabulous to hear that you got to some new events and you caught up with some friends in the past month. It was very interesting hearing you mention about – because this is your average time that you're chasing, right?

00:06:15[crosstalk]

00:06:31Simon Mackley: Mm-hmm.

00:06:32Sarah Jefferson: Yes. Mm-hmm. So it's funny, Matt, my partner, and one of our friends, Brenton Pullman, who is an adventurer, have recently realised that their average parkrun times are within three seconds of each other. So it's been really funny. After we finished parkrun on Saturday, we were at different events and Brenton called Matt and he's like, what time did you do? And they're trying to, well, obviously not competitive at all, right? But yeah, trying to track each other and trying to edge up that little bit closer to each other. So I know Brenton's running really well at the moment and so is Matt. And I overheard them saying, we're definitely not tail walking for the foreseeable future, are we? So yeah, it's interesting, but I guess, you know, that little bit of extra motivation, it is amazing to see that you actually can push it when you're chasing something, even if it is, you know, one second or a couple of seconds, like it is, you know, that builds up over time and it is, quite impressive to see that.

00:07:29Simon Mackley: Exactly. Yeah, like I totally get it about like what they're talking about, the tail walking or running with slower friends or those with an injury and that sort of thing. Like it really has spurred me on. Like I used to be a 25-minute parkrunner like two years ago. For some reason since I've been doing Backyard Ultras, I struggle to get into the 25s again. It's really weird. Anyway, it is what it is.

00:07:52Sarah Jefferson: So you're saying, Simon, if we did a parkrun and I have a sore knee, you would not – walk parkrun with me you catch up with me after is that what you're saying i don't know you're going to be fixed right oh i hope so i don't know yeah i hope it's not going to be going on for months that's for sure what about you where have you been

00:07:52Simon Mackley: so since the last pod i have actually completed my position bingo which is pretty exciting yeah yeah having uh completed a parkrun now with all digits ending from zero three to ninety nine So it was completely unexpected, but great that the parkrun app actually let me know that I had achieved this. So it was pretty good to achieve. I ran at Big Red Lake, I ran at Rockingham, Cottesloe, and I did manage to tick off one new course, the newest parkrun in my state, being Murdoch University parkrun. So Murdoch University parkrun is on the traditional lands of the Whadjuk and Bindjerrib Noongar people. As the name suggests, it takes place on the grounds of Murdoch University campus. The course is a two-lapper on internal and footpaths within the university, and the start and finish area is in the centre of the university campus. So there were plenty of stunning natives and wildflowers to look at this time of year, as well as a lovely Chinese garden. So similar to the University of Western Australia, where we held the 2024 podcast, I think. We ran past a koi pond. So they have one of those at this university as well. Seems like universities certainly like their koi ponds. And I guess some points to note about this parkrun is that there is ample parking. No dogs are allowed at this event. And if I'm going to be honest, the cafe, unlike your experience, Simon, it was actually quite restricted. So if you are looking for a proper breakfast after this event, I would suggest it's best to go somewhere The cafe there made coffees. They had pies, quiches, and a few little slices, et cetera. but they didn't really offer a sit down breakfast. Overall, it was a really lovely course. On the morning, it was great to see John, Julie and Cameron's story, as well as Dave and Chloe Bravos. And a huge shout out to Dave Bravos for pushing the pram once again. He managed to do that at our palm this year. That's great. I wasn't complaining at all. This time, I actually think I ran out of snacks for my daughter before the clock even struck 8am. Nevertheless, Dave was fabulous at reading glory books while running and pushing the pram. So Great multitasking, Dave. And it was great to catch up with two-thirds of the Braavos clan minus Miss Lucy, their daughter. So at Murdoch University and Cottesloe parkruns, we actually had a chat to a man by the name of Carlos who has come up with a really great health and wellbeing initiative. He's rolling this out in Perth, Western Australia. It is Papaya, spelt P-A-P-A-Y-A, health rewards, and I think that he has a really great message to put out there. to the community. So here's a little interview with Carlos explaining a little bit about himself and his health initiative. This morning I'm here at Murdoch University parkrun for their event number four and I've been having a chat to Carlos. Good morning, Carlos.

00:11:07Carlos: Good morning, Sarah.

00:11:08Sarah Jefferson: We have just been hearing a little bit about a project of yours. Would you like to share a little bit about it with the listeners, please?

00:11:14Carlos: So I'm here promoting the different parkruns and different parts of Perth. A project and a platform called Papaya. Papaja is a platform that rewards people for being active. So after you go for a walk or a run or a hike or a ride or a swim, you name it, pilates, exercise, gym, etc. Papaja gives you free coffees and discounts in local cafes and restaurants across Perth.

00:11:41Sarah Jefferson: That's amazing. So can you explain a little bit how it actually works?

00:11:45Carlos: So basically you register. You go to the website. It's papayarewards.health. And then you register. You go there. You register. It takes less than 30 seconds to register. And then after you go for a run, for example, you record your activity on Strava. or your favorite, preferred fitness app, where it could be Garmin Connect, et cetera, and then you go to the website where it's claim, claim, unlock your rewards, and you pick the reward that you want across different section of businesses in Perth, and then you, it could be free coffees, it could be discounts, and then you send me your screenshot of the Strava, and then you go and redeem it.

00:12:36Sarah Jefferson: So for people doing, say, a five kilometre parkrun, are you saying they could just earn a free coffee by doing that?

00:12:42Carlos: Yes.

00:12:42Sarah Jefferson: Amazing. Yes. And does it work like if I went for a half marathon and run a half marathon, do I get more like points or however it works?

00:12:50Carlos: No, at the moment, every activity, so the idea is not like rewarding people long term. The idea of papaya is that people, every activity they do should be rewarded. Every step counts. So after you go for a walk, boom, like over five kilometers, or you go for a run, then you get something, and you pick the reward.

00:13:11Sarah Jefferson: And your background, can you talk just a little bit about your background, and I guess why you got to this idea of this Papaya Rewards?

00:13:19Carlos: Yes, so basically, how I started is because I was overweight, and I started... I wanted to run, I normally run, cycle and swim so I started sort of keeping track as maybe you guys are doing as well is keeping track of Strava and I was getting some bronze medals, I was getting some gold medals and I thought oh but what can I do with those things?

00:13:46Ali Sheppard: Yeah.

00:13:47Carlos: So then I decide, okay, there has to be something. So you were asking about the region. So I'm, I'm my, my trainees, I am a, I am a cancer scientist. So I focus all my career in curing cancer, melanoma, leukemia, lymphoma, but then now I'm focused on, on prevention. Unfortunately, you know, prevention is more important than cure.

00:14:11Alice: Yeah.

00:14:12Carlos: And unfortunately, the messaging of prevention is known doesn't go well with the people. I've just realized. And the idea is that by moving, we can prevent terrible diseases like diabetes, type 2 diabetes. We can prevent cancer, different type of cancer. We can reduce the risk, not prevent, but reduce the risk, also cardiovascular diseases. So my goal with papaya is that it's built, it's helped building a more active and healthier pair. And that's why I'm developing papaya.

00:14:45Sarah Jefferson: Amazing. Amazing. So just so I spell it. So it's P-A-P-A-Y-A rewards.health. If people want to check that out. Yes. Is that correct?

00:14:51[crosstalk]

00:14:55Carlos: Exactly. Papaya in different languages means popo.

00:14:59Sarah Jefferson: Yes.

00:15:00Carlos: So that's the fruit.

00:15:02Sarah Jefferson: Pioneer antioxidant fruit, right?

00:15:02[crosstalk]

00:15:03Carlos: Yes, it's like a papaya. And the reason for that is because I'm Colombian. And in Colombia, there is an expression that is like, if you have an acer papaya, you eat the papaya. It's basically that seize the opportunity. So there is opportunity presented to you. You have to take it.

00:15:22Simon Mackley: A lot to unpack here, Sarah. Congratulations on completing position bingo. I know that I'm still eight away from achieving that one. I thought I had one of them a few weeks ago, but the token I took a photo of ended up not being the position that i had on the results so there must have been something go wrong but you know it is what it is can't force these things that dave bravos is a very skilled man to run and read at the same time yeah i'm guessing that he probably knows bluey down pat though he probably didn't need the book by that stage i'm sure lucy's into into bluey

00:15:54Sarah Jefferson: Yes, he had all of the voices worked out. It was great.

00:15:57Simon Mackley: Excellent. But please tell me that he didn't overtake you or was this after you'd injured your meniscus? And where was Lucy?

00:16:06Sarah Jefferson: It was two days after I'd hurt myself. Yeah, I could feel it wasn't, yeah, and I wasn't that comfortable. So I was definitely taking it easy. Chloe did take off and did a, you know, really great run. But, yeah, Dave was happy to hang back and have a little bit of a chat and jog a little bit. And Lucy, I think, had a... first sleepover, I think, with a friend. So that was pretty big. I think she was hanging out with the neighbor or something. So yeah, I think she had her first sleepover. So that was a pretty big milestone, I guess, for their family.

00:16:36Simon Mackley: Yeah, that's awesome. And interesting to hear from Carlos as well. I forgot to mention that with his papaya health challenges. Hopefully it spreads across the country or heads across WA to start with and hopefully across the country. It sounds like a great idea.

00:16:51Sarah Jefferson: I think so. And, you know, he's very passionate. I really love that it's a focus on, you know, being a cancer scientist that he's now, you know, focusing in preventing it. Yeah, completely like being, you know, taking the step before, which I think is really great. And, you know, just getting out and moving.

00:17:10Simon Mackley: Exactly.

00:17:11Sarah Jefferson: Whatever that looks like for anyone. It's just I think we because we do it regularly. We probably don't really realize the importance or the impact that it has on our mental health and our well-being. But there's some people that that's not part of. you know, their routine. And, yeah, we don't realise just how important that is. So I thought that messaging was, yeah, really fabulous. And, yeah, good luck to Carlos and hope that it spreads. Yeah.

Episode feedback

00:17:33Simon Mackley: All righty. Let's kick on to episode feedback from last pod. So on the last episode, TOC was reminiscing about being able to see people's names on their paper barcode. And I don't know if this is a new thing or not, but definitely the parkrun app has your name on the barcode. What I did see that was missing was the in case of emergency that the paper one has, unless you have a barcode printed a long time ago that didn't have that included on there. So I know definitely that my name was on there because at Noosa two weekends ago,

00:18:02Sarah Jefferson: the barcode scanner congratulator be my name as it was on the app right in front of them when she was barcode scanning yes um simon similarly when i listened uh to top mention that last pod i thought no i'm certain that my name is on there because yeah only a few weeks ago someone said my name while scanning my barcode and i definitely um didn't know that person i Did think about the in case of emergency and thought that was good. But then I also thought most people, to be honest, have a lock on their phone anyway. So it's not like people can just go in and access the in case of emergency. You know, you never know if they'll add that in. But something I did learn with the parkrun app, I'm not sure if you already know, and I'm probably late to the party with this one, but if you hold down the parkrun app, there will be a few little options and words that pop up, and one of them being barcode. And you click on barcode and it just goes straight to your barcode and it's a really quick and easy way to load your barcode.

00:18:58Simon Mackley: Yep. I'm very well aware of that one. Yep. I've shown a few people that like newer parkrunners because they've been trying to get into the app and trying to work it out. So I've shown a few people that one, but one I did notice when I was looking at the show notes and what you'd written there, when you bring up the barcode page, there's a little icon in the bottom right-hand corner that lets you bring up the barcode of anyone that you follow. So for you, for example, be able to bring Matt's one up by choosing his name from the dropdown list. And then you can show his barcode. So say he doesn't bring it with him or it's not on his watch or that sort of thing. Or for anyone that you're trying to help to find their barcode, you can go and do that. At least for the moment, there may be changes to the app where because of GDPR regulations in Europe, that may get locked down the whole looking people's barcodes up. But we will see what happens with that.

00:19:52Sarah Jefferson: It's good to know because sometimes going and learning, depending where you are, I know in some places... For some reason in Cottesloe, I have Telstra, and it does not load that well. So if I'm trying to look someone up, it's often a lag, but that would be really handy. I know that I did it on Saturday and I just could bring up my barcode really quickly, whereas if I'm loading it, it does take much longer. So that's a really good feature. All right, so we also had a few people comment on the last episode's post on Facebook saying that they have logged a knotty thanks to TOC's reminder. So way to go, TOC, and way to go those people who had almost forgotten about to log on it seems. So these adventurers include Sarah Jansa, Gareth Arnold, Sherry Brantman, and Debbie Jessop. So they were just the people who had posted on Facebook, hopefully, or maybe even a few more did log on as well. We have had a little look at the naughty stats for Australia and can confirm that the week of TOCS appeal, the naughties did in fact go up by two in Australia to 90, but the global number fell from 909 to 842. And the stats for the past week have not been received at time of recording.

00:21:01Simon Mackley: I'm going to ask everyone to try and log a knotty again this week. So remember, it's only 5Ks. It's anywhere, anytime, doesn't have to be on a parkrun course. You can find out how to log it from your results email from parkrun or in the app. If you go into the app, you go into extras. then toolbox and then clicking the box with the plus symbol on it and add not parkrun. Today I was actually trying to notch up my 700th knotty. I didn't get it done. I got three points something casey and then had to come home. But I am a long way behind TOC with his over 2,200. Sorry, I say TOC, it's Jackie as well. I know they go out together and knock that off, but yeah, they've got over 2,200 each. Such dedication.

00:21:47Sarah Jefferson: I do, actually, I was wondering this last week. So they must have still been able to do this at airports when they travelled to Europe.

00:21:54Simon Mackley: Yeah, they definitely, they get out and do it. And I have a feeling, I might be wrong here, but I have a feeling they did it inside an airport at one stage. It may not have been on this latest trip, but on a previous trip, I'm sure they did one in an airport somewhere just to get the 5Ks in. But, yeah, they definitely do it. When they land, they might go and do the airport lounge. I don't know.

00:22:15Sarah Jefferson: Quickly hit the ground.

00:22:17Simon Mackley: Exactly, yeah. I remember, like, TOC was actually in hospital one time. He was going to a parkrun in Victoria and he went to hospital and he must have done it that morning. I think he did it the afternoon that he came out of hospital as well. Yeah. Yeah.

00:22:32Sarah Jefferson: Why doesn't that surprise me? I feel like if TOC was in my situation, Simon, and he had had a baby in his time, he probably would have almost done it then as well. Nothing stops TOC, does it?

00:22:44Simon Mackley: No, exactly.

00:22:45Sarah Jefferson: No injuries, no time zone changes. Like it's very impressive.

00:22:51Simon Mackley: Well, that's the feedback for the week. But if you enjoy the pod, we'd love it if you could rate and review us on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen. It helps other people find us so that we can keep spreading the adventuring love.

00:23:05Sarah Jefferson: Okay, Simon, the Palm 27 Messenger group is up and operational, which is exciting. So if you do intend to come along to Palm 27 in our nation's capital, and you have not been added to the group please let us know via facebook or email and we'll be sure to add you to the group so this is a place where people may be sharing accommodation details flight and hire car details at this planning stage this group will obviously be used on the weekend as the main form of communication but for now you may wish to see yeah where people will be staying and a book to stay at the same place etc so the planning for this weekend has well and truly started for the event in March next year. In saying this, Simon, I did actually do a quick count and with the way that time is flying by, Palm is only seven months away and technically about maybe 12 pod episodes away, which actually sounds really, really close, doesn't it?

00:24:04Simon Mackley: It does sound close. Twelve episodes is ridiculous. Anyway, I've locked in accommodation. I'm just holding it at the moment. I can cancel it. I might change it when other people are deciding where they go and that sort of thing. So I've locked it in because you made me feel a bit guilty last time we recorded. So, yeah, locked and loaded.

00:24:27Sarah Jefferson: Sorry about that. I'm glad that I made you feel guilty. I still haven't actually booked anything yet. I've got plans to make plans. I just... Need to execute right now.

00:24:36Simon Mackley: Yeah. I looked at accommodation near where Burley Griffin parkrun is, and there isn't a lot. So unless Albo's away for the weekend, yeah, we might have to find somewhere else.

00:24:46Sarah Jefferson: Yeah, so that's good to know. So I assume most people, yeah, will need to – actually, I think we booked – Matt might have booked a hire car, so we might be able to get around Canberra. We just don't have anywhere to stay at this point.

00:24:58Simon Mackley: I'm definitely booking a hire car, 100%.

00:25:01Karen: Yeah, yeah.

00:25:02Sarah Jefferson: Maybe that's my homework for the next, before the next pod is to lock the accommodation in. All right, something else that is coming up thick and fast. It is streaky September and we have a streaky September update. So the bingo cards are made and they have been accessioned and are ready for distribution. The office lady has been working overtime to ensure that you won't see any AI slots here. The bingo card with the first four squares will be shared with you this week. As soon as this episode is live, jump into the Streaky September group. and the week one bingo card will have been posted, ready for the 1st of September. So it's important to note that all of the feedback given last year has been listened to, and you all have been heard, and the office lady thinks that this is the best bingo card ever, maybe because she got to spell the word bingo correctly. We do really want to make the point that the bingo card is intended to make streaking extra fun. There are no rules, no detailed explanations, So see the words, decide what they mean to you, and then get streaking. Basically, let your imagination run wild. And most importantly, please share your two kilometres of streaky fun by posting it in the group. We really love seeing what you all get up to on your daily walk, run, ride, swim, or whatever you choose to do. So each week from Monday, the 7th of September, a new card with four more squares will be revealed and it will be posted in the Streaky September group. So again, make sure you join in and follow this fun. So I did ask the office lady for a little teaser. Well, I kind of had to beg and plead for a little teaser to let the listeners in on one of the first squares that will be released. And it is in fact a parkrun adventure. So for me, that was probably something that was kind of expected and not too much of a teaser. But anyway, it might get you intrigued, you all intrigued as to what the next three will be. to start the month. Decided to see what everyone gets up to. And I really, I always love everyone's interpretations because it's always so different to mine, Simon. So different. I'm not sure about you.

Streaky September

00:27:06Simon Mackley: Yeah, like some of the things, and we have had a bit of a peek behind the curtain. We've seen a few for the next week. A few? Yes.

00:27:14Sarah Jefferson: Not too many, yeah.

00:27:15Simon Mackley: No. And yeah, there's definitely some interpretation that can be used there. but just get out on your streak.

00:27:20[background music]

00:27:23Sarah Jefferson: Definitely. We might throw to our streakmeister people now.

00:27:39Pippa White: Hi, parkrun adventurers. And we are careering through August at a rate of knots, looking forward to September and the start and the joy of streaky September. I'm starting to notice that change in seasons, the lights changing, sunrise and sunset are different. And I've got a change in temperature here. For me, it's getting a little bit cooler. I am hoping, for those of you down under, that it's getting warmer. Let's enjoy that change in season. So what makes Streaky September successful is having a plan. And it's always that start of a plan. And I talk about having a Streak Saver every year. Streak Saver being a two-kilometer route that you can get out and walk or run on on that day when you think, I haven't done it, really don't want to do, I need to do something. So it's just great to have that two kilometer loop or out and back that will help life when it gets a bit complicated. And the second thing to do is figure out what gets you out. Is it going out sometimes with a friend? Is it going out with a really good audio book? Presently, I'm listening to an amazing story, The Burning Blue, which is a history of Australians in the air service or in the middle of World War One at the moment. And I've been listening. It's written by a chap called Mike Carlton. And I've been listening to the various different parkrun locations where aircraft are flown from. So if I need to get out and I don't want to go out, then a set of headphones and a good book works for me. But it might not work for you. So find out what works for you. Anyway, we're almost there. It's almost the start of September. Plan. Know where your coat is. Know where your shoes are. Know where your streak saver is. And know that it's just one month that we're asking you to commit to. What are you waiting for? Happy streaking.

00:29:41Simon Mackley: And thank you to the Streak Meister, Pippa, in getting us thinking about a plan. So the Streak Saver is an important part of Streaky September. I'm lucky to have a 1K loop straight outside my door, which I will obviously do twice or more. Finding that motivation is another important one, as Pippa said. I'll put my hand up and say that I've never completed the full September streak, but I have knocked off all of the challenges a couple of times over the last couple of years. What is your motivation, Sarah?

00:30:10Sarah Jefferson: So I'll be honest too, that I actually haven't ever completed a full streak either. And I haven't completed a full bingo card. I think last year it was the streak it it's like midnight or like some crazy hour and in your pajamas i was like yeah i'm not brave enough for that so i haven't done the card and i haven't streaked for the full month so maybe this will be my year but to be honest my motivation is probably to just get out the door obviously in australia it'll be warming up a little bit um the days are definitely getting longer which is really nice to see.

00:30:48Simon Mackley: We're going to do a shout out to an adventurer and a world record holder. So Phil Gore, who is currently starting, well, he's probably halfway into his 34th lap now. He is aiming to run 168 laps over seven days and 700 miles. All of this in the name of raising money for Telethon, which is a fundraiser in WA. So he's aiming to raise $168,000. He's inviting people to sponsor a lap, go down and join him on a lap or do one virtually with him. Phil is the current world record holder at 119 laps. of 6.71ks in the Backyard Ultra world. And so now if he beats it, it won't be an official record, but we wish him all the very best on the journey and hope that he does reach both the target of $168,000 for a great cause and reaches that 168th tower. Absolutely.

00:31:45Sarah Jefferson: Go Phil, we are barracking for you. And yeah, hopefully you surpassed your fundraising record and yeah, given your lap. So- We can't wait to hear how you go. Well done. We're ready. All right, Simon, let's get into our stats.

00:32:02Simon Mackley: All righty. Jumping across the pond, parkrun New Zealand attendance and milestone stats for last weekend, the 22nd of August. In New Zealand, all of the parkruns were open with 10,634 parkrunners and 1,262 volunteers. The biggest New Zealand parkruns last weekend were Hagley, Waitangi and Dunedin. And the smallest were Southend Reserve, East Otago High School and Moana Point Reserve. Closest to the average for the week of 142 was East End with 137.

00:32:37Sarah Jefferson: On the 15th of August, 73,874 people participated in a parkrun. Of those... 6,862 were volunteering at 533 events with exactly 11,700 first-timers. All the five junior events went ahead with 470 little legends being guided by 101 older legends. The smallest parkruns on that day was Railway Park with four, Pyramid Hill Golf Trail and Moora with six, and Norlands Park with eight. The 22nd of August, 76,247 people participated in a parkrun supported by 6,983 volunteers at 545 kilometre events. In junior events, four of the five operated with 364 youth being guided by 95 people. The smallest parkruns were again Railway Park with four participants. Zeehan Golf Club with five participants, Puckapunyal and Waterloo Plains with six, whereas the largest were Rhodes with 718, Albert Melbourne with 794, and the Ponds with 827. Simon, I think it's time we give our voices a rest, and we are going to throw to some roving reports.

Roving Adventurers (roving reporter crossovers)

00:34:00[background music]

00:34:10Alison Fraser (King): Kia ora koutou adventurers, it's Alison here reporting in across the ditch and across the Cook Strait today. I have come to Mandeville parkrun which is in Canterbury. It's launched in March this year so it's the newest for the Canterbury region and I'm with one of the co-event directors, Sarah. So welcome to the pod Sarah. Awesome, awesome to be here, this is really cool, welcome. Thank you so much for setting up a parkrun in what feels like the middle of nowhere. [Te Reo Māori: "Hello / greetings to you all, adventurers"]

00:34:37Sarah: So, yeah, it is.

00:34:39Alison Fraser (King): What's your parkrun story? How did you find out about parkrun?

00:34:43Sarah: Well, I'd done a couple of parkruns around the place and had just thought they were the coolest idea and loved them each time, but had never been very involved. But when we moved sort of north of Christchurch, there wasn't one local in the area and I just thought oh this could be something that other people might be keen on too and we've been really lucky there's a there were a cool group of people who got behind the idea and it all kind of spiraled from there.

00:35:18Alison Fraser (King): So where was your very first parkrun?

00:35:20Sarah: Very first one was Western Springs.

00:35:22[crosstalk]

00:35:22Alison Fraser (King): Oh wow so a long way from here. How did you find out about it?

00:35:28Sarah: It was, we lived just down the road and I think I'd seen sort of people out running on a Saturday morning and thought, hey, that looks kind of fun. Maybe I'll find out a bit more about that and join in sometime. Yeah, because when you're running by yourself, it's always, it's not quite the same as having a bunch of people to run with.

00:35:50Alison Fraser (King): And so how many parkruns had you done before you moved down this way?

00:35:53Sarah: Oh, not very many. I did a few at Hagley, but there's a few more in Christchurch now. But initially it was just Hagley and I think now it gets about a thousand people. Yeah, it gets a lot. Yeah, so they've really taken off, which is awesome.

00:36:11Alison Fraser (King): So how did you get this one off the ground? What was the first thing you did when you thought, oh, the cool thing for my community would be a parkrun?

00:36:17Sarah: Well, yeah, there was a bit to it. I sort of thought the Mandeville has a sports centre, so that seemed like a logical kind of location for it. And then from there it was sort of working with the sports club and the other clubs that operate out of here to make sure we're not colliding with the pony club and the... Dog trials and things like that all over the show.

00:36:43Alison Fraser (King): I think some Australians who might be listening to this might think sports centre and think of, you know, like a big oval and stadiums and all sorts.

00:36:51Sarah: Oh, this is, no, this is paddocks and sort of, there's archery, there's equestrian, there's dog, there's rodeo. It's a very rural sort of sports centre. Yeah. But we're lucky, it's an awesome facility for the community. But, yeah, it's cool that the parkrun gets to use it.

00:37:13Alison Fraser (King): Yeah, so can you describe the course to us?

00:37:16Sarah: Yeah, it's a real mix. It's a trail run and we have to tell people every week that they've come to do a trail run. You're probably not going to get your, you know, flat concrete PB that you're after. It's a bit of, it's a mix of gravel, a mix of sort of... paper roads and a bit of grass so it's got a bit of everything yeah and it's uh two out and back Two out and back sections. Yeah, we've tried a loop, but there's just logistics and hazards wise and two out and backs seem to, people seem to enjoy that because there's a lot of, there's constant interaction with other people. Yeah, it's quite sociable. Yeah, yeah.

00:37:56[crosstalk]

00:37:58Alison Fraser (King): And you've got views of the mountains, which are snow this morning.

00:38:02Sarah: Yeah, cold, freezing, you know when it's cold.

00:38:06Alison Fraser (King): Yeah. What was it, minus two the cows were saying this morning when we were parked here?

00:38:10Sarah: Yeah, it was minus two this morning, so the grass was a little bit slippery underfoot. We've been lucky we haven't had a rainy morning so far.

00:38:20Alison Fraser (King): And what's it done for your community here? I confess I've never heard of Mandeville before parkrun. Had to look it up on the map.

00:38:28Sarah: We'd never heard of it until we moved out of Christchurch either. Yeah, I think it's been good for the community. I think word is slowly getting out there now. Hopefully it'll slowly reach Rangiora and people might start to come from Rangiora, which is the sort of main town that's only about 10 minutes away. Yeah, we're expecting numbers to grow in summer and that'll really get a bit more momentum behind it. But it's something great for your community. Yeah, yeah. We're all enjoying it. We were all questioning our decisions this morning in the freezing cold. Always afterwards you enjoy it, eh?

00:38:59[crosstalk]

00:39:12Alison Fraser (King): Yeah, well, I think those doing that backyard ultra not too far away from here will be questioning their life choices even more. Oh, that's something else, isn't it? Thankfully, we just have to do 5Ks and one of those.

00:39:17[crosstalk]

00:39:24Sarah: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, my gosh. Imagine doing that every hour. Yeah.

00:39:29Alison Fraser (King): No, I think it's time for us to go for the coffee. Coffee time? Yeah. Well, thank you so much.

00:39:31[crosstalk]

00:39:35Sarah: Thank you.

00:39:36Eman Vergara: Good morning, parkrun Adventurers. This is Eman checking in from Richmond Olympic parkrun. With me is today's Run Director, Karen. Karen, what a beautiful course out and back. The family loved it. Juno had her first volunteer as a tail walker today. How was your morning?

00:39:54Karen: I had a fantastic morning, Eman. Thank you so much for taking the time. Glorious day. I don't know how many finishes we had, but close to 100. So lovely to see someone as young as Juno volunteering from afar.

00:40:06Eman Vergara: And how did you find out about parkrun?

00:40:09Karen: I was actually living in Germany, moved to a new city, and my girlfriend said, who was on Facebook and I was, and said, Karen, you want to make new friends in Mannheim? Check out Neckarau. And that's how it started, 2017.

00:40:20Eman Vergara: Wow, that's an amazing story. And that's why, actually, we heard you speak a bit of German because we had tourists from Cologne today. So that was very, very excellent. How long have you been part of this event team?

00:40:32Karen: This particular team, actually, the year before I repatriated to Canada. So I came home in 2020 and in 2019, I come home every single year and I found Richmond Olympic before we had to close down for COVID. I was very blessed.

00:40:47Eman Vergara: Yeah, nice. And then you've mentioned, obviously, you started parkrunning in Germany. Any memorable parkruns outside Richmond Olympic that you might recommend our guests to check out?

00:40:57Karen: Oh, goodness. Only the places I've traveled. So there's one, there's three in Dublin, Ireland, which are really, really fun. I forgot the name of that one. And there's three in Japan that I went to. Okay. The one in the south of Tokyo is amazing. Their marshal to runner ratio is insane. You're going to feel welcomed every 500 meters. Do that one if you want to feel loved.

00:41:23Eman Vergara: Yeah, nice. And then last question. What do you love most about parkrun, Karen?

00:41:27Karen: Something to do every single Saturday. Friendly faces. Everyone is glorious. And all forms of movement are welcome. And that coffee afterwards.

00:41:35Eman Vergara: Yeah, the coffee is good. I think we're going to Tim Hortons after. But Karen, thank you so much for a lovely morning. Our family really enjoyed it and hope we come back and check out Richmond Olympic parkrun. Cheers, guys. All right, parkrunners, I'm very pleased to have Jose Jimenez, who is the event director of Richmond Olympic parkrun. Firstly, Jose, thank you for letting my family volunteer this morning. Tell us the story of how Richmond Olympic parkrun got started.

00:42:00Jose Jimenez: Oh, well, I was not here on the first days. That was done by a colleague of ours named Becky Mayberry. came i think in 2016 from england and and what she told me was that she just she just wanted to bring parkrun here with her so she could have a taste of home maybe i'm i'm not representing fully but it was something like that and and it started in uh 2016 we are actually going to be having our 10-year anniversary this year in october so that that's and i've been involved since around 2018. yeah wow that's awesome and um

00:42:37Eman Vergara: How is the volunteer community in this parkrun?

00:42:40Jose Jimenez: Oh, super healthy. We never have a problem. We actually always have a surplus of people who are wanting to volunteer. So many enthusiastic people here.

00:42:50Eman Vergara: Yeah, I have to say that just the amount of volunteers this morning and just the warm community and the regulars and a few of the visitors, I certainly felt quite welcomed and really enjoyed this morning. What does parkrun mean to you, Jose?

00:43:04Jose Jimenez: Well, it's... Just like everybody else, it's become a part of my weekly routine. Not just for the health, but also for the social aspect of it. It's something to look forward to through the week. And like I said, the social aspect and the friendships that emerged after the run is done. This place empties out and it's almost like we reconvene at the coffee shop and we actually spend more time there than we do here.

00:43:37Eman Vergara: Yeah, that's absolutely right. And I think that's quite common in a lot of different parkrun countries as well. But before we head off to coffee, just one last question. If you've tried other parkruns in Vancouver or even beyond, would you have any sort of memorable parkruns that you'd like to recommend our listeners to check out?

00:43:53Jose Jimenez: I'm just going to pause it. Okay.

00:43:55Eman Vergara: Sorry, guys. I've been pausing our recordings because we're actually in the middle of a flight path just right across the river from the Vancouver International Airport, which is actually a great spot if you're an aviation geek like me. But anyway, back to Jose. Yeah, any other memorable parkruns in the region?

00:44:12Jose Jimenez: I've been to, because I live so close to this one, I'm so deeply involved in this one. This is the one that I come to most of the time. I've been to two others, the Central Park parkrun, which was the second one that was created here in the Vancouver area. That was populated, I will say, by many people from this parkrun. So it's very nice to go there and to the Ambleside one in the North Shore of Vancouver because I already know many of the people who are there in that parkrun. So it's like I don't have to make any adjustment. I'm already there. I know the routine. I've already got the friendships there. And it's very smooth transition from parkrun to coffee back home.

00:44:56Eman Vergara: Yeah, awesome. Thank you so much for those tips. And I've tried Ambleside last week. And we're looking forward to checking out Central Burnaby parkrun in the next couple of weeks. Jose, thank you so much again for your time. And it's a lovely parkrun to experience. Cheers, guys.

00:45:11Ali Sheppard: G'day adventurers, Ali from the UK here and I am currently at the end having run an Irchester Country parkrun today on a boiling hot day but fortunately Irchester has quite a lot of shade on the course and I'm here with Matt May and I'm here with Russell Russell Jones, who's the run director today. And Urchester Country is in Wellingborough. So to position that in the UK, it's sort of between London and Birmingham, about halfway, would you say? Yeah. And so we had a very, very successful parkrun today. You were RD today. How did it go?

00:45:53Russell Jones: Well, I'm training to be an RD. It seems to have gone very smoothly. We haven't had very many issues to deal with and have all been dealt with very, very quickly. It's a great bunch of volunteers here, very experienced and while we're always looking to add to the volunteers, it's a community thing to do. But also just means we've got great coverage.

00:46:16Ali Sheppard: And how many people do you think you had running today or running and walking?

00:46:20Russell Jones: I think about 280.

00:46:22Ali Sheppard: Excellent. And one of the things I noticed today is you had pacers. And I go to quite a few parkruns around the country and normally they have pacers 20 minutes, 23 minutes, 24 minutes, etc., 25. Here you had pacers right up to 55. And you were offering pacers. pacer slots up to an hour which i think is absolutely excellent as a walker um you know and i'm trying to to get a little bit faster each week so it was great to have a 55 pacer and you were walking with the 55 well she was my she's my wife so i had to walk with her

00:47:01Matt May: Yeah, no, we're very inclusive here. We always have been. I came on board when it started as a politician, not a runner. And the reason for me being involved was that community aspect. I live a 10-minute drive down the road. I was born here. And it's lovely to have an event on our doorstep where you attract so many people. I mean, you've come here in your wiggly singlet. We've got the Cancer 5K Your Way here today. We've just done a food bank collection today as well. So I love the inclusive aspect of our event.

00:47:33Ali Sheppard: So we were on parkrun. Do you know which number? I don't. We'll know next week because I might be next week. So describe the course to me at Chester.

00:47:41Matt May: Well, you go out, you do a loop, you come back. A lot of it is through forest. Yes. It's mainly all on nice, solid paths, a bit gravelly, some of them. You can't really get lost. It's a lovely event. It's a little bit undulating.

00:47:57Ali Sheppard: Well, I have to say the first time I was briefing described it as undulating. I would say that's a bit of an underestimation. I would call it hilly.

00:48:06Russell Jones: It's got a nice downhill.

00:48:08Matt May: The last mile's all downhill. Going out you're going net uphill and coming back you're going net downhill. So that's the way to think of it.

00:48:12[crosstalk]

00:48:15Ali Sheppard: But it's in a beautiful country park and I don't think of Wellingborough as having a country park. You know I think of Wellingborough as being sort of urban and so on.

00:48:25Matt May: Well, the reason this park is here is because of industrial heritage. So it was an ironstone quarry in the 20s. Yes. Apparently, some of the iron has been used in the Sydney Harbour Bridge. No way! So legend goes. I like that. And then when that's all closed in the late 60s, early 70s, they turned it into the beautiful park that you've been in today.

00:48:48Ali Sheppard: That's incredible. And there's a narrow gauge railway there.

00:48:51Russell Jones: no there's a museum yeah they haven't got much track but um okay yeah they're just down there where we start yeah oh excellent excellent got great playground for the kids it's a well-known park in the local area it's somewhere that lots of mums and young families will come as well and there's a thriving cafe now which obviously benefits from the parkrun but also the parkrun benefits from having a cafe here it's a destination for a lot of people to come to that perhaps feel quite isolated yes because i think that's one of the one of the key things is that you don't need to know everyone to join parkrun no absolutely the more you come you will find that people that run love to tell you about their run and how they weren't going to come today and actually five six weeks later you'll find that you're talking to people and you can create

00:48:52[crosstalk]

00:49:33[crosstalk]

00:49:42Ali Sheppard: Absolutely. And you mentioned there was a food bank. I bought some stuff for the food bank. You do that once a month, is it?

00:49:47[crosstalk]

00:49:47Matt May: Once a month, yeah. Thank you for bringing something well used.

00:49:50Ali Sheppard: Excellent. So you have a food bank. And you also have the 5K Your Way group, which isn't in Australia. That's in the UK. But that's the last Saturday of each month at certain places. parkruns and here you have a group the last Saturday of each and I featured 5k your way before in one of my previous roving reports at Billericay it's really excellent for anyone who's affected by cancer in any way whatsoever and it's also you mentioned thank you my my Christmas ugly because as I was going along I don't often meet other adventurers but you saw the ugly tea and said is it ugly uh christmas in july day and uh so that's how we had a kui yes so my shame so do you um do you first of all matt do you you do much uh touring i know you're an rd here a little bit um we we uh me and my wife we were runners but we both had medical conditions as far worse than mine so we we walk around we do a bit of touring so we'll do this very quickly but can you can you name your top three

00:50:20[crosstalk]

00:50:32[crosstalk]

00:50:56[crosstalk]

00:50:56Matt May: parkruns that you'd recommend people go to. I really liked.

00:51:00Ali Sheppard: Yes, in the north of England.

00:51:01Matt May: Coed Cefn-pwll-du. Oh, well done. Although I did fall down. You go down the mountain. Yes. I fell over in that one. And I quite liked pool. We did most of our early running in pool because we used to...

00:51:06[crosstalk]

00:51:13[crosstalk]

00:51:15Ali Sheppard: Okay, on the south coast.

00:51:16Matt May: Yeah. That's very big, isn't it? Very, very big now. It wasn't so much. But you go around a lovely lake, so that's nice. Of course, we all know Urchester is the best.

00:51:25Ali Sheppard: Of course, Urchester is the best, of course. And, Ross?

00:51:29Russell Jones: I don't do much tourism. I spend most of my time here or in Norfolk, where I spend quite a bit of time. I really like the Blickling Park. But the best one of all, that everyone needs to try, is Great Yarmouth. It is horrendous. It is all on sand.

00:51:45Ali Sheppard: I know. So, for the Australian listeners, Great Yarmouth is our equivalent of the beaches, parkrun.

00:51:53Russell Jones: And to put it into context, my quickest time there is 33 minutes. I would normally try and run part running 22, 23. Yes. It is all on soft sand, not hard sand. So it is a proper challenge.

00:52:07[crosstalk]

00:52:07Ali Sheppard: But you do get to see seals, I believe.

00:52:09Russell Jones: Yes, just up the coast there in Hawsey, you will see hundreds and hundreds of seals. Amazing. So if anyone wants to come over from Australia, for no good reason, head out to Great Yarmouth.

00:52:21Ali Sheppard: post it it will be your slowest parkrun you ever do well i think they should twin with the beaches i think there should be a a twinning system that we can join up parkruns so make sure you come and do urchester absolutely urchester clearly the best absolutely thank you so much guys um i think coffee is calling us so thank you that's a wrap thank you very much

00:52:31[crosstalk]

00:52:40[background music]

00:52:52Simon Mackley: So I loved Sarah's enthusiasm and the realisation that their area needed a parkrun. Both Karen and Jose at Richmond Olympic absolutely sounded like they love parkrun, like we all do. And rounding out was Ali speaking to Matt and Russell at Urchester. And I loved hearing about the paces going all the way up to 55 minutes. It's also really good hearing the explanations of where these parkruns actually are. Eman certainly made me want to go to Richmond to scratch that aviation itch. Alrighty, I think it's time that we head over to Dazza's. So we've chosen five comments from each of the last two weeks Dazza's posts.

Dazza's

00:53:35Sarah Jefferson: On Saturday the 15th of August, Dazza said, it's International Geocaching Day, a sport that we think is definitely parkrun adjacent. To celebrate, Dazza has written coordinates onto your coffee cups so you can hunt for your breakfast. Who's had a fun morning? So there were 128 comments. So we've had a little bit of a calculation. So given that there are 961 members at the time of calculation, That means give or take, yeah, we have about 13% of our members commenting in Dazza's. That's assuming that everyone who's posted is an adventurer.

00:54:14Simon Mackley: It's pretty decent. I'm actually quite impressed with that. I know 13% isn't a high number, but that's some great engagement.

00:54:21Sarah Jefferson: I thought it might be a little bit higher, but then I thought about when I post and I generally, if I kind of go back, to my home event or nothing exciting's happening and I don't even take a photo at parkrun, I don't post. So maybe you're right, but I did think it would be a bit higher, but maybe people are like me and they don't post unless they're actually on an adventure.

00:54:41Simon Mackley: Well, let's kick it off with Chris Gore, who was at Applecross parkrun in WA. where he shared, Hi Dazza, I've been a geocacher longer than I've been a parkrunner, but I didn't grab any today when Karen and I attended Applecross parkrun. I did grab a heap in Singapore last week though. Chris shared a screenshot of the digital badge saying International Geocaching Day Finder, to which Ali Sheppard said she didn't realise that you could actually get digital badges for geocaching and that she was now keen to have a go. From a quick look online, it appears that there are over 3.4 million active caches, across 191 countries so it seems that this sport is very popular and what a fabulous thing to do while traveling well done and happy international geocaching day chris next we heard from mark hubbard at australian botanic garden mount annan parkrun in new south wales mark stated

00:55:36Sarah Jefferson: parkrun 427 done. Geocache 18,452 done. And Mark shared a photo of himself in the parkrun selfie frame wearing his adventurous hoodie. So it sounds like Mark had a great morning with many adventurers there on the day who were celebrating none other than the office lady's 60th birthday. So can you believe that Sam actually ran 60 kilometers for her 60th birthday? That's crazy. But I do love this for Sam. Anyway, it sounds like a really well-planned run. And, yeah, well done. Happy birthday to the office lady. And, once again, congrats to Mark, 18,452. Sounds like a very impressive number for sure.

00:56:19Simon Mackley: Yeah, that's a huge number. And, yeah, so impressive that Sam went out and did 60Ks on her 60th birthday. Like really, really impressive. All right, now this is a special one. We've got Roberta Winters coming to us from Inis Meáin parkrun in Ireland. Roberta said, epic adventure after an early morning minibus pickup, ferry ride, and an almost 2K walk uphill to the start line. In Ishmael, for me today, it was with 430 other crazy nutters. Geocaching was discussed as I walked with my new friend, Nia. As a can, I have an espresso martini. So Roberta shared a lovely photo of herself with the Inish main pop-up, wearing her adventurer's shirt and cap with her little parkrun hand knitted friend. What a cool adventure. So here's a little bit about Roberta's journey to tick off this parkrun. She said, I boarded a minibus just before 5 a.m. When we arrived, we joined approximately 400 other parkrun friends for the 35-minute ferry ride over to Inishmain. Once we hopped off the ferry, we walked the two-kilometre walk to the community centre and to check out the minimark. Dead on 12 noon, parkrun started. It's two laps and you pass the donkeys twice, the cows twice and the pub twice. After lunch, we mingled before walking two k's back down the hill to board the ferry back to Doolin. Then we had a three and a half hour coach ride back to Dublin. Not to mention Roberta had travelled all the way from Australia to get there prior to this adventure. It's a very impressive effort, Roberta. An adventure that dreams are made of for the hardcore adventurer like you.

00:58:00Sarah Jefferson: That sounds like an epic day. And I think the fact that Roberta has asked Dazza for an espresso martini just goes to show that the holiday vibes were definitely flowing that day, right?

00:58:11Simon Mackley: 100%.

00:58:12Sarah Jefferson: Next, we heard from Ryan Stoddart at Greenheart Robina Parklands parkrun in Queensland. Ryan wrote, I was introduced to geocaching by parkrun adventurers at Palm 26. Anyway, I got distracted looking for geocaches Saturday afternoon and I forgot to comment where I was. On the weekend, I flew up to Queensland for mum's birthday and while there, did Greenheart Rabina Parkland's parkrun. Ryan shared a photo of himself in the parkrun selfie frame with his duck bucket hat on and his 500 parkrun shirt. Surely you have collected quite a few geocaches now, Ryan. Happy birthday to your mum and I'm pleased that you can combine this into your life wherever you happen to be visiting.

00:58:57Simon Mackley: And next we heard from Ali Sheppard at Oaklands College parkrun in the UK. So Ali posted, today was unofficial take a podcast host mothers to parkrun day in my world. So I took Lynn Norman, Danny from With Me Now, Norman's mum, to Oakland's College parkrun. The last time I was here was in winter and very muddy, especially in the section known as the swamp, with its own sign. I was timekeeping that time but vowed to come back to tackle the swamp when it was drier. But they found a protected species of newt living in the swamp, so they've had to reroute the course around to avoid it. That is amazing. So Ali posted a lovely photo of herself with Lynn Norman in front of the mansion-looking college. How incredible they found a protected newt species living in the swamp. From the photo, it looks like you would have had much drier visit for you. From a quick search, it appears that the UK have three types of newts, and the one you are referring to appears to be the great crested newt. Unlike the ibis or bean chicken, as we colloquially call it in Australia, Australia does not have any newts. However, a small introduced population of smooth newts, also called the common newt, lives in the wild near Melbourne, apparently in Melbourne's southeast. So there you go.

01:00:16Sarah Jefferson: I didn't think we had any newts in Australia, but obviously we've got some that have been introduced. I'm not sure if that's correct. For our local ecosystems, but they're in Melbourne.

01:00:27Simon Mackley: Well, you learn something new every day.

01:00:31Sarah Jefferson: You do. You do. That was a clever one. All right. On Saturday, the 22nd of August, Dazza said, love heart, love heart, tutu day, hooray. Lots more love hearts. Show us your tutus. and there were 118 comments in Dazza's this week.

01:00:52Simon Mackley: All right, we're going to kick it off with Joanne Holt, who was at Samford Parklands parkrun in Queensland, where she shared tutus and cows at Samford, and I finished number 22. Joanne posted a photo of herself wearing a pink tutu and her matching pink shoes for the occasion. Congratulations on position tutu as well.

01:01:14Sarah Jefferson: We heard from Eva Blander at Panania parkrun in New South Wales. Eva wrote... Tail walkers at Panania parkrun, pretty in tulle. Iga shared a lovely photo of the two tail walkers dressed in very colourful tulle, curtsy. Thank you for tail walking and making it look so glamorous.

01:01:32Simon Mackley: And next we heard from Cheryl Bickle at Nidda parkrun in Germany. Cheryl said, unfortunately, no tutu. I didn't pack one. but ticked off parkrun country number eight at NIDA in Frankfurt, Germany. A last-minute change in plan, but glad I made the change. And she shared a photo of herself with the NIDA pop-up, wearing her Run Around Europe shirt. Great to hear you ticked off your eighth country, Cheryl. Amazing effort, and it sounds like you're having an amazing time.

01:02:01Sarah Jefferson: Next, we heard from Mitzi Middleton at South Bank parkrun in Queensland. Mitzi said... After starting with Studley parkrun and 217 further parkruns at 78 different locations, I finally got my second S at Southbank. Only three other letters until a second alphabet tier. Mitzi posted a photo of himself wearing his adventurous shirt, the park walker vest and in the parkrun selfie frame with the skyscrapers in the background. Congrats on your second S and hopefully that second alphabet isn't too far away.

01:02:38Simon Mackley: And maybe write in and tell us, Mitzi, what letters you've got left.

01:02:41Sarah Jefferson: Oh, that's a good one.

01:02:42Simon Mackley: Yes. Next, we're going to go over to Joanne Blackbird, who was at Warringal Parklands parkrun in Victoria, where she said, Dazza, it was my birthday. I wore a tutu and I got token 322. People showed up to celebrate and I had a lovely morning. And Joanne posted a photo of herself and five friends in the parkrun selfie frame with Joanne donning a pink tutu and her adventurer's buff. Happy birthday, Joanne. We hope that you had a lovely, lovely birthday and very fitting that you received the three tutu token for tutu day.

the Obi Award — Roberta Winters

01:03:17Sarah Jefferson: All right, Simon, it's time for the obi. We're going to be honest. We haven't given out an obi for a little while, have we?

01:03:24Simon Mackley: No, we forgot last time and no one pulled us up on it. So there you go.

01:03:28Sarah Jefferson: I was going to say, did anyone notice? I'm sure they did. They're too polite. All right. So this fortnight, the obi goes to Roberta Winters. We honestly had to reward you for all of your efforts that you went to to get this parkrun of choice this fortnight, Roberta. Very, very impressive effort and what a fabulous memory for you to keep forever.

01:03:30[background music]

01:03:51Simon Mackley: Yes, congratulations, Roberta. If we've 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.

01:04:01Sarah Jefferson: All right. Emails.

Emails

01:04:03Simon Mackley: You've got mail.

01:04:04Sarah Jefferson: So our very own Lyndell sent in a short and sweet email to say that she saw a new Junior Milestone shirt at Des Connor Juniors on the 9th of August. And Lyndell wants to know, has anyone else seen one? Simon, have you seen one?

01:04:18Simon Mackley: I have not, but I also haven't been to a juniors event. So I'm wondering whether the juniors are wearing it only to juniors or whether they're wearing it to parkruns as well.

01:04:26Sarah Jefferson: Yes, I haven't seen one, but we don't have a junior event in Western Australia. So hopefully... Someone's seen them out and about and can let us know. All right, so we are now going to throw to our friend Reginald.

01:04:30[background music]

Club Corner

01:04:42Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III: This is Reginald Yardley Pomphrey III with Club Corner, where we talk about the what and why of parkrun clubs. And I am coming to you from Arenda country. Is this the wrap up for our country series? Very nearly. Today we have a bit of a grab bag featuring Austria and Belgium. Are these both parkrun countries? No, dot dot dot, but let us listen together. Austria began in August of 2021 with Hellbrunn parkrun, and they have now grown to host six parkruns. But with such a small number, it is sometimes impacting their ability to host their special day. Their special day is Staatsfeiertag, which literally translates as National Day, and is on May 1 annually. A quick sidebar here, May 1st has nearly always been a holiday in Austria, but only in the current form since 1949. I mean, the wiki on this holiday goes back to the Middle Ages with May 1st as an official Catholic holiday, with the Catholic connection being stopped in the 1700s, but the holiday continued on. End sidebar. In 2026 the decision for all Austrian parkruns was to not to hold an additional parkrun day. To quote, Given the currently limited number of locations in Austria, the anticipated high level of interest from visiting parkrunners, and the fact that May 1, 2026 falls on a Friday before a longbank holiday weekend in the UK, we are currently unable to offer an additional parkrun day that would be safe and well-organized for all participants. end quote next in the timeline of countries is belgium which hosts shape open bracket supreme headquarters allied powers europe closed bracket no not a marvel inspired acronym it is a closed event insert sad noise shape is a military headquarters based in a belgium village just outside mons But shape being what it is, shape parkrun is a British overseas territory, so not a new country. They started in July 2023 and have only missed a few handfuls of events in their greater than a gross event count. After reading their run report for event number one, I found that this event had their roots almost a year before with the introduction of britrun to the shape camp. As it grew it became shape run with the intention to become a parkrun. The core team of Shape were assisted to become a parkrun by their future closest event, Tapijn parkrun, who are less than two hours up the road, albeit in another country. We have a few more rats and mice to wrap up our country series... With Lithuania and Gibraltar and St Helena Island to go. 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. [German: "National Day (Austria's national holiday, 1 May)"]

01:07:20[background music]

01:07:34Simon Mackley: Okay, Reginald has given us the penultimate country-based club corner with Austria having six and Belgium. And I was shocked Belgium had a parkrun, but now I understand the shape parkrun. in the British Overseas Territory. That absolutely threw me. So I'm glad that Reginald explained it to us. Being a closed event, I can't tell you what shape parkrun is. I was hoping for a chicken crimpy, and that is for our Arnott-loving listeners.

Consolidated Club Report

01:08:08Sarah Jefferson: All right. Let's move on to the Consolidated Club Report for Saturday, the 22nd of August. Of a total of 963 members... 681 took part on this date across 17 countries in 364 locations. Locally, there are adventurers at 80% of the ACT courses, 50% in the Northern Territory, 49% in New South Wales, 47% in Victoria, 43% in Queensland, 38% in South Australia, Western Australia had 35%, Tasmania, 33%, North Island, 14%, and South Island, 8%. I wonder if we will get a 100% representation, Simon, at some point.

01:09:00Simon Mackley: Surely. ACT has got to do it.

01:09:02Sarah Jefferson: ACT.

01:09:03Simon Mackley: With only 10 parkruns, I'm sure they can spread out across them.

01:09:06Sarah Jefferson: Surely ACT, or I was thinking Northern Territory, but we are coming towards the end of this season, but I think I'm with you. It could be ACT gets it first. However, internationally, there are adventurers at 25% of events in Denmark and Lithuania, 20% of the events in Singapore, 15% in Italy, 14% in Finland, 9% in Norway, 9% in the UK. Sweden had 7%. South Africa, Germany, and Canada had 5%. USA, Ireland, Japan and the Netherlands all had 3% representation.

the Frond

01:09:40Simon Mackley: All righty, and the largest international frond from the weekend of the 15th of August. It was a frond of 12, and we've already mentioned it, in Ishmael in Ireland. So there was Jason Patterson, Debbie and Andy Airey, Stuart Alan Mokes, James Newt, Steve Milne, Rachel Dorsey, James Avery, Lucille Peed, Nicola Wright, Wendy Pallant and Roberta Winters. And then last weekend on the 22nd of August, there was a frond of 12 again. And this one was at Queenswood Country Park in the UK. That was Stuart Henderson, Xavier Sanchez, Michael Green, Darren and Lucille Peed. Michael Peaty, Claire Winnesick, Amanda Murray-Hind, Rachel Simonite, Karen Hurrell and Andy Andwardella-Poole.

01:10:30Sarah Jefferson: Throwing across to the Bushy Pilgrimage. On the 15th of August, we had Paul Lanson do Dickie's Pilgrimage. However, we didn't have anybody there on the 22nd of August.

01:10:45Simon Mackley: All righty, and jumping back into Australia for the largest frond. On the 15th, there was a frond of 13 at one event, and that was Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan in Australia. That was Craig Ryan, Oliver Spake, Mark Eberd, Ingrid Botha, Viking Whelan, Chantelle Hosking, Sherry Brantman, Little Murray, Sam Schroder, Yvette Turner, Christy Hill, Rebecca Gordon, and Sally Gutierrez. And I think that was Sam's 60th birthday celebration from memory. And Luke was volunteering, I know that for sure. And then last weekend, there were a front of six at four different events. Now, one we haven't heard of for quite a while, I'm going to do Shepparton. So at Shepparton, there was Jason Chisholm, Gary Holland, Leanne Kirshner, Sarah Langley, Anne Hart and Sarah Egan. And just as a little addition to that, at Wynnum on this past weekend, they held their octogenarian event. So there was six adventurers there as well.

01:11:52Sarah Jefferson: And adventurers, we would love to hear from you. in a roving report, especially if you are traveling to a new destination. So we currently have about 10 roving reports in our backlog. which you will hear in the coming episodes. But don't let that deter you from sending in an interesting story from your adventures.

01:12:12Simon Mackley: And remember, you can add the Adventurers Club as one of your five affiliations on your parkrun profile. I'm sure we are singing to the choir here. I'm sure all of you have your affiliation already done.

01:12:24Sarah Jefferson: Yes, Adventurers are definitely good at adding people, it seems, at the moment. It is now time for our Watching Your Numbers segment. So for the next segment, pods we are watching the numbers at Plantation Forest parkrun. So this segment is where we do select a parkrun of interest and as the name suggests we watch the participation numbers. So this parkrun has now been going for six weeks and interestingly week six had 36 participants with one fifth being unknowns and on the seventh week of this event it saw 28 participants with four unknowns. So it does seem that their numbers are going down a little bit. Hopefully they can hold on to some of those participant numbers, Simon.

Watching Your Numbers

01:13:08Simon Mackley: And have less unknowns as well. That would be helpful.

01:13:11Sarah Jefferson: I mean, four unknowns, not too bad. Yes, it'd be good not to have too many unknowns, but it means that there are more people getting out there, right?

01:13:19Simon Mackley: Yeah.

01:13:21Sarah Jefferson: So even if it takes them a few weeks to get their barcode, that's okay. They're getting out there, so... Fingers crossed.

01:13:27Simon Mackley: Exactly. And following on from watching the numbers, about a year ago, we were talking about the numbers at Brooklyn Bridge parkrun in the US. So they have actually just completed their 44th event one year on, having 247 participants. This is about where they were at week six after a huge opening weekend of 538. There's been some big weeks over the past year. They had a big one at the start of the World Cup football. They had one the week before the New York Marathon, and they've had a few cancellations during the year. So they've only run 44 out of the 52 possible weeks. One of those was purposely the weekend of New York Marathon, so they cancelled because of that. And it looks like for almost a month between late Jan and early Feb, they had cancelled. So I'm guessing that was weather related because I'm pretty sure there was a lot of snow and bad weather over that period.

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

01:14:20Sarah Jefferson: All right, Simon, we're going to move on to launches now. And on the 15th of August, there were actually no launches, believe it or not. So this was actually the first time since the 8th of November, according to Peter via Charlie Pearce. And equals second longest streak of launches at 39 weeks straight. So there you go.

01:14:43Simon Mackley: Last weekend, totally the opposite. 22nd of August, there were six launches across six countries.

01:14:50Sarah Jefferson: And the first launch was Compton Abbas Airfield parkrun in the UK, northwest of Bournemouth. They had 336 participants, 37 volunteers and 11 first-timers. So the course is three laps around the grass airstrip of the airport. which is actually closed during parkrun time. And obviously it would make sense that this event is actually not available for Freedom Runs.

01:15:20Simon Mackley: And then we're moving over to Denmark. So Fredericia Vold parkrun in Fredericia in Denmark, southeast of Billund. And just being a boy here, it's north of Middelfart. Just had to get that out there. They had 123 participants, 10 volleys and 57 first-timers. So almost half of their participants were first-timers. It courses two laps on gravel paths on top of a 17th century fortification in park-like surroundings. So we go from an airport to a fortified, yeah, 17th century fortification. Amazing.

01:15:56Sarah Jefferson: It launched with 73 participants, 14 volunteers to support it. and 41 first-timers, and it was at Saddle River County parkrun in Saddlebrook, New Jersey, USA, just outside of Hackensack.

01:16:12Simon Mackley: Alrighty, and then moving across to Germany, located east of Magdeburg was Stadtpark Rotehorn parkrun, That launched with 80 participants, 11 helpers and 31 first-timers.

01:16:26Sarah Jefferson: Malaysia just doubled their parkrun footprint with Taman Tasik Kota Puteri parkrun, located northwest of Kuala Lumpur. They had 67 participants with 24 volunteers and 40 first-timers. It's exciting to see Malaysia get a new parkrun.

01:16:45Simon Mackley: Yes, indeed. And then with 147 parkrunners, 9 volunteers and 63 first-timers, York Timbers parkrun in north-eastern South Africa launched. And this is definitely one for a trail lover. It looks like it's on fire trails around a timber forest.

01:17:03Sarah Jefferson: Get amongst the trees. Looking ahead, Simon. So streaky September is about to begin. So... 1st of September is on the Tuesday after the pod is released. So don't forget to jump into the Streaky September group so that you can see the challenges released. And remember if you're listening to this now, the first four challenges. One you already know, but the other three will have been released. Can't wait to see everyone get streaking.

01:17:35Simon Mackley: Yep, and hopefully you share some photos on there as well, because there's going to be a few photo-based things on there. Don't have to prove it, but it'd be nice to see that you're all out there streaking.

01:17:45Sarah Jefferson: All right, Simon, where are you headed next parkrun day?

01:17:49Simon Mackley: I'm actually undecided. I may actually volunteer. I may run. There's... An idea in the making, but I will be staying local. What about you, Sarah?

01:17:59Sarah Jefferson: Just before you jump into me, where's your NENDY now? How close is that scene to your place?

01:18:03Simon Mackley: Oh, it's still Golden Beach on the Sunshine Coast. So when I went to Noosa, I went probably past six or seven parkruns on the way there.

01:18:11Sarah Jefferson: this weekend I am thinking about heading home to Cottesloe i will be walking but simon i've done a little bit of a calculation and if i am going to reach 100 events there this year i do need to get a wriggle on and start prioritizing this to be honest i really probably should be resting and not even doing parkrun but i will see i'm also on track to complete the 50 parkruns this year for the first time ever so i was hoping to chase that down so It would be a bit of a debate whether I rest or whether I actually do walk the parkrun.

01:18:46Simon Mackley: Does it hurt when you walk or is it only when you run?

01:18:48Sarah Jefferson: Sometimes. Like it's really hard to describe because some positions I just, like even at work today, I stood up and I was like, oh. So there's nothing that I do that I'm like, oh, I should avoid doing that. It just kind of catches me because obviously your knee is so dynamic and it kind of, moves in waves. It's like, I guess, if you hurt a finger or you have a cut on your finger, you don't realize how much you use it. So at some positions I do, yeah, going down a hill, like there's a few downs at quadriceps, I find it's not ideal. I guess that's stabbing that force on the front of my knee, but anyway.

01:19:21Simon Mackley: Fair enough. All right, we want to thank the team behind the podcast as well who makes all of this possible. It's due to the tireless work of Sam, the office lady, Dave, the editor, Reginald, and the Belinda Fairy who make this podcast possible. So thank you all for your continued dedication to the pod and supporting us.

01:19:38Sarah Jefferson: Lingle and TOC will be back next fortnight, and it would be great to hear how everyone has been tracking with Streaky September and and to hear a little more about the challenges revealed on the bingo card as the month progresses.

01:19:51Simon Mackley: As always, you can contact us via parkrun Adventurers on Facebook, Instagram, or our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. That's it for another episode. We'll see you all next time for more adventures.

01:20:05Sarah Jefferson: Hold on, Simon. That's not it. Keep listening because there will be a little revving report at the end for you to listen to.

01:20:11Eman Vergara: All right. Good day, adventurers. Eman here from Spanish Banks Beach parkrun, one of the lovely parkruns in Vancouver. Joining me is one of the event directors, Conrad. Conrad, it's a nice morning. It's a bit windy, but still pretty cool. Tell us about the course and how it got started.

01:20:29Conrad: So this course here, we've been going for nearly two years. Our anniversary is in September. We set this up after Richmond's been going for a long time in Vancouver. That was like the OG Vancouver one and then there was Burnaby. This is the only one actually in the city of Vancouver. It took us a while to get the park's permission and stuff to set it up, but we really wanted one in the city, right? There's loads of people in Kitsilano just up the hill here who were keen to not have to get on the Skytrain. So it took us a while to get it going, but we got it going a couple of years ago. And this spot, Spanish Banks Beach, is a beautiful spot for it. We've got like this nice firm gravel trail and it's dead flat and you're running along the beach. You go past the volleyball as there's like all the people in their sports cars come and hang out down there to run past. It's a good vibe down here. So it's been, it's a good spot.

01:21:14Eman Vergara: Yeah, the start and finish is actually just right in front of a bunch of beach volleyball courts. So it's a pretty nice start to the morning. So you're saying it's a quite flat and out-and-back course?

01:21:27Conrad: Yeah, it's dead flat. Dead flat. We've got three turnaround points, so that is a little bit slower. Some of our real serious parkrunners, they'll tell us this is 20 seconds slower than Richmond because... The ground's a little bit softer. The Richmond's on like hard rock on the dike there by the river. But it's pretty fast. It's pretty flat. Well, it's dead flat. The one thing that might get you is the wind because we're right by the beach. Yeah, that's right. And Conrad, how did you get into parkrun? See, from my accent, you'd probably say I started doing it in England. But I left England before it kind of exploded. Like I left the UK in 2010 and we moved to Vancouver. So I've been here like 16 years. And once I got here... my friends in the UK started talking about parkrun. It started picking up steam there. And it took me a couple of years before I managed to get myself up on a Saturday morning and get out to the Richmond one by the airport in Vancouver. But once I did that once, I was like, oh, I get this, okay. And then that just became a thing. And I did the Richmond one regularly for a couple of years. And then me and Becky, Becky set the Richmond one up. Me and Becky managed to get this one going together. So we've created this new one here.

01:22:33Eman Vergara: Yeah, it's a great job you and Becky have done. And Juna, Argo and Christina and I are looking forward to very much experiencing it this morning. Thankfully, we've been assigned tail walkers today. Last question. If you visited other parkruns from your experience, what have been the other memorable ones for our listeners to check out?

01:22:52Conrad: The one that's in my head is Saint-Paulin, which is in Quebec. It's halfway between Quebec City and Montreal. It's the only one I've done outside of BC in Canada. There were eight people there. Like, it was tiny. It's this tiny little village. There's just this group of dedicated ones, dedicated guys and girls who just run it. And... they'd run across like it's such a quiet little village you run across the road they closed the road off kind of unofficially by the school they afterwards they were like oh um well this woman here she runs the coffee shop so we've got to give her 10 minutes to go and open the coffee shop before you can go and have coffee so don't rush you know it was tiny eight people i came first it was such a fun little tiny uh happy little group so that's the one that sticks in my head

01:23:37Eman Vergara: Yeah, that's awesome, Conrad. I think just to your point, it's all about that parkrun community. We might leave it there because I think we're going to get started with the first time brief in the actual event brief itself. Conrad, thank you so much for joining us this morning. And this is Eman signing off from Spanish Banks Beach parkrun. Cheers. Bye.

01:23:50[outro theme playing]