Episode 318 - parkrun, if you’re listening

Welcome to episode 318 of the parkrun Adventures podcast. I am Ollie Spake, I am join once again in the New Year, this time from Dharawal country.

And I am Melissa Ellis and me and Bluey are coming to you from Wurundjeri country. So I do apologise for the very noisy budgerigar in the background, but we're celebrating New Year. Happy New Year, Ollie.

Happy New Year, Mel. And when you said you were watching your tweets closely, I didn't think that.

That'S what you meant.

Yes, bom bom jokes are still around. That's right.

But we should thank the office lady for stepping in and recording an episode last week for us. The Sam's Summer series.

That's right, that's right. Hugely appreciative and hope that that has kept several adventurers company whilst out there on some of those summer fun journeys near and far because there have been some big adventures.

They have. Did you have a good Christmas and New Year, Ollie? What have you been up to?

I've been close to home. I had a lot of family time over Christmas which was. And then a week to recover. It was a very social time and had the opportunity to spend Christmas not just with some of the usual sides of the family, but my sister from Melbourne joining and my brother coming down from Sydney with his girls and my cousin from Queensland. So yeah, yeah, lots of catch ups and some nice time at home to work on a few things and just take a bit of a break from work and everything.

Did you enjoy the deck?

I did, I did very much enjoy the deck, particularly when it was sunny. Unfortunately it was sunny for quite a big proportion of that time. So yeah, much dining on the deck.

Was done because there has been a lot of rain up your way as well. Like I know we're always talking about the weather, but that's what the Sydney Test, wasn't it like? I've seen statistics about days lost to rain in Sydney for the tests.

That's right. I thought you said statistics there for a second. Yeah. Which I thought was a play on words of the Test. But yes, I did see that same statistic which suggested Sydney has a pretty unfortunate track record when it comes to these international five day test matches in the cricket summer series. And what was it like 25 days lost, at least on the day I looked at it compared to the next worst of nine or something along those lines. Yes.

Lucky you've got a pretty harbour.

That's right, that's right. When we can see it through the rain clouds. Yeah, yeah. But fortunately, Mel, it wasn't too wet over that period.

Just excellent.

Just at the cricket ground.

I'll stop talking over you now.

That's all right. New Year, new habits. But some, some will always stay. And my inability to know when to finish a sentence is definitely one of those. What about you? How was Christmas New Year, Mel?

Parkrun wise? Let's go straight to Parkrun wise. Okay, so I've been really busy. So out of the four parkruns up for grabs over that Christmas New Year period, I picked up three new events which I was pretty happy about and they have been recapped last week by the office lady going through Dazz for us and. But just to let you know, was Christmas Eve I headed out on an overnight camping trip to Lake Wallace out in Edenhope with some of my local Victorian Parkrun friends. Enjoyed that course around, funnily enough, Lake Wallace.

Yep.

And I had ran around that lake before and I can't remember if I mentioned this, probably might have. Anyway, I had stayed previously in Edenhope and ran around that lake before they created the Parkrun. Christmas Day I was home at Tulan Creek, shared with none other than Mr. Brenda Peel and the lovely Jody Maisie. Tulan Creek's course record went off too.

Wow.

Yes. On Christmas Day.

That's a big one. Yes.

That was a bit exciting. Diamond Creek ParkRunner and Westervelt Junior's Volunteer was out at Toolin Creek ticking off a run there. I'm trying to think of his name. It's escaped my brain. That's really annoying.

So last year, Thomas Martin.

Yes. He came over and wiped quite substantial amount of time off Tool and Creek's course record and ran his first sub 16. So congratulations, Thomas. And he is an adventurer. So that was a bit exciting.

And at the creek. Wow.

At the creek. Yeah. See, that all happens at the creek. So then New Year I went over to sa, so I spent a lovely week over there enjoying the weather. The nice hot weather over in McLaren Vale. Ticked. I shouldn't say ticked off all the time. It's not a. It just feels like it's box ticking. But it actually wasn't. I've stayed in McLaren Vale before. The Parkrun was there. It's a lovely little town in the wine region, actually. There's lots of vineyards and the Shiraz Trail park run runs alongside the vineyards and the caravan park that I stayed in is amongst the vineyards. So it's a very lovely little part of South Australia. I enjoyed the New Year's Eve Park Run there with Toc and Jackie o' Connell and Dawn Bratton, another Victorian tourist who was out also sampling South Australian parklands. Then on New Year's Day, we went to Torrens and I enjoyed a lovely run along the river. Trying to think of the name of the river. Do you know what's the main river that goes through Adelaide?

Is it the Torrens River?

It is, isn't it? Oh, my God.

I thought you were just being very kind to me.

No, of course it's the Torrens. Oh, my God. Yeah, there you go. That's what we did. Numbers were down at Torrens for a New Year run as well. They usually get big numbers, but I believe there was more New Year's Day runs happening around Adelaide than has ever been before, which probably accounted for the drop in numbers at Torrens.

Yeah. Well, that's wonderful that there were more events for people to enjoy and clearly a spread of people getting out there for New Year then not so in some of the other parts. I had understood that there was only one event in the ACT on New Year's Day running. So well done, Team Wagga Bridge, if I've got my facts straight.

But no, I do believe you're correct.

Yeah. Judging by the fact that they were more than four times their attendance of the events the day before, it sounds like it was a big one.

Absolutely.

But that's some adventure, Mel.

It was.

Were you tired?

No, no, because I had a nice, relaxing week. Just hanging around. Hanging around in the pool, going to the beach, just chilling.

A nice way to spend it.

Yeah, it was.

Yeah. Yeah. I would love to take the drive out west of Melbourne and head out that far one day. I keep looking up that. Of course, it's much closer to Melbourne. The Great Ocean Road Run in May as well.

I've done that a few times.

Have you?

Yeah.

Oh.

Huh.

Yeah, it looks beautiful.

It's a brilliant event. You should. You should do it.

I do need something to aim for. Yeah.

Yep. It's very iconic. It's actually come up, like, in some sort of list of iconic marathons that I've seen before. Beautiful views along that great ocean road.

Yeah, it would be a nice way to see it, that's for sure.

And hills. You like hills?

I love hills. I absolutely love hills. Oh, well, well done, Mel. That's a busy festive season.

Yeah. My Christmas present was three new events to explore and enjoy and more friends to meet. But it didn't stop there, Ollie, because we just had another weekend.

Yes. Yes. More Parkrun.

And I turned my little green car around and guess where I went? I went back to South Australia. I hadn't had enough. I thought, no, I've got the time. Why not? I'm not working in January. I've got the whole month off. Yep. My time's my own. I wasn't editing, well, a little bit of editing for the summer series, but that was really quick.

Yeah.

So I was able to have all my chores done in time for heading back over to South Australia on Friday so I could run at Strath Alban Park.

Run. Oh wow. Wow.

So our in the Adelaide Hills out Mount Barker territory.

Yep, yep.

Lovely little shady double out and back course out there at Strathalburn. And yeah, smallish numbers. I think they were around the 50 I ran, so. Oh, that's another thing, Ollie. I'm back running. I'm very excited.

That's wonderful. How's it feeling?

Good.

That's really good.

So my first run back was Shres Trail and I hadn't even planned to run. I just took off when they called the start and managed to run the whole thing without stopping. Which I was really glad because, you know, I'd had eight weeks off running and I wasn't sure how much fitness I would have lost in eight weeks and whether I'd be capable of keeping up. Like it wasn't a fast pace but you know, it's not a race.

That's right.

I was just happy to maintain a steady pace and complete that. And then so I ran again at Strathalburn. Has a little bit of elevation but nothing really drastic. And so the ankle's feeling really good. I actually think the week away in South Australia, away from my staircase at home, probably did it a lot of good.

Okay, okay. So does that mean you're off to South Australia again this weekend? Just to keep away from the staircase.

No spoilers, but I will be back in South Australia end of the month.

Okay. Wow.

So South Australia is seeing a lot of me at the moment. But what about you, Ollie? You were mostly, I think you were just all at home.

Just as well. One of us is adventuring here. You're making up for the both of us here. I have indeed been at home. Yes, I have been for all except Christmas Day at Shell Harbour Park. Run in the volunteer ranks. I've taken the opportunity to run direct for Christmas Eve and then New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. It's always a nice time on New Year's Day to welcome everyone in for their you know, their fresh start to the new year. And because we always enjoy a lot of visitors that's been a particular highlight. Got some selfies with some of the visitors from Sweden and Finland. Try and impress the in laws but you know, people from South Africa, you know, Scotland, England, of course, Ireland. Yeah, all over. All over. I've probably forgotten many.

Hope they signed the guest book.

They signed. Most of them signed the guest book. Some of them did miss it, but. But yeah, we got most of them. It's a pride of place there in our kit. Eight and a half years and still going strong. That guest book. Takes a bit of tape to hold it together, but nonetheless. But we had our fastest time on the new course. We had our highest attendance on the new course. We had the fortune of having a guest run director on Christmas Day as the Office lady herself took the reins and brought Parkrun to Shell Harbour on Christmas Day. And I made the point of jumping up and visiting for the last 20 minutes of that to say hello to people after presents had been unwrapped. And yeah, some great help from others. So very much a home time. And this Parkrun Day just gone. Once again, I was at home. Just did some barcode scanning.

There's no place like home.

There's no place like home. Yeah, yeah, that's right. But look, the adventures will come at some point, but it's been nice to lay low, but seems the Office Lady's been quite busy. Do we have any feedback from the Office Ladies episode or are we casting our minds Back to episode 316?

Oh, this goes back even further, doesn't it? This is back to when, well, when did Jo McLean get her OBI?

Ah, yes. Oh, well, it was indeed before Christmas. Yeah, that's right. So needless to say, because that was a very rusty throw from one thing to the other.

Oh, Ollie, you'll warm up okay.

Yeah, that's right. There's plenty of months yet for that, but yeah. Thank you, Joe, who got in touch with a bit of feedback from the last episode and said, hi, Mel and Ollie, happy New Year. I'm still in 2022 in the USA. Did Delaware and Raritan Canal Parkrun in New Jersey this morning, which was fun, albeit foggy and cold. I wanted to say thanks for the OBI Award before Christmas. We had a lot of fun dressing up for Christmas and ugly shirt. A singlet day. I got quite. Hon. I hadn't listened to that episode and had friends congratulating me and I didn't know what for. So thanks again. By the way, from ages ago, Mel asked about the Virtual Medibank selfie frame. It is a free symbol or addition when you edit your photos in Instagram. I just found it by accident when I searched for Parkrun. Have a great 2023. Thanks for the podcast. Your efforts are very much appreciated. How is your feedback? Thank you Jo.

Excellent. Oh good. I'm going to go looking for that Insta frame. That's good to know.

Yeah. And hope it's been a nice trip.

Oh yeah. Over in the usa, that's pretty exciting. Christmas over there, that's a big trip. But Ollie, you know what else was exciting? And I was over in again in sa. SA has been the place to be, Mel.

On the spot. Yeah, on the spot.

I was not too far from Al Dinga beach where as the office lady reported last week and we got out in our socials as quick as I could possibly type. My little fingers could go. Isabelle Bat Doyle broke the women's park run world record on New Year's Eve.

Yes.

So our friends over it with me now, they've already had a conversation about it last week. Danny and Nicola. And Danny did say that he wondered if she'd had a crack at the record. So I reached out to the ED over at Aldinga beach to see what I could find out from him. His name is John Markinson. Market Ollie. How do you say that?

I'd say Marketis but sorry John, I haven't checked that.

Thank you. Anyway, this is what John had to say in reply to my question. He said she was paced by her coach and boyfriend, Riley Cox, Riley's brother Jacob. And there was a large contingent of runners from her group run as one run by Riley and Jacob. Izzy had held our female course record since Newsday 2020 at 17 minutes 35. And in news Corp Rag she mentions her tradition of record breaking at Parkrun around the New Year events. This also extends to Riley and Jacob actually because they dead heated on New Year's Day in 2021 and set a new male event record of 14:59 which Jacob then beat on New Year's Day 2022 at 14:52. So I've got a good feeling, Ollie, that they are very well aware of course records and they enjoy using their New Year's Day extra events to have a crack.

Yeah, and good on them. I look forward to seeing what happens this time next year. No pressure but yeah, look, it keeps going, doesn't it?

It does, yeah. So I did my best to find out what I could thank you.

And that was Mel on the spot. But look, speaking of achievements, the heads up came to us and you have checked up on the status, Paul Frayne, and obviously building up the number of locations there. He has run his 600th location out of 644 runs, this time at Maricia in Italy on Saturday. Just gone. Which is just incomprehensible in a very good way from my perspective. 600 locations.

Yeah, I did fact check that to make sure.

Yes. Thank you, Mel. Good researching and well done, Paul. But, yeah, unfortunately, as we know, Mel, there's no milestone t for a 600th event, is there?

No, but that's a contentious topic, Ollie. This week it was going off on Twitter when Parkrun CEO Russ Jeffries made a stir when he tweeted. Feels like it's about time we introduce some new Parkrun milestones, fill in some gaps. One for every 50 or 100. What colors should they be? Well, Ollie, this sent the traditionalists into meltdown. It had 29 retreat. It had 29 retweets and 245 responses. Most of the comments calling for the current milestone shirts to be retained with the possible addition of a 750 and a 1000. Lots of controversy. But Russ later added really interesting views on this. Love the passion and discussion. I'm only thinking out loud. No decision made other than there will be a 1000. So what's your thoughts, Ollie? What's your thoughts on this?

Well, I think that there have been a number of individuals out there celebrating their 25th parkrun with a purple shirt. I have been ecstatic to get my green volunteer shirt and get to wear that. I think that there will be a lot of individuals that would welcome more and more milestone shirts. So.

So you're.

I'm pro.

You're pro. You're pro.

I'm pro.

Give us all the shirts.

Yep. Change it up. Yeah, I'm all World Cup, 48 countries. No worries. Sorry, soccer reference slipped into old habits there. Change is good.

Okay. No, that's good to know. So what do you think? Every 50? Because people do like the round numbers as well, don't they? Like, people love to celebrate their 200th, their 300th, etc. Etc.

Well, that's right. That's right. And it's probably. It's now the commercial hat that I have as well that thinks, well, does that mean some of them need to actually cost and does that make it inequitable? So I guess my caveat to being all change is, is it sustainable for this Initiative, this, this charity that is there for our people to continue being there for our people.

Do you think it could potentially cost more money to produce more T shirts? Is that what you. Is that where you're going with that?

I would wonder if as many people would get the additional shirts. I don't know. Would there be as much Demand for a 150 shirt for those that have obviously passed that milestone? Probably not. But then everyone that's reaching it from here on in and going on that journey. Yeah, maybe. So. So, yeah. Raw thoughts, unqualified thoughts. So, yeah, maybe it's not a concern.

I've heard a lot of people say that once they've passed their milestone, they get their new shirt. They've never worn their old one again. Like they've never worn their 50 again. But I have. I pull mine out regularly. Like, you know, there's always a red theme or a friend doing a 50th or an event's 50th event that you pull out. Well, I have those old event tees and wear again. The red one's always good at Christmas time because it's red and it matches in nicely with the colors of Christmas. I often wear the black one because I like to think it's slimming. So I. I'm quite often happy. If I'm feeling like I ate too much the night before, I'll just wear my black one to Parker. I don't care that it's 100 and I've done more than that. Doesn't bother me.

I'm with you. I'm with you. Right down to the reason for wearing the black. Yeah. The red one, however, I wear that in the colder months because it feels a bit warmer.

And also I just color coordinate. Like if I'm wearing my. Like my running leggings that are the purpley ones. Well, I'll wear my volunteer shirt because it matches.

Yep. Yep.

So I'm all about the color coordination and all the colors. And you know, it looks good too. Like all the colors of the rainbow. And sometimes you can coordinate your tutu if you want.

Well, yes, yes.

With a nicely colored volunteer shirt. But you know what? I do think now this is just me adding my two cents in. What? I wish they had it done, Ollie. I wish all the volunteer shirts in increments. I wish they just had a left that with purple. I wish the volunteer 50 and 100 and 250. I wish they just kept them all purple because I just. To me, purple represents the volunteers.

Yeah, I hear what you're saying. And having seen and I haven't done my fact checking, I'm definitely not only in the spot here, having seen the incoming vests, volunteer vests that will be coming out in Australia. Not being orange. I know that, you know, formerly we had green, light green, dark green vests. Orange and purple have been synonymous with volunteering for me as well. So yeah, I certainly share that. What's the word? That linkage. Oh dear.

And here we are saying change is good, we should embrace change. But don't change the color of our shirts. We don't like just completely contradictory predicted myself.

Well, there we are. I have, I'll admit I have emotional attachment, but change it. It's good. I love new ideas. Bring it on.

But no, see, they're going to be red, aren't they?

They're going to be red.

Australia's volunteer vests are going to come out with the Velcro, much like the model that we have of our run director. Yes, currently. And our park walkers and they're going to be red. Now, my understanding as to the reason they're going to be red is because that's kind of Medicare's color and Medicare is our presenting partner and that is why they're going to. Now would that not fit in with in the UK having their pink. And I know that Vitality logo is pink.

Yes, that does certainly make sense in terms of that affiliation. Is that the word I was looking for? I'm not sure. But yeah, the red will stand out. And I suppose the more milestone tees that we have, milestone shirts, milestone singlets and buffs and so forth, the more likelihood there will be a color that matches it anyway. So gone are the days. Where it is, is I suppose, unique. Even if, you know, We've got our red 50 shirt, we've got our red vests and there is a bit of change. Reaching the milestone and celebrating it and finding more ways to celebrate that. I still think it's good.

We better move on.

Yes, we dwell. We dwell. Yeah. Well, time to hand to some people that probably, probably have their themselves together a bit more than I do at the this point, reintroducing myself to parkrun for the year and podcasting. So we've got a couple of roving reports, in fact so many that we aren't bringing you all, all of them this week. But let's have a listen to a few of our roving reports from our Parkrun days over the weeks. Just gone.

Well, g' day, Parkrun adventurers. It's pk checking in for probably the last time this year, but you're probably not hearing it till the New Year as I am at Lochiel. Well, in the car, about to get out, Lock Hill park run in Campbelltown, about to do the Christmas Eve park run and I thought I'd just check in with a bit of a roving report because I do know there are a number of international visitors here today because they're both mates of mine, but one of them is doing their first pack run as well, which is great. Anyway, better go and get amongst it. I can see lots of people with some great outfit outfits on. Lots of a really good Christmas vibe here happening. Let's go and get amongst it. So I'm now out on the course and I couldn't help myself. I had to stop and say hello to these two legends, Paige and Amelia, because amelia has her 10t shirt on and Paige has her Parkrun Adventurers ugly Christmas T shirt on.

Woohoo.

How you going?

Both.

Oh, sorry, sorry.

Doggo.

And they've got a doggo, Rosie. Sorry, Rosie. Also with an I in her name. Awesome. They've done Ipswich by the way, so they could all get an eye. But that's another story. How you going?

Good, thank you.

Awesome. And hello, Paige. Sorry. Amelia.

Hello.

Hey. Go on. So, yes, I had to of course stop and bore Paige with the story that the P on the back of her top is me. Isn't that what we're meant to do as a roving reporter? It's not really. Anyway, enough about me. Tell me, so where was your very first park?

In Hamilton.

Oh yes, Hamilton. You were saying? So Hamilton. Victoria. Yeah, yeah. So what's the course like there?

It's pretty flat, goes around the lake.

Nice.

So you go turn around, then go.

Back around the lake.

Nice.

That's good.

Awesome. And we're now we're at Lock Hill today.

Of course.

So this is your new. Your new home?

Yeah, this is our local. Although this year we've been traveling around and Janet told us to make sure we come home.

Of course.

So here we are.

Maddy Barter. Nice one, mate. Loving it. That was the legend, Matty Barter. We'll chat with him later. I'm just going to peel off here for a moment to have a wee moment. Can I catch up with you a bit later on? We'll see in a minute. That feels a lot better. Okay, where were we? So you were telling me, Paige, all.

About I lived in Hamilton.

Yeah, yeah, right. And then of course you had fun. Exactly. And you knew that Janet was going to be here. We didn't.

No, I didn't. No. And the thing that I think moving to the city from the country and growing up in the country is like that sense of community side. And you knew everybody love it. Whereas you come to a group here that's about 300 people, and you still. You eventually find that core group of about, I don't know, 30 to 50.

Anyway.

Brilliant.

Which is Janet and Thomas.

Yes.

Grant Fleming and.

Yes.

You know, there's just a really nice group of people that you see every.

Week, you know, and it's a lovely, friendly.

Yeah, exactly. And it's a lovely community thing, you know, and that's why we try and encourage people and tell them about it, but once it's. It's not until you get here that you actually get it, you know?

Yes.

I think, you know, so. No, it's fantastic. I really, really appreciate everything that you do because everyone is part of the community. Everything that we do. Wearing T shirts, you know, finding a park run when you move. Move to another state or to another country or. Yeah, for some people. And Amelia, how many park runs have you done?

22.

22, fantastic. So you can get your 25t shirt these days, which is exciting. And then your 50, of course. And then. Oh, gosh, you can keep on going. Anyway, I'm gonna catch up with some other crew. Thank you so much for being part of our community and having a chat.

Thanks so much.

Good on you.

Thanks.

See ya. Right, right. So now I am with someone doing their very first Parkrun ever. Hello, Lorna.

Hi there, Paul.

How are you?

I'm good, mate. My friend Lorna, who I've known for years, has been living in London for 23 years. 23 years in London.

I've heard you talk about Parkrun for at least half of those.

Indeed. So she's heard me yabbering on and she says she's back for Christmas. And I said, why don't we catch.

Up for a walk?

And then I said, even better, why don't we catch up for a park run? And so good on you. What'd you do? You registered?

I registered. Apparently it's an amazing app you should all Download.

Correct.

The 5K app at your nearest app store. Correct. So, yes, of course, I told Lorna that if she was going to come out on Christmas Eve to do Parkrun here, why waste it, you know? Because you're going to be going back to London. So where did you register, by the way? What's your home park run?

Well, I think as much as it was dead easy, I actually registered this as my local London, but I can see I can change that later. It's so easy to do what will.

Be your local park run, do you reckon?

It'll be Finsbury park in Islington.

Nice. Yeah. And of course you'll have the, the envy of all because you'll be able to go and do. Do Bushy, which is the. Which is the Mecca. But so Bushi is where Park Run started and it's the Mecca. It's basically where people go to, to, to bow down to the God that is Park Run.

I did not know that.

There you go. See, this is our something new.

Every park run.

Correct.

This is an actual first timer that had not heard of Bushy.

I love it.

I know this is.

I'm popping my cherry with you today, Paul.

You are, you are. And now we're about to pose for the photographer, looking absolutely fantastic. So we're just going to pause this for one moment. Yes, we just had to pause to have our photo taken, of course. So that's going to go everywhere.

So.

And people will know you've done park run now.

Amazing.

Oh, my God.

When I turn up in his LinkedIn, they're gonna be.

Oh, you.

You did. You did it in Adelaide.

This is amazing.

Well, I wonder if they'll be doing it today because as I left there was about 20 centimeters of snow.

Oh, gosh.

So, okay.

Yeah, well, who knows? I mean, it's a beautiful day today. So you're loving. What are your thoughts on Parkrun? I mean, I've yabed away about it so much.

Well, I would call it park social for anyone who's not done it before. Is incredibly friendly and welcoming and even. And I can say it's not that everyone does already know everyone because. Because I've seen other first timers being welcoming like I have.

Nice.

And other people just using the park on bikes, getting a hello and runners. Runners who started Parkrun before we did today coming through on the track and got applauded.

And so many people dressed up for Christmas Eve.

Lovely.

Yes. And we should mention Santa was here.

Oh, Santa was here. Yes, I know, I know. So exciting. One moment. Hang on a minute. Dan's already been over code, Paul.

Hang on.

Oh, no, this is lava night. Oh, you are about to get your first barcode. So this is us.

Momentous.

This is it live, people. This is live. Alicia, we haven't been over. Thank you, guys. We're going over the line. Thank you so much. I haven't gone over yet. Thank you. Loving it. That is us going over the line. Anyway, Lorna, let's go and get amongst breakfast.

And breakfast. Thank you for having me.

Thank you for being part of park run. Love it. In Boston. So many visitors here today, including the excellent Dan and Billy Bolan. Hello, dan.

Yeah, hi, P.K. how are you?

Yeah, I'm good, mate. Hello, Billy.

Hello.

How are you? So, yeah, that accent, you may have guessed, is from Boston. Well, it was me doing a very bad Boston accent. Sorry to the people of Boston and sorry to the people of Adelaide and the world. My mate Dan and I, we used to play tennis together against each other and then we gravitated to join the same team. Known each other for years. He seen me yabbering about parkrun. Finally moved to Boston, reached out to me and said, tell me more. And I said, mate, there's a parkrun just around the corner from your house. And now. Great. Yeah, we do Parkrun. Jamaica Pond. Parkrun in Boston. Nice. It's a bit smaller than the one here. It's about £100, people. But it swells in numbers when the Boston marathon's on to about 250 people. Awesome. And we run around a lake which is the Jamaica pond. And it's a good time for me to do it with my son who's 6 years old. And here he is now. Hello, Billy. So how many park runs have you done, mate?

Seven.

Seven. My favorite number. Fantastic. So today's your seventh, is it?

Yes.

Do you reckon? That's brilliant. How long have you been doing? When did you start doing park run?

In June.

In June. Awesome. And what do you think of your first Australian parkrun?

It was good. Yeah.

What was your favorite bit about today's parkrun?

I don't know.

You don't know? Maybe. Oh, did we see any koalas? Sometimes we see a koala. Don't know if they're any out there today, but we heard two koalas having a special cuddle.

Oh, nice.

Nice. Good to hear. Do you reckon you'll keep doing parkrun? You're not far from getting a number 10 T shirt.

It.

Yes, I keep on doing park runs.

Correct. My favorite. We saw Santa and he handed out some lollipops, so that was awesome.

Well done, Parkrun.

Yay. Good stuff. Well, we're now going to go and thank you for being part of the Parkrun community, Dan and Billy. Thank you, mate.

Okay.

Yeah, good answer. Well done. Happy holidays. Happy holidays, everyone. Thank you, mate. And I love that more People are doing Parkrun. We're gonna go and have some breakfast somewhere. Let's do it. And that'll do it for Christmas Eve. Parkrun. We've had a wonderful time here at Lock Hill. Absolutely loved it. And yeah, what a beautiful Parkrun it is. Just gonna say goodbye to Santa. He's having a drink of water here. Just gonna say, hang on, let's go and have a chat. Quick chat to Santa. Hello, Santa. Thank you so much for coming to Parkrun today.

You're very welcome.

And it's very good to see you at Lock Hill indeed. Thank you. Yeah, I thought we better come here for Christmas Eve when we heard that you were coming. Well, that's really good. And you're all welcome here and I hope you all have a jolly fine Christmas. Thank you. There you go. That's awesome. Thank you, Santa. Fantastic.

There you go.

I thought that would be a nice way to finish the chat. See you later, Leash. Nice to see you. Yes, this is me signing off from another park run, doing a bit of a roving report.

Goodbye.

Howdy, Parkrunners tonight, Doc from Imberlock. I'm reporting in from the absolutely gorgeously sunny Torrens Parkrun.

We're mid run.

I'm running with the 25 minute Pacer. Would you like to introduce yourself?

Yes, I'm Marino and this is my home Parkrun story.

So, Marino, give us a bit of the background first.

How did you get into Parkrun and how long have you been based at Torrens?

So I was originally introduced by a.

Friend of mine and he said, come along.

One time I thought, yep, give it a try, and almost coughed my guts up. Of course, as you, as you know.

Tend to run too quickly on the first shot.

But I stuck to it and came back another week and continued from there. I've done 262 park runs so far and 252 of those here are the lovely, mighty Torrens.

Awesome. So you obviously love the course.

And let's face it, looking at this course so far, what's not to love?

I've just got a Marshall up here, so we'll just high five the Marshall and keep it going. Marshall with clappers. I love that. Well done. So give us a bit of a description of the Torrens course.

Well, Torrens course, of course, named after.

The Torrens river, it meanders through the city of Adelaide, goes past the Adelaide Zoo.

It has lovely undulating hills in some places to make it a little bit more challenging for some.

But overall it's very green and it feels Much cooler on summery days because we have lots of shade here and.

I invite everyone to come along.

It's a lovely little course. You meander along the river, there's people.

Everywhere, there's running paths both sides of.

The river, so it is really a stunning course.

We're at the turnaround, so what, I'm Marshall.

So what else can we tell about Torrens?

Torrens seems to be a fairly popular Parkrun. Obviously being CBD in Adelaide gets a lot of visitors. Well, that's right. We.

We ended up kind of getting a.

Bit too big, so they opened up a couple of new ones. In the meantime we've got a. A lovely one to the eastern side.

Of Adelaide called Pakapacanthe and they've opened up a lovely North Adelaide one as well. And. But we still managed to get three to 400 people per week. So it is a draw card for sure for anyone who's visiting Adelaide from overseas or interstate.

All right, mate. Well, at five minute K's I think we might wrap it up there.

This is a stunning park run.

Everyone get on down to Torrens talk. Out.

So I'm walking with the park walker today, whose name is Debbie Christmas, and I have to say this was the selling point for me to come here today. So welcome to the pod, Dibby. Thank you. Nice to meet you. Can you please tell me your Parkrun story? Well, some friends of ours who live down in London, we went to visit a couple of years ago and they said, oh, while you're down here, why not do this park run? I'd never heard of it. And they said, it's very friendly, you can walk it if you want. And so we went and I thought, yeah, this is quite good. Then did it a few more times. And then a friend of mine was starting to get into running. I said, oh, there's this thing at our local park called Parkrun. So I've sort of started spreading the word. Awesome.

And.

And it's great. And my friend who I introduced it to, she told me about the park walk, which I hadn't heard of until a couple of weeks ago. Hence volunteering in my very fetching Blue Tower today. It's very fetching. It's great. Goes great with your rid here. Thank you. So your last name is Christmas? How many people make jokes about it? A few. A few Was the fact that it was Christmas Eve. Did that sway you into volunteering today? Actually, no. It was the fact that I had friends who were visiting the area. My friend now lives in Yorkshire and she Was coming down, said, oh, we must meet up. And having introduced her to Parkrun, I kind of regret it because she is absolutely hooked. And every time she comes down, we must do Parkrun. We must do Parkrun. And I think, oh, I've opened a Pandora's box here. But no, it was to come and see the. I haven't ever done one on Christmas Day. Are you doing it tomorrow? No, I'm not going to be here tomorrow. Sadly, you're not finding park run near to where you're going to be. They aren't doing one on Christmas Day. Oh, shame. So, but definitely one year. Christmas Day next year is the year. Definitely. And so is Warwick Race course your local? It is, yes. So can you tell the listeners about this course? Okay, so there's very nice path, footpath inside the race track. They have horse racing here, so when there are races on, sadly we can't have a park run. But it's a circular route, lovely views across to the town of Warwick, particularly on a day like today when the sun is shining. It's an out and back route, run down a small hill because there's a road, we're not fitting allowed to cross that. So we then turn, go back up the hill and then background. We did pass the notorious swimming pool just now. The water feature. The water feature, yes. Yes. It does get a little bit soggy around there and it's been raining. Yeah. But otherwise it's a really good surface to walk and run on. It looks like it could be potentially a fast course. I think so, yeah. There's only one small hill. I'm not a fast track runner myself, but it's. It's a pretty good one. And what do you love about Park Grand, Debbie? I think it's just the feeling that everyone is welcome. If you are a serious runner, you can do it. In fact, there are some fast people coming back towards us now, so you better keep over to the right hand side. But if, like me, you're not very fit, you just want to get a bit of exercise, it's fine to. You can still join in and also you get a little tick in the box if you volunteer. They're always welcoming to volunteers. Yeah, he was really fast. Cool. Thank you so much, Debbie. It's been awesome chatting.

Thank you very much to our Channel 5 news crew. We always appreciate your effort. We had PK coming to us on Christmas Eve from Lochiel, talking to a few of his friends out there. We also had TOK on New Year's Day doing a running Roving report with Marino who was a 25 minute Pacer and of course Alison. She was also coming to us on Christmas Eve over in the uk so she was back home for Christmas. Coming to us from Warwick Racecourse now, Ollie the Tail Walker over there was Debbie Christmas. How's that?

Wonderful. It's very fitting.

It's very festive. Yes. Yeah, that was nice to hear from Debbie. So thank you guys for your roving reports and here's to another new year of adventuring.

Yes, those that have kicked it off already at Dazz's have given us plenty of check ins at Dazz's, so maybe it's time to catch up on some of those where he said welcome to Dazza's where the snacks are delicious and.

The coffee is hot.

We are open every weekend to hear about your Parkrun adventures. Come on in and tell us about your morning. And one such visitor popping in was Phil Olson over in New Zealand who said morning Dazza, I really feel I can join in today as I have just done my first Southern hemisphere Parkrun at Hamilton Lake, New Zealand. Coffee was appreciated after an early start.

And I did reply to Phil to say he can join anytime. He doesn't have to be in the Southern hemisphere. But I guess time wise posting in Dazzars is a little easier when you are in our time zone.

That's right.

We also heard from Daryl Smith who had a milestone as such. Well Darryl didn't but you'll hear that he said morning Dazza. The Smiths adventure to Queanbeyan this morning where we tackled a little hill for Charlotte's 100th parkrun. So congratulations Charlotte. The Smiths do hail from the great estate. Charlotte is one of our juniors at Ainsbury and, and yeah they had quite the adventure over Christmas and New Year. They were up in Queensland. They must be on their way home now I'm guessing as they are rather further down the map at Quimbean.

Yes, home stretch if not already there. Yeah. And we also heard from Samantha Roberts who said over to Green bank for their number 200. Started my own little hundreds challenge to work on and Samantha shared a shot.

Of herself on course guessing that her challenge is to do event numbers on the hundreds like one hundreds, two hundreds, three hundreds and so forth.

Yeah, that's got to be it. That's got to be it. But we'll have to follow the stats to see or Samantha can keep us updated.

But this one was exciting. Ollie, we heard from Jack Corkle and he said what a morning desert. Claire and I Ventured to Burley Griffin, Parkrun, where we had our first first date. And now, the morning after our wedding, we had a great group of friends join us and managed to complete the course after a few drinks last night. Our first park run together. And now our first park run as a married couple. And we had a lovely photo of Jack, Claire and their friends. Yeah, Burley Griffin celebrating very happy days. And they were holding us signs that said just married. Yeah.

Nice to see them back in, well, some familiar turf. Back down. Well, back down this way. But congratulations, guys.

Yeah, I was feeling all warm and fuzzy about that one.

Yeah.

Next, Ollie. I think this one needs no introduction. Let's hear from the woman herself. Greetings from the mothership Lochiel. Oh, Dazza, what a week it's been.

I'm trying to build a relationship with Freddie, my foam roller, but right now all I want to do is swipe.

Left and end it.

I shall persevere. Then I decided to start interval training now that I'm over my injury. But someone opened the oven door here in Adelaide and I nearly roasted.

I shall persevere.

I know you make a superb iced latte, so I'll have one of those, please, Dazza. I'd also love a hot cross bun.

But I shall resist until Easter.

And thank you, Janet. Now, Mel, we also heard from Chloe Bravos, who was touristing and said, a beautiful day for a pram free. Thanks, Nana. Run at South Beach Recreation Reserve, Parkrun. New to running on sand. So like a numpty, I kept my shoes on before seeing the regulars running barefoot straight off the beach to the finish line. I'll know for next time. And Chloe shared a selfie. And then a shot of Chloe and Mr. Bravos in the selfie frame.

Very good. But no cute baby. Damn it.

No thanks, Nana.

Okay, we heard from Louise. Tilia. Tilia. We going with Tilia. Anyway, it was her first time. Welcome, Louise. And she said, some rain, mud and puddles at Centennial Parkrun. And there was a photo of Louise and her friend in the selfie frame. We had a few adventurers out at Centennial Parkrun.

We did indeed, lovelies. Parkrun spot that one is. And yeah, well done. Now, over in South Africa, we heard from Johan, Johan Duvinage, in fact, who said, hi, Dazza. Hot coffee and a beautiful sunrise at Akarandum. Oh, dear. Akarandum Nature Reserve, Parkrun in Elvinia, Northern Cape region. Dun again. And a little bonus, current holder of the VM 5054 age category record. Although that probably won't be for Too long. But Johan shared some of what is a bit of a tradition. Some stunning landscape shots. Three in fact, so check them out if you haven't already.

I'm just looking at the name of that park run. Surely there's a way we can Aussie fire that. Shouldn't it be Akanatres, AKA Natrez? I reckon just Akkas Akas.

Yeah.

Where are you going tomorrow? I'm going to Ackers. Oh, yeah. Come to. Goodness me, it's getting late. Okay. We also heard over in the UK from Tracey May. She said, first run of 2023 at Cosmeston Lakes, having dropped off our son back at uni following the Christmas break. An undulating course, but fun and muddy. And Tracy shared a photo of herself leaning on the Cosmiston sign. If that's how you say it, it probably isn't because you know where that is, Ollie? It's in Wales. So that's going to be half those letters that I pronounced. Shouldn't be there.

Thank you, Tracey.

She was also wearing an ugly Christmas.

Singlet, keeping it festive. And we also heard from Juliet Colville, who over in the UK as well was celebrating a milestone. So Juliet said, celebrated my 100th parkrun and 50th volunteer as tailwalker this morning at Cheadlehulm Parkrunners. Possibly the wettest parkrun I've ever done and very muddy shoes there. Shared and a selfie. But congratulations, Juliet, for the double milestone.

She had mud nearly up to her knees, so that was like amazing. But I think it's Cheadle Hume. I've got a feeling we've been told that before. Yeah.

Cheadle Hume.

That's a silent L. They trick us, those UK people.

Yes.

Always trying to catch us out. Oh, I've got the last one. We heard from Josephine Moon and she was a first time visitor to Dazza's as well. And she said one of the most beautiful park runs I've done. Elliot Heads Beach. And she shared a shot of it. Must be on the course photo of the tree and the water out there at Elliot Heads Beach. Thanks for joining us, Josephine.

A nice outlook. Yeah. So thank you everyone for joining us at Dazz's this week.

Week. But the exciting thing is, Ollie. Oh yes, for the month of January, what's left of it, and maybe a little bit into February because we've got more than one to award. We've got a prize.

We do.

We have a mysterious benefactor who has donated a few of the office lady's very own Challenge cards. So the winner of the OBI this week is going to receive their very own Office Lady Snazzy Edition.

That's right.

What does she call it? Is it. Is it the Snazzy? I forget.

Well, you've coined it that now, so if not, it's got two titles.

You know what I haven't done? I haven't teed up where the envelope is, so I think it must be still in the office because, you know, it's been Christmas and everything and. And, you know, the post is slow and stuff.

Okay. Do you want me to have a look here?

Yeah, I think you better.

I have not cleaned up all the postlets. I don't know if you can hear them, but. All right. I have felt. Felt. I found the envelope. Oh, dear me. Right, okay. I will open. Open it. It's nice to get a chance to open it again.

Yes.

Yeah. It's been a while, but having a look. This week, the obi. And the prize goes to. Daryl smith.

Yay. The traveling Smith family. Hopefully that can go on the fridge and they will enjoy tea. Kicking off those challenges, I look forward to hearing all about that. Office Lady. Can probably send that down to me and I can pass it on. Easy, easy. Simplest. Yes. Oh, okay, now that's done, what are we up to?

Oh, yeah.

This is exciting, Ollie. We've got a new segment.

Something new for the new year.

Exactly. We like to change things up here on the Parkrun Adventures and in the style of.

Change is good.

Yep. Yes, yes. We like change. We're all about embracing change. And this will keep our previous host happy.

Yes.

Scotty liked new segments.

That's right.

So without further ado, welcome to Rachel's Club Corner. This pod, we begin a new series about clubs called Club Corner. There are many clubs in Parkrun, but only a few are official. The Milestone Tees. When Parkrun began, they wanted a way to recognize those that regularly participated. So the milestone clubs were instigated in 5k. Parkrun, you are eligible for a milestone after completing the requisite number of Parkruns. Those Milestone numbers are 10. If you are an under 18 aged participant, then 25, 50, 100, 250 and 500 events. The next milestone currently proposed is 1000. Originally, volunteers were only recognized at the 25 milestone and run Walk. Participants skipped that number. But in 2021, these series were integrated. Now both streams of Parkrun participants are eligible for all numbers. The reward provided was originally clothing in partnership with the sponsors of the day. So there were differently branded shirts and hoodies, depending on when you achieved the milestone. If you are a listener of podcasts, you can search the back catalogues of With Me now and Parkrun show for the UK history of the 1, what, when, how of the processes and quirks. It's quite fascinating. The milestone Club colors are 10 white, 25 purple, 50 red, 100 black, 250 green and 500 blue. The 1000 color is still a mystery for the public. For Junior Parkrun HQ implemented wristbands based around distance words, a half marathon, a marathon and an Ultra. These are 11, 21 and 50 junior parkruns respectively. Junior parkrun also has a 100 milestone, which is not a wristband in Parkrun life. All other clubs are unofficial and unsupported by Parkrun. So stay tuned for our future club corners.

And thank you very much to Rachel for our new, well, semi regular segment. Mel?

Yeah, I believe so. She's not going to be weekly, but we'll be hearing more from her. And thanks, Rachel, for explaining the milestone tease. Very topical.

Yes, very topical indeed. Now, Mel, I believe we might have some mail. You've got mail.

We do, Ollie. We heard from our favorite Eman. He sent us a message saying, hi, guys, Happy New Year. I hope you both had a restful break. Team Vergara spent the last couple of weeks Parkrun touring around New South Wales. Rhodes for Christmas Eve, Newey on Christmas Day, Orange for New Year's Eve and Dubbo on New Year's Day. Highlights were the run brief by the rd Bernadette Bennett at Newey Parkrun in the form of A Christmas Carol and meeting and running with Lauren Reed in Orange. Parkrun, previous guest to the podcast and former Parkrun Global women's record holder. Hope you have a great year ahead and see you at Palm 23, if not earlier. Eman. Oh, wow.

Clearly only Lauren Reed can keep pace with them. Jeez.

Gosh, yeah, Good to know Lauren's still running out there at Orange Parkrunner as well.

That's right. But no, thank you very much, Eman. Now, Mel, sorry to stop us there, but we have some breaking news.

Do tell, Ollie. What is the breaking news?

The breaking news. The breaking news. Now, we were keeping one eye on things just in case without knowing what the breaking news was. But an announcement in the last hour at time of recording has just been released where Parkrun Global has announced the appointment of seven new trustees to the board. And whilst I suppose organizational governance isn't everyone's cup of tea, doesn't get us all up in the morning, it is exciting news. A whole range of individuals and experience listed in the media release which you can find a link to on the Parkrun Facebook and other socials or on their website under the news section. But I suppose to paraphrase some of the key elements, the seven new trustees. It sounds like there has been a very lengthy recruitment process undertaken and the new members will be getting underway over the current quarter. So January through March I believe that sees some of the existing trustees and boards step away. But interesting to note there Mel, that Parkrun has alluded to the release planned of its ambitious five year strategy next month. So let's keep our eyes out. Given that kind of experience, it'll be interesting to see what their. Yeah. What they've got in mind.

Thank you Ollie and well done on talking up the boring news. It wasn't at all what we were expecting or hoping for.

I love governance almost as much as I love change.

Russ. Russ Jeffries. We were expecting an announcement of milestone shirts. You threw a red herring. He threw a red herring.

Well, red, green, black, apricot, purple, banana. But yes. Back to the mailbox. We do have more mail, Mel.

Oh we do. Oh that's. We also heard from the ideas man who said hey team, I've just listened to the in Santagram episode and loved hearing the last time capsule unpacked. Considering the last two years, I wonder if you should revisit the fill ins capsule again in December 2023. For 2024 my predictions wish list would be that there would be over 2,000 members of the Adventurers Club, that the 2024 Palm will be in the greatest state, that Ollie will be offered a record deal after he sings during the 400th episode of the podcast. Happy New Year Bruce.

Now Bruce, thank you. But we both know that's not going to happen.

What? We're not going to get 2,000 members?

No, I'm not going to sing in the 400th episode. I'll only sing in the 399th.

He's dropped the ball there, hasn't he?

No, I think. I think he's quite sharp there there. But some interesting predictions there, Mel. Is it time, is it time to start packing our own time capsule and adding to Bruce's?

Yeah. So I do think Ollie, that we should pack another time capsule for the final episode of 2024. You better put it in the calendar so we don't forget. Have you got ideas that you would like to share?

Well, I think firstly I would like to repack some of the existing time capsule items Such as our Alice Springs Parkrun for instance. I can't claim credit for that, but that should go back in because we do want to see that. Now, I suppose, thinking of what our now named fill in hosts had predicted as well, Parkrun countries. Do you have any predictions on the Parkrun countries side of things, Mel?

Oh, no, I haven't prepared for that at all.

Okay, is that sarcasm?

No, no, no, no, I've got something, I'm just waiting. It's nothing at all about countries though.

Okay, well I'll, I'll go over the countries throwing Fiji back in there. South Korea. Let's throw South Korea in there as well. And I want to see Thailand. I have seen references to variations of Parkrun. I want to see them brought under the arm and brought into the Parkrun world in Thailand. So be very interested to see that one.

Oh, I've got a country. I've got a country.

Okay, Korea. South Korea.

Yeah, let's go with that. Where's Soul?

Yes, Soul. That's the one I said. Oh, but yes, we agree.

Okay, sorry, I wasn't listening. I mean I was.

But yeah, your turn.

Oh, okay. Well, alrighty. So this is my. I don't know if it's a prediction or a wish. Okay, so at one point in time somebody decided that it would be a good idea to add Junior Parker on run to Parkrun's family. Right, so we've got a junior parkrun for those kids aged 4 to 14. Here's what I would like to see. I would like to see senior Parkrun for the, let's say, over 70s. I would like to see something for our older participants that perhaps 5k is a bit of a push for something that could be on a shorter distance that is created specifically for people, people maybe with mobility issues. That's on a nice flat path, you know, no stairs, maybe, you know, concrete, wheelchair friendly, Zimmer frame friendly, dementia friendly with mobility assistance volunteers. Yes, that is my wish. Parkrun, are you listening?

I do like that. And particularly because as far as I'm concerned, as far as I understand the idea of parkrunners being accessible and inclusive for everyone. Now that might not be in its current form for everyone as we've seen with Junior Parkrun. I think it, you know, I struggle to imagine how, you know, other versions of Parkrun would exist in some settings. But I mean the benefit would be great. Benefit would be fantastic. Good one, Mel.

Absolutely. And look, there could be people that say, oh, there's lots of over 70s that can still run Parkrun and of course there is. There's Also lots of 4 to 14 year olds that can run a 5k parkrun. That does not preclude them from running a 2k juniors.

Yes, yeah, I like that. I very much like that. And I think in terms of accessibility, here's one in Australia, at least free travel to Parkrun. So if you catch public transport, you're going to a Parkrun and you can show your barcode, you travel for free.

Oh, that's a good one.

Public transport, not free airfares. Let's just be clear here.

Yeah, yeah, well, you're in a position to influence that, aren't you? I'll just have a word to old mate Dan. Dan will be onto that.

Oh, great, great. And yeah, the other one, if you can get.

What's your premier's name?

Well, at the moment it's, it's. It's Dom.

Yeah, yeah, you get Dom, you have a word in his ear and get him to have a chat to Dan because they're mates.

Well, it would be great to see it become an election issue over here. But this, this time catch was for two years. So let's see, we can have plenty of premieres in that time frame. This is politics we're talking about. What else? The app, Mel. Yeah, the app.

The Web FMS app or the.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the app that does everything. The app that takes care of photos, bypasses Facebook, delivers photos to everyone. Let's ignore Facebook, send it out, let's record our results, process our results, record our incidents. You know, help to, to recognize when people are making achievements or, you know, reaching their achievements on the spot. An app that makes the most of current technology and really helps our volunteers who. Yeah, there's a lot of tech out there with the different social media platforms and systems and a system that served us very well in Web fms, but I want to see the app that does it all.

So you want the app to be the back end for the uploading as well as the event team. So the events main communications to the park runners.

Yes, yes.

When you sign up for your barcode, you download the app, it's official and you can go on and see if your event's doing Christmas Day or if they've cancelled because a tree's fallen on the course. And you can look at your Parkrun photos and everything. And we've got no more Facebook. Yep, yep.

Link to Facebook, no problem with that. But yeah, the recent show of hands I did at Shell harbor before an event, convinced that less than 50% put their hands up saying that we, you know, we follow shellharb of parkrun on Facebook. So yes, this is a problem.

This is a big problem. Not everybody uses parkrun, relies on Facebook for their comms to participants and not everybody uses Facebook.

Yeah. So an app that has the capability, I don't think you can replace the need to use some of these mediums and email. But yeah, I think the solution could be great and certainly to work around what web FMS has done historically and replace that.

It's funny that email has never really become obsolete. We still rely on email. It's been around a long time.

That's right.

You know what else would be good? You know how in emergencies, the emergency services can send like a text to your phone to tell you if there's. Wouldn't that be good if your parkrun was cancelled? If you could get a text direct to your phone to say such and such, you know, it could just go out to the local area. Yep. Parkrun's cancelled today.

That's right. That's right. And you can opt in, opt out, respect people's privacy. Of course. But to have that capability just to make it easier for our volunteers. And the other feature that I did want to describe with that is the inbuilt selfie front, you know, all in milestone frames. So, you know, the app has the ability to take a photo and it just places that frame around you just to make sure that it's there when you, when you are celebrating.

I actually brought that up when we first went into the pandemic.

Oh, yes, I'm probably copying your idea.

No, not at all. I don't even remember if I told you that, but that was something I would have liked. When we were all running around our streets doing our own park runs, I may have reached out, out to somebody I knew who worked for parkrun and said, you know what we need? We need like an insta frame that says parkrun and you can just put it over your photo, you know, because that still would have given the. The park run. What are they our supporters. That still would have given them. Why have I lost all my words today? Advertising. Yes. Because the frame would still have the parkrun supporters on it. It could have just been virtual. It could have just overlaid over people's photos. Would have been perfect. Anyway. Yeah, it'll come. Medibank's already done it.

Yes.

Anyway, so, yeah.

What about you, Mel? Any others?

No, that was my big one, Senior Parkrun.

I love it. So, look, I was very Tempted to throw in, you know, a Parkrun rainbow milestone shirt, things like that, but I think I'll leave it there. I'll save that. I think the milestone shirts sound like they're well and truly being catered for.

Yeah, don't talk about the war.

Last.

Last question for the time capsule. How many Parkruns will there be in Australia?

Oh, two years. Hmm. No clue. What did Mel and Scott project? Was it it? 500.

That's awkward. I should have checked. It was 500. So, yeah, we got up to. What was it close to? 450? Thereabouts. So, hey, let's. Let's go with that rate. Let's go with 625.

That's specific.

625.

Can we just have more closer to the Victorian border, please? More southern New South Wales events and eastern South Australian events. That would be great. Thank you.

Excellent. You just want a new event for a Palm 2024, don't you?

Yeah, just outside the Victorian borders.

Yes. Ah, all right, so let's pack the time capsule.

All right. Yep. Screw the lid on, stuff it in the back cupboard.

Yep. To be opened up in just under two years. But, Mel, there's still a lot going on. Consolidated Club report time.

Just getting out the pen. I'm gonna write 2024. Yep, 2024. Right. Consolidated Club report time, Ollie. Yes, FOR Last Saturday 7 January, 2023, with Chico coming into the room. Thank you, Chico. Of a total of 300, 364 members, 308 took part at 180 locations. Now, there was adventurers at 22 events in the UK, three in South Africa, two in the USA and one in Malaysia. Locally, we had adventurers at.

Yes.

40 in New South Wales, 39 in Victoria. Missed it by that much. 36 in Queensland. So numbers were up this week, Ollie?

Well and truly.

13 in. I was gonna say South Africa, 13 in South Australia, eight in WA ACT and the North island had adventures at five events. And Tassie and the south island had adventures at three events. The largest from was a tie this week with seven adventurers at Sandon Point in New South Wales and seven adventurers in Gatton in Queensland. Hang on, is Gatton in Queensland?

I believe so.

Ah, okay. All right. Why do I think it's in New South Wales?

Well, it's in southern Queensland, but then so is Brisbane. Lockyer Valley, I think. That area sort of west of Brisbane.

Brisbane.

Goulstone.

That's why I'm thinking of Goulston.

Okay.

Yes, yes, no worries. All Right, so that's it.

Yeah. Well done, everyone. Yeah.

Nice short Consolidated club report well done to New South Wales.

Thank you, Mel. Well done, everyone. Especially New South Wales. Mel, what's coming up? What's happening next Parkrun Day days?

Ainsbury Heritage Trail Junior Parkrun is celebrating their second birthday.

Happy birthday.

We've got cake coming and we're very excited, so hopefully we can have a nice turnout. We've already filled our roster and it's only Monday. That's a big thing for us.

Wow. Everyone wants cake.

Everybody wants the cake. Lovely volunteer Janelle has offered to bake a cake for us. So we're very pleased about that and hopefully we've got nice weather. Hopefully not too hot and melty for cakes.

Yes. I think there is some respite coming for you at the weekend at least.

Because the puddle's dry. We have dried out considerably our sloshy course that spent most of spring and the first month of summer underwater.

Yeah. Oh, look. And the dry and the wet. It's certainly the tale of our country, isn't it?

So I love a sunburnt country.

That's right. And our thoughts go out to our WA park runners and hope that you are all safe with floods. Over there. There.

Oh, goodness, that's Londin. Yeah. For you.

Yep. But so that'll be quite exciting and it's a mystery as to where you're going.

It is a mystery.

Okay.

Fair bit that I'm going to tourist if I can manage it, and I'm looking at traveling north up the Hume, so let's see how that turns out.

Okay, well, safe travels.

Thank you. What about you?

Oh, I remember I. I may not be park rich running. It remains to be seen. My daughter and her boyfriend are moving and we have a moving van booked for 8am which might have been feasible if we were in Queensland or even Tasmania. No, probably Queensland, but yes. So it may be no Parkrun for me. Ah.

Oh, well, you can live vicariously through me.

That's right. So no pressure, Mel, but travel safe and have a nice Parkrun day.

Thank you. Absolutely, Will. Now, who's doing the outro? Me, as always. You can contact us via Facebook or our email, which is parkrunadventuresmail.com we are also on Twitter and Instar. That's it for another week and we will see you all next week for more adventures. Sa.