Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

On the 3rd May 2025 I ran the Isabel Trail parkrun which was the 231st event held at the venue, my 235th parkrun and 153rd different course I'd attended. parkrun rules state that children under 11 years old need to be accompanied by and adults within arms length. Which is fine and all fair enough. But what happens when you have two 10 year olds that are on complete opposite end of the athletic spectrum? Back in August I took Hayden's best friend Henry with us to Morecambe where alongside the football he completed his first parkrun. On dropping Hayden off at school a couple of weeks ago Henry came up to me and asked if he could come with me and Hayden on our next away day. I agreed, but one of the conditions was he needed to join in on Saturday morning at 9am for our standard 5k walk, jog or run.  Initially I had planned to book a Premier Inn in Stoke-on-Trent and run Hanley parkrun, but the local Premier Inn prices had gone through the roof on what I suspect to be celebrating ...

On the 26th April 2025 I ran the Morden parkrun which was the 40th event held at the venue, my 234th parkrun and 152nd different course I'd attended. Just when you think you are edging ever closer to LonDone status another parkrun pops up and the goalpost move ever wider apart, making it even harder to obtain that elusive crown. However, it does have benefits in that a closer event to home makes easier options for filling up the Wilson Index - parkrun snakes and ladders! 9 months or so ago Morden parkrun became the latest event to join the roster and I marked it down as a possible venue on my calendar. But for one reason or another it kept getting pushed back until eventually the stars aligned and I made to event number 40. By completing the event I leave just event number 33 remaining all the way up to 58, with gaps at 59, 62 and 65. The gaps become a little more frequent after that but the goal is to eventually complete 1-100 which is one of the harder 'achievements' to ...

On the 19th April 2025 I ran the Quakers Walk parkrun which was the 75th event held at the venue, my 233rd parkrun and 151st different course I'd attended. I have got a rather long list of planned events in an excel spreadsheet that is loosely put together with some form of logic, but heavily caveated that things are likely to change. For example I can't really put plans in place now for August and September until the football fixtures are released at the end of June. But they are there anyway waiting for me to adjust when the time comes Planning out this way does occasionally create some unexpected opportunities. I had worked out that Gillingham weren't playing on Saturday as it was Easter, so I planned to visit Quakers Walk parkrun with the idea of possibly making a family day of it with Steph and the kids. It would mean an early start, but we'd done it previously and had a good day out afterwards. But I hadn't quite considered Gillingham playing the day before a...

On the 12th April 2025 I ran the Gladstone parkrun which was the 601st event held at the venue, my 232nd parkrun and 150th different course I'd attended. In social media groups discussing parkrun adventures there's frequently tales of parkrunners who have bumped into someone famous on their weekly timed walk, jog or run. 'Famous' can mean lots of different things these days and so those celebrities can range from anyone, like Paul Sinton-Hewitt, the founder of parkrun to Joe Wilkinson the comedian, Gillingham FC fan and occasional parkrun participant. I even ran an event once where Dame Kelly Holmes was present and hadn't even realised until I'd read about it later on social media. So you can forgive me for feeling a little excited when I arrived at Gladstone parkrun and immediately spotted Olympic legend Ellie Simmons! She was attending her first parkrun event as an ambassador of parkrun to help further promote the parkwalk initiative which aims to encourage f...

On the 5th April 2025 I ran the Alexandra parkrun which was the 184th event held at the venue, my 231st parkrun and 149th different course I'd attended. No sooner had Hayden and I arrived home from our trip to Harrogate, it was time to get back into the car and head north again. Gillingham were due to visit Manchester again for their third ever visit to Salford City football club. Hayden and I have attended every single game Gillingham have played against Salford and at the beginning of the season this was one that we'd pencilled into the diary as to having to do. It just so helps that there's always something to do in Manchester and combining it with a parkrun there is a wealth of options to choose from. Despite having done Heaton Park before our fixture last season, and Woodbank before playing Stockport the year before there was still plenty to choose from. I wanted to do Peel parkrun, but I'd already ran at the scheduled parkrun event number so settled on Alexandra ...

On the 29th March 2025 I ran the Pontefract parkrun which was the 650th event held at the venue, my 230th parkrun and 148th different course I'd attended. Horse racing isn't my thing, and so a visit to a venue that hosts horse racing isn't necessarily on my list of places to go to. Had it not been for parkrun I'd not have visited any at all, but after York, Pontefract racecourse was the second parkrun venue I'd ran at where horse racing is also held. Being a Gillingham fan in league two this season has meant a lot of long away trips and lots of hours on the road. It has also provided opportunities to tick off a few parkruns in areas of the country I'd not be able to justify travelling to just for a 5k run. Combining football and parkrun tourism has also allowed me more time to explore the towns we play football in which has been an unexpected pleasure. This seasons we've done Doncaster Rovers, Morecambe, Fleetwood, Notts County and Carlisle all in combinati...