Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

On the 6th December 2025 I ran the Harwich parkrun which was the 483rd event held at the venue, my 264th parkrun and 181st different course I'd attended. Gillingham are never likely to win the FA Cup, but that doesn't stop us Gillingham fans from dreaming the dream every season. This year however, as many years previously the dream lasted momentarily as we were knocked out in round one away to Newport County. Gillingham were not the only supporters who had their hopes dashed, so did fans of Colchester United. And seeing as Colchester and Gillingham both had a free Saturday the officials of both clubs agreed to bring the match, which was scheduled in the midweek forward by a few days. And not only that, but to retain the television coverage by playing the game at the earlier time of twelve o'clock (instead of the traditional time of 3pm). This arrangement had plenty of benefits, with sound rationale. But for me it meant all sorts of changes and rearrangements needed to happ...

On the 29th November 2025 I ran the Shrewsbury parkrun which was the 496th event held at the venue, my 263rd parkrun and 180th different course I'd attended. As Stephanie was recovering from a long awaited Gall bladder removal, I was forced to miss a week's worth of parkrun as I carried out family tasks as she recovered from her operation. I am only able to do what I do on a Saturday morning because of her selflessness and so missing a week was no hardship. She is well and better now, after what is quite a routine surgery. Hopefully now she can get on with a better quality of life pain free and without worrying about potential attacks after eating the wrong kinds of foods. The next stop on the Gillingham FC schedule was an away fixture to Shrewsbury Town. We have all previously visited Shrewsbury, back in 2021. A weekend dominated by my mistake on booking.com.  Arriving at the hotel on Friday night there was no record of my booking. Eventually after some investigation they wor...

On the 15th November 2025 I ran the Bug Hunter Waters parkrun which was the 71st event held at the venue, my 262nd parkrun and 179th different course I'd attended. Big Hunter Waters is a relatively new event, and it was due to that fact that found me travelling up the M11 nice and early on a Saturday morning. I was looking to run an event that filled a gap in my Wilson Index. For those not paying attention the Wilson Index is the maximum number of contiguous event numbers that I have attended. That number currently stands at 59, but I've gaps throughout the 60s and 70s which I am trying to fill with a longer term goal of getting a Wilson Index of 100. This does mean, with events being fairly few and far between at lower ends of the event number spectrum that to achieve this goal that I may need to travel a little bit further than perhaps is sensible. I am fully aware that travelling distances on a Saturday morning, just for the pleasure of running 5k for half an hour of my tim...

On the 8th November 2025 I ran the Somerdale Pavilion parkrun which was the 234th event held at the venue, my 261st parkrun and 178th different course I'd attended. There are a handful of parkrun events that have gained iconic status. Events such as Whinlatter Forest, Woolacambe Dunes, Fountains Abbey and Great Yarmouth North Beach are often spoken about by parkrun tourists as 'must visits' and are notorious for either being a challenge or just breathtakingly beautiful. Somerdale Pavillion parkrun fits into the upper echelon of 'special' category and is famed specifically for it's quite bonkers course layout and 'curly wurly'. Which is the name given to the spiral part of course that winds around in a circle to the centre and comes back out again, all on a single path. Football once again came to my support and was used as a vehicle to make parkrun tourism more palatable. Driving three hours to Keynsham just for a 5k run is difficult to justify in anyon...

On the 1st November 2025 I ran the Wormwood Scrubs parkrun which was the 671st event held at the venue, my 260th parkrun and 177th different course I'd attended. A week after ticking off Greater London event number 62, it was back up to the Big Smoke again for number 63. Although this time around I was a little unsure on the best way to get there. In recent trips to London venues it's been easy to drive, but with Wormwood Scrubs being located fairly centrally my first thought was to head in by train. From Gravesend, or Ebbsfleet getting into London on Saturday morning can be a quick, if not expensive way of travel. Adding on the cost of car parking at Ebbsfleet and the connecting tube via the Central Line the cost of commuting to Wormwood Scrubs proved quite off-putting. However, the scrubs has a fairly reasonable sized carpark and despite a route that took me through central London driving once again proved to be the more viable option. For an added bonus I even managed two t...

On the 25th October 2025 I ran the Osterley parkrun which was the 544th event held at the venue, my 259th parkrun and 176th different course I'd attended. Over the course of the year I've steadily been ticking off the Greater London venues, so that by the time Saturday morning had come around I had ticked off 60 of the 65 venues across the region. Having visited almost all of what Greater London has to offer I could say that I've seen it all. From venues with over 1,000 participants. Venues with multiple laps, multiple hills or in the case of Thames Path Woolwich a Walnut Whip/Curly Wirly feature slap bang in the middle of the course. Across a size of 607 square miles the 9,000,000 inhabitants of London are spoilt for choice on Saturday mornings, but those living in the west are fortunate in that they will.have slightly easier access to Osterley, which until Saturday was to me just a stop on the Piccadilly line. But it is of course much, much more than that. A national tru...