Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

On the 5th October 2024 I ran the Volksgarten parkrun which was the 201st event held at the venue, my 205th parkrun and 126th different course I'd attended. After our day touristing in Cologne we head south of the city for a day at Phantasialand, one of the very many German theme parks in the country and arguably one of the very best of it's kind anywhere in the world. We had a great day and enjoyed as many of the rides and attractions as we could. Truth be told, a two day visit would have been better, but when you have only a single day there you have to make the most of it which we did. Highlights included Taron and FLY, the latter being a launched flying coaster where you are laying down and literally in the flying position. Both coasters were ridiculously long and seemed to go on forever which was a refreshing change from similar attractions at Alton Towers and Thorpe Park where you come off things feeling rather short changed. Stephanie continued to feel the effects of ol

On the 3rd October 2024 I ran the Rheinpark parkrun which was the 158th event held at the venue, my 204th parkrun and 125th different course I'd attended. Every parkrun country is allowed to host a one off parkrun on a non-saturday as a 'special event day'. The UK uses theirs on Christmas Day, the US on thanksgiving and Germany on Unity Day which is their national holiday which takes place every year on October 3rd. Earlier this year we planned a short family break. The plan was to spend the weekend in Holland and to run two parkruns, including their special event either side of some touristing and visits to some European theme parks. However, those plans were ruined when we realised two days before we were due to leave that Oliver and Phoebe's passports lacked sufficient validity for them to travel. We did as any responsible parents would do and went without them. As part of the compensation package agreed with Oliver and Phoebe I suggested that we would book another

On the 21st September 2024 I ran the Colwick parkrun which was the 611th event held at the venue, my 202nd parkrun and 124th different course I'd attended. Following the Gills around the country has enabled me to combine football fandom with parkrun touristing and expand the range of possible places to visit on a Saturday morning massively. But travelling with Hayden in tow means that I have to make a few compromises when it comes to picking an appropriate venue. As Gillingham were playing Notts County again we had an opportunity to tick off another one of the many Nottingham events. We had already done Wollaton Hall which is a jewel in the Nottingham crown and so I didn't necessarily have a preference which of the others to visit. Having a look at the event numbers of all the courses available I had already run most of them and so the only one that met all of the criteria was Forest Rec. We also had the option of Colwick which is the closest event to Notts County and would ha

On the 14th September 2024 I ran the Richmond Park parkrun which was the 827th event held at the venue, my 201st parkrun and 123rd different course I'd attended. For some reason I wasn't expecting much of Richmond parkrun, and I'm not quite sure why. I was expecting to just take my usual drive in the morning, run around the park and come back home again ticking off my 43rd Greater London parkrun, and leaving with working out when and where I'd be doing my final 20 to complete the LonDone set. But it ended up being so much more than that. Having ran at nearby Kingston and Bushy I was in familiar territory on my drive around the M25 and following the route to Chessington World of Adventures. Carrying on past the white knuckle and family adventures deeper into South West London via the A3 until Google took me off route and into areas unknown. After following obligingly for a few miles through housing estates, main roads, left turns and navigating roundabouts I was told to

On the 7th September 2024 I ran the Epworth Equestrian parkrun which was the 54th event held at the venue, my 200th parkrun and 122nd different course I'd attended. Sometimes the stars just align and impossible things become possible. In my schedule I'd planned to visit Woolford Wood parkrun for event number 54, which is another gap at the the lower end of my missing event number spectrum. But a post on Facebook changed all of that. The organisers of Epworth Equestrian parkrun announced on Facebook that the owners of the Equestrian centre in which the parkrun is hosted had revoked ongoing access to the course, and so it was sadly to close part way through October. As part of the list of arbitrary parkrun challenges on the 5k parkrunner app is a challenge called 'we where there' and is achieved by running at an event that is no longer running or is closed access to the public (parkrun does run in some prisons and participants from outside can apply to attend). I wondere

On the 31st August 2024 I ran the Wakehurst parkrun which was the 20th event held at the venue, my 199th parkrun and 121st different course I'd attended. I'd never heard of Wakehurst Place until earlier this year when a new parkrun popped up on social media. Since then, every week it pops up as the latest new venue that parkrun tourists have visited and have shared their experience of the event on Facebook. But I had to wait patiently to record my own visit and then when I finally came to enjoy it for myself I barely paid it any notice. Whenever a new event pops up it gives me an opportunity to fill one of my gaps in my Wilson Index. Which explained before on these pages is the visit of a parkrun event in continued numeric order. I'd previously visited parkruns that were numbered 1 to 19. I've also visited a number 21 and numbers 23 through to 32. So gaps where 20, 22 and 33 should be. Eventually I'd like have a Wilson Index of 100, but I'm still some way off t