Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

On the 29th October 2022 I ran the Charlton parkrun which was the 55th event held at the venue, my 101st parkrun and 35th different course I'd attended. In and around trying to get the parkrun venues in Kent ticked off, I've been simultaneously trying to work my way through my local parkruns that I've not done yet, in particular those that sit either side of the A2 corridor. One of those such runs is Charlton, which I planned to run to coincide with event number 55, which is one of the remaining Fibonacci sequence numbers I am still yet to do. Prior to the run, on the Thursday night watching the climax of the latest Stranger Things series on Netflix I was stretching my feet out and felt a bit of a twinge in the big toe of my right foot. I didn't think anything of it, until the next morning when walking down the stairs was a lot more painful than it should have been. As I was off work on a days leave and had planned to visit Whitstable for a stroll along the coastal pat...

On the 22nd October 2022 I ran the Bushy parkrun which was the 899th event held at the venue, my 100th parkrun and 34th different course I'd attended. Not to be confused with the town in Hertfordshire, Bushy park lies in South West London - a stones throw away from Hampton Court Palace. It is in fact a Royal Park, one of eight in London and is the second largest of them all. It's famous for its herds of red and fallow deer which roam freely across the park itself. In 2004 a man named Paul Sinton-Hewitt arranged a 5k running event at the park between running friends that was known as the Bushy Time Trial. The event was then replicated at Wimbledon Common three years later and further Time Trials soon followed. These events were then renamed to parkrun and a global initiative was born. As it was my 100th parkrun, what better way to celebrate my centenary than a pilgrimage to the place where it all started? Knowing that it was my 100th event and the next official parkrun mileston...

On the 15th October 2022 I walked the Cyclopark parkrun which was the 100th event held at the venue and my 99th parkrun event overall. I had planned to run the Royal Tunbridge Wells parkrun and keep up my chain of tourist events going, but a request to Stephanie from the Cyclopark run director changed my mind and my schedule has now been rewritten. I hadn't planned on walking either, but a combination of circumstances dictated otherwise. Being my local event I knew that the centenary milestone was fast approaching for the Cyclopark and I should have drawn my schedule up around it. But I had wanted to attend Royal Tonbridge Wells on account of theirs being a prime number event as well as the R that I am still missing as part of the alphabeteer challenge. These challenges are easily addictive and interfere with rational thought, hence my decision to skip Cycloparks centennial celebrations. However, Hayden and Phoebe have swimming lessons on Tuesday at the same place as Sarahs childr...

On the 8th October 2022 I ran the Walmer and Deal Seafront parkrun which was the 144th event held at the venue, my 98th parkrun and 33rd different course I'd attended. After two recent visits to the Kent Coast made even better by the weather, you'd forgive me for being cautious on betting on a hattrick. But as it was, I headed to another Kent venue at the seaside with amazing blue skies, no wind and spring like temperatures. The Walmer and Deal Seafront venue is probably the furthest venue in Kent to reach via my house as there isnt a direct route. So I set off at 7:20 with the sun low in the sky directly ahead of me as I head east along the M2 and A2 towards Dover.  I had never visited Walmer or Deal and so part of the appeal for me in ticking off all the parkruns in Kent is visiting places I'd never been before and exploring my home county. I had planned this run with the intention of ticking off another Fibonacci number (144), but hadn't realised the event was celeb...

On the 1st October 2022 I ran The Leas parkrun which was the 86th event held at the venue, my 97th parkrun and 32nd different course I'd attended. Working my way around the parkrun venues of Kent has left me at the mercy of the weather. Planning when to run specific events has been combining a number of variables including event numbers, event types and location. But it's also meant autumnal visits to the coast where wind conditions could potentially be tricky making for some difficult runs. I love the sea and the coast in all its seasons so have no concerns about running into a biting, near gale force headwind. In fact, I am actually relishing it. On the Friday night before I was due to run The Leas parkrun we went into town for my niece's 16th birthday meal. It was tipping down with rain and the wind was blowing strongly. I tried to remember the last wet parkrun I'd ran and struggled to recall anything other than a few soaking wet Cyclopark events towards the end of ...