Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

On the 26th November 2022 I ran the Royal Tunbridge Wells parkrun which was the 359th event held at the venue, my 104th parkrun and 38th different course I'd attended. As Tonbridge parkrun was called off again for the second week in a row due to localised flooding I was able to regig my planner once more, opting instead to run at Tonbridge's near neighbour - Royal Tunbridge Wells. I had originally planned to run here a few weeks back but issues with my foot and a gout diagnosis put pay to that, but I'd been looking forward to this one, not just for ticking off another Kent parkrun venue but to finally tick off 'R' from the parkrun Alphabet. The event is one of those that are fairly well covered on social media with YouTube videos of the course so I had a pretty good sense of what to expect. I'd also been to Dunorlan Park as a child and could remember it for its beauty. It's located on a valley with a lake at the bottom, there are formal garden areas, a play...

On the 19th November 2022 I ran the Canterbury parkrun which was the 381st event held at the venue, my 103rd parkrun and 37th different course I'd attended. I was torn this week between Tonbridge and Canterbury, both of which I'd scheduled this week and next, but elected to head towards Canterbury  on account of its further distance from home. Next Friday we are in London for Mums 60th birthday celebrations so didn't want an extra early start after a late night before. It worked out well in the end as Tonbridge was eventually cancelled due to flooding on the course after some significant rainfall this week here in Kent. It was still rather wet and miserable on Saturday morning and the temperature had notably decreased too. I wasn't really sure what to expect with Canterbury as like Bedgebury the week before information online was quite hard to come by. There were whispers of a challenge on the course and the word 'hill' had been mentioned once or twice so it p...

On the 12th November 2022 I ran the Bedgebury Pinetum parkrun which was the 271st event held at the venue, my 102nd parkrun and 36th different course I'd attended. After my last parkrun at Charlton on the 29th October, I sat at home watching football on the television and at the full time whistle got up to get a snack from the kitchen. My foot which had caused me some issues in the days leading up to the event was now swollen and almost impossible to walk on. I spent most of the following day waiting to see someone in A&E where a GP diagnosed me with gout and prescribed me with a dose of antibiotics. I spent the next week having multiple conversations with people about my age, my diet and my alcohol intake and firmly defended all three. It also meant that any running activity was out of the question. My goal of running 50 parkrun events in a calendar year was over and my planned parkrun schedule had to be rewritten. It also meant that I could volunteer at my local Cyclopark e...