Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

On the 25th February 2023 I ran the Southwark parkrun which was the 409th event held at the venue, my 119th parkrun and 49th different course I'd attended. I may well sound like a broken record, but I'm going to say it again anyway. I was going to be doing a particular parkrun this week, but couldn't due to car woes and that living in Gravesend we are incredibly lucky to have multiple routes into London via rail. It certainly feels like a rinse and repeat story of these parkrun encounters and so it was again this week when the in-laws car broke down rather than my own. As we are reliant upon borrowing their car on Saturday mornings it meant I was unable to travel to panshanger as planned and had to find an alternative via public transport. I could have just ran locally but I wanted to hit my goal of completing my 50th different venue at York next week and so had to find a plan B. Southwark parkrun ticked a few boxes, it was a prime number event (409) and it also ticked off...

On the 18th February 2023 I ran the Lordship Recreation Ground parkrun which was the 17th event held at the venue, my 118th parkrun and 48th different course I'd attended. Lordship Recreation Ground was one of two events that started on the same day in the autumn of last year and offered me an opportunity to fill in some of the early event numbers that are missing from my 'wilson index'. Being event number 17 it was also another chance to complete a prime number event, another gap that needed filling in my parkrun numbers game. Being half-term and Saturday morning clubs being on half-term break it was also an opportunity to invite the family to join me in my latest parkrun adventure. Hayden and Oliver still had football practice as normal, so Phoebe was the unlucky beneficiary this time around as she was the only one who had an amended routine - what better way to spend the morning than with a Daddy and Daughter day? The high speed train service into London has revolutioni...

On the 11th February 2023 I ran the Peckham Rye parkrun which was the 391st event held at the venue, my 117th parkrun and 47th different course I'd attended. Saturday morning parkrun events are, as mentioned previously on these pages dictated by obscure challenges relating to some numeric sequence of some kind, or alphabetically connected to the name of the event. This week it was slightly different as it was linked to an invite. Since my project manager at work found out about my parkrun tourism exploits he has been urging me to join him in his part of London for a run and breakfast catch-up. Which is how I found myself getting up at the crack of dawn and heading up to South East London by train to run Peckham Rye parkrun. From Gravesend there are no direct trains to Peckham Rye, so I had the choice of changing at Dartford or Lewisham, with the former being the better option in terms of timings. I was met by Matt, whose arrival had coincided with mine demonstrating the efficiency...

On the 4th February 2023 I ran the Bromley parkrun which was the 607th event held at the venue, my 116th parkrun and 46th different course I'd attended. I had some good news this week with the repair of our car which saw a new battery installed and back to road worthy status. This meant that I would be able to continue as planned and drive to the new Stockley Country parkrun for event number 4, with the goal being to complete the gap in my Wilson index. I had drawn up a contingency plan in any case but was nervous about travelling by train the day after a train strike as the network suffers with teething issues the day after industrial action. However, late in the week I received a message from my friend Mark who was keen to participate again this week but had a time window in which he needed to be back home. It's always more enjoyable having someone to share the parkrun experience with than travelling on my own so I was more than happy to tweak.the plan accordingly. Via Whats...