Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

On the 29th April 2023 I ran the Roundshaw Downs parkrun which was the 666th event held at the venue, my 128th parkrun and 57th different course I'd attended. I had a conundrum this week. My parkrun planner has been arranged for a number of weeks and I knew that I had another Nelson number event lined up at Roundshaw Downs. However a post on Facebook made me question my choices and whether or not I needed to reschedule. As mentioned last week, these number challenges are completely arbitrary and have no formal recognition by anyone from parkrun. It stems from an app made by an enthusiast that has gathered a cult following and those cult followers can cause some unintended chaos. Earlier this year at Wimbledon Common parkrun, the event held their 777th running - a Nelson number and the first opportunity for participants to knowingly 'collect' a number towards the challenge. That week, over 1,000 people turned up and inundated an event that normally gets an average of 400 od...

On the 22nd April 2023 I ran the Milton Keynes parkrun which was the 610th event held at the venue, my 127th parkrun and 56th different course I'd attended. As a parkrun tourist I've had to start asking myself how far is too far for touring? Okay, so Whinlatter Forest was pretty much as far as I could have gone for a parkrun in this country but was part of a weekend trip. As was the Monsal Trail and the two I've done overseas. But on a standard Saturday how far is too far to travel, run for 30 minutes and travel back again? That was the question I pondered to myself when I discovered that Milton Keynes was hosting its 610th parkrun event, a number I needed to collect towards completing the Fibonacci challenge. These challenges are arbitrary really, a load of nonsense in the scheme of things and aren't rewarded anywhere other than a tick on a mobile app that has accumulated a few fans within the wider parkrun community. I use these numbers, along with Primes and Nelson...

On the 15th April 2023 I ran the Ifield Mill Pond parkrun which was the 111th event held at the venue, my 126th parkrun and 55th different course I'd attended. The primary reason for attending the Ifield Mill Pond parkrun was of course to collect the letter 'I' as part of the parkrun alphabeteer challenge. This means I've now collected all of the letters available from within the UK leaving me just the elusive 'Z', which necessitates a trip overseas. I coincided my visit with another Nelson number, the first of the sequence which is of course number 111. It appeared that I wasn't the only tourist with this ambition as upon turning up to the venue there was clearly a large tourist contingent notable by the number of yellow and black 'cow' buffs. The fact that there were an abundance of tourists wasn't lost on Amanda, the volunteer who gave the first timers meeting, who started by wryly asking 'so, dow have any tourists this week?' in fact...

On the 8th April 2023 I ran the South Norwood parkrun which was the 233rd event held at the venue, my 125th parkrun and 54th different course I'd attended. After the experience of Whinlatter Forest parkrun last week, this week parkrun jaunt was going to feel very much like a poor relation. However, every parkrun is a unique experience and every course has its own characteristics making them all memorable for completely different reasons. I'd chosen to run South Norwood parkrun for two reasons, one it's part of the LonDone venue list and secondly it was celebrating a Fibonacci event I'd not done yet. There was a decision to be made between this one and Alton Water, where I'd discussed the possibility of running there with Stephanie and the children in attendance before having a day out somewhere on the Suffolk coast, but Hayden had a football match and so we were led into doing what was easiest for Hayden's game. Stephanie and the two younger children came along...

On the 1st April 2023 I ran the Whinlatter Forest parkrun which was the 188th event held at the venue, my 124th parkrun and 53rd different course I'd attended. Over the course of writing this series of parkrun related blog posts there have been many explanations about how plans have evolved and changed, but this one may just be the most random. Originally I had planned to attend Chalkwell Beach, event number 89 to tick off another Prime Number. But Shaun Williams scored a 94th minute winner against Carlisle for Gillingham last week and on an air of confidence, boosted by the late drama my friend Reaso and talked about how we should attend the next game on the calendar, Barrow away.  But first I needed to talk to my Dad. My Dad and I had a been talking about Barrow away for a number of weeks as it was one of the games that Dad was desperate to go to. He may well have retired as a fully fledged football fan, but the little part of him who remembers those days recalled Barrow as a le...