Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

On the 24th June 2023 I ran the Riddlesdown parkrun which was the 577th event held at the venue, my 136th parkrun and 65th different course I'd attended. I hadn't really done my planning very well this week, if I had I'd not have picked a trail run. Running hungover is far from pleasant at any time, trail courses in the summer even more so! I knew that Hayden's football presentation night was on Friday and I should perhaps have either run locally at my home event, or repeated one that I'd done before but I was adamant that my tourist streak was going to continue, and so it did. After a late night and a few drinks, it was up at the crack of dawn with the early light coming through the loft window and waking me up, a good couple of hours earlier than I'd intended. But that's been the way of the last few weeks since the temperature has dropped and our skylights at the front of the house have been opened overnight. A short trip around the M25 and I found myself...

On the 17th June 2023 I ran the Canons Park parkrun which was the 283rd event held at the venue, my 135th parkrun and 64th different course I'd attended. At the time of writing there are 76 parkruns inside the London Orbital motorway, the M25. Before Saturday I had attended 26 of them. It is my hope and ambition to tick them all off and in order to do so I needed to complete my 27th venue, Canons park - chosen because it was also one of the few events this weekend in the area that was also hosting an event that was a prime number. I enjoy visiting events in London, because so far all the events I've completed have been at venues I'd never dream of visiting and are little green spots of calming open space in what is otherwise a concrete jungle. The other benefit of visiting different parkrun events in London is getting off and visiting other tube stations that I'd otherwise invariably miss out in normal touristing situations. Saturdays event allowed me to visit Canons P...

On the 10th June 2023 I ran the Bevendean Down parkrun which was the 313th event held at the venue, my 134th parkrun and 63rd different course I'd attended. Every now and then I get a response to my weekly message on the boys WhatsApp group when I post where I'm running on the Saturday ahead. A couple of weeks back I'd mentioned to my friend Mark that I had a tough course coming up, Bevendean Down. But when he found out where it was he told me that Brighton was too far to go for a 5k. But when I wrote my WhatsApp update I made it sound as appealing as I could and I was therefore surprised when Mark replied back for further details. What time will we be back? What time will you pick me up? Are you thinking about it then Mark? Maybe... And so I found myself with company travelling down the M23 bright and early on Saturday morning as we head down to the south coast on the hottest day of the year for one of parkruns toughest challenges. Bevendean Down parkrun is one of five pa...

On the 3rd June 2023 I ran the Bethlem Royal Hospital parkrun which was the 131st event held at the venue, my 133rd parkrun and 62nd different course I'd attended. If choosing parkruns by event numbers, or for one of the arbitrary challenges wasn't difficult enough, then adding course characteristics to the mix and you've gotten yourself another variable to add to the mix. Courses change over the seasons and a course that runs well in the summer months is a completely different beast during the winter. Bethlem Royal Hospital falls into that category - mud, glorious mud in the winter/beautiful meadows adorned with buttercups in the late spring/early summer. I'm not afraid of the mud, in fact I quite like a wet and muddy event. But when your feet are buried and you run leaving your shoe behind is the type of mud I've not quite managed to brave just yet. As my options grow increasingly smaller the more I tourist, the more chance there is that on one wet wintery day I...