Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

On the 28th October 2023 I ran the Rendlesham Forest parkrun which was the 89th event held at the venue, my 152nd parkrun and 80th different course I'd attended. The first rule as a parkrun tourist is to have a plan B. If you have a plan C it will likely come in handy, particularly during this time of year when the rainy season adds jeopardy to the best laid parkrun plans. I had pencilled in Rendlesham Forest for this weekend, but last week's cancellations meant that Thornham Woods wasn't able to run, and that their event 20 wasn't going to run for another week. Perfect for me, I was still looking to attend an event 20 for my Wilson index and rejigged me diary accordingly. As the kids were on half term and their weekend clubs cancelled it offered us as a family an opportunity. I suggested to Stephanie that we head out for the day on Friday, stay over night somewhere in the evening and attend Thornham Woods on the Saturday morning. After much faff and discussion that...

On the 21st October 2023 I ran the Dulwich parkrun which was the 541st event held at the venue, my 151st parkrun and 79th different course I'd attended. After three weeks of parkrun events that featured hills, hills and more hills it was time to put that grueling effort to good use with a parkrun PB attempt at everyone's favourite PB attempt parkrun location - Dulwich parkrun. The course record here is an astonishing 13:57 which was set five years ago but consistently people come close as a whole range of athletes, including Olympians use the event as part of their training programmes. I'm not an athlete and far, far, far from being an Olympian, but if it's good enough for them it's good enough for me and well, everything's relative right? Dulwich parkrun was also the next stop on my long running ambition to run all of the parkrun events inside of the M25, so a chance to kill two birds with one stone. If I failed in one goal, I'll have definitely achieved t...

On the 14th October 2023 I ran the Hilly Fields parkrun which was the 517th event held at the venue, my 150th parkrun and 78th different course I'd attended. The last two parkrun events I've been to have involved hills. It's no surprise then that Hilly Fields parkrun also contains them, and was deliberately chosen for that fact. I can only get better at running uphill if I practice doing so. It should also help me when I finally do another flat one, even it's psychological. Upon arrival it was clear why the park had been given its name. A green space in the middle of a built up area in south east London centered around a field that was made up of a hill. Various paths ran across the space and I headed upwards to the top where the parkrun starts and finishes. At the summit of the hill is a tarmac path and along its route is a cafe, a play area and a couple of tennis courts. Running from west to east participants start from the western end next to the cafe and head east ...

On the 7th October 2023 I ran the Church Mead parkrun which was the 78th event held at the venue, my 149th parkrun and 77th different course I'd attended. All week long I'd been preparing myself for the Wendover Woods parkrun and tackling everything that event would likely entail, including the tough uphill climbs. However, a rare last minute discovery changed my mind and I found myself tackling a different hilly challenge in nearby Amersham instead. Looking through the 5k challenge app on Thursday evening I discovered that Church Mead parkrun would be running it's 78th event on Saturday morning and as that event number is one of those below 100 I'm still to tick off I decided to change my plans.  I'd known that the Church Mead parkrun was going to be a challenge as I'd seen videos on YouTube profiling the event. As my niece Layla had already agreed to come with me I had another decision to make. Do I show her the video and put her off, or do I take her along o...