Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

On the 27th January 2024 I ran the Brentwood parkrun which was the 377th event held at the venue, my 167th parkrun and 92nd different course I'd attended. It's now part of my weekly routine, rewriting my parkrun planner on the basis of my mate Foordy and his last minute decision making. I've planned my parkrun schedule out well in advance and there are routine changes depending upon cancellations or last minute things that crop up. But invariably I'll stick to a plan. Foordy doesn't and he likes to live a day at a time. Nobody answered my weekly call to arms and so I assumed I'd be running by myself at the as planned Crystal Palace event. Foordy was due to head down to Folkestone with Will and Reaso and so I was very much looking forward to the challenge. But I got a text message on Friday morning from Foordy saying that he and Reaso were available on Saturday morning after all and would be up for a parkrun, albeit one a bit closer than Crystal Palace.  Challen...

On the 20th January 2024 I ran the Cassiobury parkrun which was the 404th event held at the venue, my 166th parkrun and 91st different course I'd attended. Having enjoyed the last few weeks with running company having Foordy join me on my parkrun fix, it was time for me to go it alone again. Whilst Foordy is still over in the UK he wasn't able to attend this week due to issues with his knee and there's no reason to aggrivate anything further just for the sake of it. Since Foordy has been back, the runs that we've done have tended to be flat, and mostly tarmac so this week I was going to suggest an off road course with a few hills thrown in for good measure. Ideally we'd do Lullingstone again, but with wanting to keep up this streak of new courses I pencilled in Brentwood which looks.to be a great challenge. Nevertheless it will.wait for another day as Foordy was unavailable. My original plan was to visit Cassiobury with the goal of ticking off another of the parkru...

On the 13th January 2024 I ran the Hove Promenade parkrun which was the 357th event held at the venue, my 165th parkrun and 90th different course I'd attended. My Saturday had looked very different at the beginning of the week. I had planned to travel north to watch Gillingham Vs Accrington Stanley, as I've still got three grounds in league two I've not visited with Accrington being one of them. The plan was to make an early start and stop off in Birmingham and run a parkrun with easy access of the M6. But Hayden received an invitation to a birthday party and accepted the better offer. I contemplated travelling north by myself, but it's a long way and there will hopefully be other opportunities. Plan B was to tick another event off inside the M25, but when I shared the details with Foordy who is still home at the moment he suggested an alternative. He wanted to run by the sea and wondered if there was anything in Brighton that fulfilled his criteria. Indeed there was a...

On the 6th January 2024 I ran the Barking parkrun which was the 533rd event held at the venue, my 164th parkrun and 89th different course I'd attended. At the time of writing there are 62 parkruns in the Greater London region, and by my calculations 76 inside of the M25. My aim is to try and complete both totals by the end of the year and after visiting Barking this morning I have 28 and 35 left respectively. Once again I was joined by Foordy who is back home for an extended break from life in Canada. He said he wasn't feeling it this morning but went on to crack a new parkrun PB so I'm no longer trusting his pre-run psychology. Barking parkun is two anti-clockwise laps around Barking park and is virtually pancake flat and entirely on tarmac paths. Starting in the centre of the park by the play area and cafe, participants meet at the finish line where there is a tarp of trust for people to leave their belongings as they run. Before the briefing takes place the run director...

On the 1st January 2024 I ran the Catford parkrun which was the 225th event held at the venue, my 163rd parkrun and 88th different course I'd attended. The hardest parkrun of the year is the special event held on New Year's Day. Getting up out of bed after the night before and having to moderate how much you can drink (unless your not driving) all adds to the challenge. The last thing you need after all of that is a challenging course.  Being New Years Day I was limited in which event I could attend. Not every course hosts a special event on New Year's Day and with two years worth of touristing under my belt the closest event to me that I've not completed yet is getting ever further away. I contemplated re-running Bexleyheath which was my very first tourist venue (before touristing was a thing), but I figured Catford wasn't that much further up the road so why not visit their instead. I was joined again by Foordy who is having an extended stay at home. He and his m...