Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

On the 24th February 2024 I ran the Dover Waterfront parkrun which was the 24th event held at the venue, my 171st parkrun and 95th different course I'd attended. In December 2022 I ran the Margate parkrun , earning myself 'A total Kent' status which is given informally to anyone who runs all of the parkrun events in Kent. At the time this would have been a full set of 24, but on the 9th September 2023 a 25th event was added when Dover waterfront ran their inaugural event. I could of course visited Dover sooner and reclaimed my unofficial title already. But I've been saving my visit to coincide with an event number I'd not ran at yet to try and fill gaps in my 'Wilson Index' (another phrase/unofficial challenge from the parkrun tourist lexicon).  Once again I was joined by the two Andrew's who have unwittingly become parkrun tourists recently, albeit without wanting to self-identity with that label. I'll keep calling them my running companions until ...

On the 17th February 2024 I ran the Southend parkrun which was the 529th event held at the venue, my 170th parkrun and 94th different course I'd attended. All week leading up to parkrunday I'd planned to visit Oak Hill parkrun, for what feels like the fifth attempt. Everytime I add it to the planner something crops up and I don't end up making it and run elsewhere instead. This week was no exception. The message arrived on my phone Friday morning. 'Can we run Leigh-on-Sea or Southend?'. It was from my friend Foordy and it was too random a request to be random. I acquiesced and said that Southend wouldn't be a problem. But it wasn't until later in the day that I received a follow-up message explaining the reason behind it. Foordy needed a new pair of swimming goggles and unlike most normal people, avoided Amazon and wanted to hit the closest swimming Google shop to home... Which happened to be in Leigh-on-Sea. It could have been a lot further I suppose! And ...

On the 10th February 2024 I ran the Wollaton Hall parkrun which was the 128th event held at the venue, my 169th parkrun and 93rd different course I'd attended. Last week I revisited Malling parkrun on request of the two Andrew's who are enjoying the parkrun experience but haven't quite taken to touring in the same way as I have. Despite having a posse of pacers I wasn't able to get anywhere near to last year's PB, although I suspect the heavy night of alcohol the night before was partly to blame. I didn't mind the revisit as I knew I had this weekend coming up and it's been a weekend that I've looked forward to now for some time. Last September a colleague in my department arranged a volunteering day at Wollaton Hall which involved us spending an afternoon in the walled garden and doing chores around the place to try and maintain it's upkeep. As part of the day we had a guided tour of the house, including walking out around the rooftop and deep unde...