Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

On the 25th August 2024 I ran the Fleetwood Promenade parkrun which was the 244th event held at the venue, my 198th parkrun and 120th different course I'd attended. Gillingham's fixture list hasn't been kind. Hot off the heels of two long away trips to Swansea and Morecambe the last thing the team and supporters needed was a third successive marathon on the road. But that's what they got with another long slog to Lancashire with Fleetwood Town being the latest hosts in a northern dominated league two campaign. It could have been worse, it could have been another midweek trip or a Saturday in December two days before Christmas. But being August and during the school holidays over the last of the years bank holiday weekend, supporters had the enviable position to make a weekend of it. Which is exactly what we did - a weekend in Blackpool. Travelling up on Thursday we had a more comfortable time of it than the previous Friday where it took near on seven hours to get to Mo...

On the 17th August 2024 I ran the Morecambe Prom parkrun which was the 204th event held at the venue, my 197th parkrun and 119th different course I'd attended. Gillingham's failure to get promoted last season condemned them to yet another season of league two football. A division this year which is made up predominantly of northern based teams and therefore a lot of travelling for anyone wanting to follow them on the road for away games. When the fixture list came out and I realised that Morecambe and Fleetwood followed each other on consecutive week's in August I eyed an opportunity. We could spend a week up north in a caravan or cheap accommodation and take in both games as bookends to a trip. However, the league cup first round tie was drawn a day later and we were drawn away to Swansea. So in the space of ten days Gillingham were on the road to South Wales and deepest Lancashire ànd of the three grounds I'd only been to one of them. Initially then plans were made t...

On the 10th August 2024 I ran the Brockwell parkrun which was the 598th event held at the venue, my 196th parkrun and 118th different course I'd attended. These pages include many a tale about last minute changes of venue and evolving weekend plans, but here's perhaps the latest last minute change of them all. Driving to Tooting Common I decided to leave earlier than normal on account of their being a small car park and wanted to increase my chances of getting a spot. Everything was going swimmingly until I reached the south circular and was diverted by a police car. Further down the road behind him was a crashed vehicle, most of the front missing and facing sideways spanning two-lanes. How on earth they managed to do that on a 30mph stretch of road I'll never know. But either way, I had to make a detour via the side streets along with all the other early morning traffic and that's where things started to go wrong. Either not moving or moving along at a snails pace isn...

On the 3rd August 2024 I ran the Woking parkrun which was the 425th event held at the venue, my 195th parkrun and 117th different course I'd attended. When Gillingham FC announced their pre-season fixture list, there was one tie that immediately stood out to me. It wasn't the Millwall or Watford home matches, nor the Southend away game that got the juices flowing but the game away to Woking! Why? It's a ground I've not visited before and has a parkrun right next door! Parkrun tourism and number collecting, or whatever you want to call this nonsense past time of mine wouldn't exist if it wasn't for my football fandom. Following the Gills home and away has meant that I've ticked off a fair few football grounds on my travels and so the behaviour was already well established. The challenge I had now had to overcome was a logistical one. If I'm done and dusted at Woking parkrun what do I do with myself until 3pm when the football kicks off? One option was to...