Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

On the 25th June 2016 I ran the Bexley parkrun which was the 229th event held at the venue, my 10th parkrun and 2nd different course I'd attended. On the 23rd November 2024 I returned back for my second visit at the 596th event held at the venue. I'm very fortunate to be able to parkrun every weekend and even more so to visit a different parkrun each week. It's only through Stephanie and her commitment to running the children around on Saturday mornings at their various clubs that allows me the freedom to continue doing what I do. Inevitably though, the two sides collide and neither of us are able to be in two places at the same time and so compromises need to be made. Phoebe had a singing assessment day in Maidstone early on Saturday morning and Hayden had his football training which finishes anywhere between 10:15 and 10:30. Stephanie was able to drop him off but I needed to pick him up so I needed to choose a parkrun that allowed me sufficient time to get back for the e...

On the 16th November 2024 I ran the Wantstead Flats parkrun which was the 648th event held at the venue, my 211th parkrun and 132nd different course I'd attended. Last week after Roding Valley parkrun I had a discussion with a member of the parkrun tourism group on Facebook who told me of the eight additional events that made up the full Total PIED challenge, which is all of the Essex venues plus those that are now part of Greater London, or the historical part of Essex. Of those eight, I had one left to visit - Wanstead Flats, and it just so happened that I'd pencilled this in the diary for this week coming! I was joined once again by Mark who was available, but had to be home promptly afterwards for a pre-Christmas day out with the family. I assured him that everything would be fine and I'd have him home all in good time. Following instructions from the event website we parked up at the carpark, which is around 1km away from the start. Wanstead Flats and surrounding grou...

On the 9th November 2024 I ran the Roding Valley parkrun which was the 337th event held at the venue, my 210th parkrun and 131st different course I'd attended. Just like Kent, Essex has a series of parkruns that are no longer part of Essex and are now a part of Greater London. So depending on who you speak to there are either 32 parkrun events to complete the set, or 24.  For me, I'm treating Kent and Essex the same. In that I'm aiming to complete all the events in the county and any that are now under Greater London, tick them off under that jurisdiction instead. So the goal on Saturday was to reach the halfway point of the Essex parkrun odyssey and tick off the twelfth venue in the county.  My friend Mark accompanied me along the A13 and M11 where we parked up as instructed on the Roding Valley parkrun website. Two minutes later a car pulled up alongside me and cousin Nick appeared with his wife Jenny. Talk about punctual! After last week's meet up at Wimpole Estate ...

On the 2nd November 2024 I ran the Wimpole Estate parkrun which was the 507th event held at the venue, my 209th parkrun and 130th different course I'd attended. My cousin Nick messaged me a year ago saying that he'd been inspired by my parkrun exploits. He'd seen my Facebook posts and was just about to undertake his first parkrun at Soham Village College. We made plans to meet up and I was going to enjoy his home course with him, but his father-in-law passed away suddenly and he had to make an emergency dash to the Philippines in order to attend the funeral. We never quite made those plans again as life once again got in the way, until a couple of weeks ago Nick got back in touch and brought the conversation back to the table. Just as I had gotten with Cyclopark, Nick has developed a home run fatigue and wanted to try somewhere new. We both suggested Wimpole Estate as it was an event that I really wanted to do and he'd heard good things being relatively close to his ho...