Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

On the 14th December 2024 I ran the Hampstead Heath parkrun which was the 622nd event held at the venue, my 215th parkrun and 135th different course I'd attended. After two weeks of weather related conversation, it was nice to have something else to talk about for a change. Instead of wind and rain the question was; what is the toughest parkrun in London? There are candidates: Sunny Hill, Hilly Fields and Lloyd which all crop up frequently I'm these debates and I can make a case for all of those one way or another as I've unfortunately ran them all. However, there is definitely now a new contender, one that I believe takes the crown and possibly by some distance. Hello Hampstead Heath! Our morning started off potentially ruining our parkrun day before it had even started. I awple early in the morning before my alarm was due to go off and a tossed and turned waiting for it to finally ring. Eventually I noted the crack in the bedroom curtains was brighter than it should have...

On the 7th December 2024 I ran the Highbury Fields parkrun which was the 616th event held at the venue, my 214th parkrun and 134th different course I'd attended. If last week was a cautionary winter tale warning about mud, this week is chapter two - entitled 'wind and rain'.  Thanks to Storm Darragh parkrun events across the UK were being cancelled on the basis of safety. The parkrun map on the 5K app was a sea of red pins denoting that the event was no longer going ahead. Initially across the east, but spreading westward and I was frantically refreshing the screen of news from Highbury Fields, my chosen event this weekend. The event Facebook page, although still available hadn't been updated for years and so I had no real context of whether the event was likely to cancel or not so waking up on the Saturday morning it was a case of getting to the event to find out one way or another. Highbury Fields was one of those events I had pencilled in the get to by trains such i...

On the 30th November 2024 I ran the Malling Rec parkrun which was the 22nd event held at the venue, my 213th parkrun and 133rd different course I'd attended. This time of year is the time to choose a parkrun course carefully. Selecting a venue that is ran on tarmac paths rather than grass saves the heartache of having to clean trainers and risk life and limb slipping over on mud infested trails and grassland. Unfortunately when you are a bit OCD as I am and are selecting venues based on their event numbers rather than practicality, you run the risk of heading towards a sticky and muddy ending. Malling Rec popped up earlier in the year as a new parkrun venue and despite the name is nowhere nearly Malling as we know it. The town near Maidstone doesn't have a parkrun, albeit it did have an event nearby called Malling which as a result of all this confusion renamed itself as Leybourne Lakes which now far more geographically accurate. The new Malling Rec event is based in Lewes in ...