Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

On the 6th September 2025 I ran the Harrow parkrun which was the 467th event held at the venue, my 252nd parkrun and 169th different course I'd attended. My recent parkrun adventures have taken me far and wide with recent trips to Oldham, Ruthin and Accrington separated by nearer trips to Fulham and my milestone run at Leybourne Lakes. So it was quite nice to tick off another London venue and continue to slowly chip away at my goal of visiting all parkruns in the region. As Harrow (or it's vicinity) is home to a work colleague, it was another opportunity to meet her and enjoy another parkrun event together. We last ran Canons Park parkrun together over two years ago. In-between those two dates, I've been virtually ever present, whilst she hadn't ran at all so I was secretly hoping come the end of the event she'd been bitten by the bug like I have! Harrow parkrun takes place on Harrow recreation ground and is surrounded by housing on all sides. The venue is home to ...

On the 30th August 2025 I ran the Oldham parkrun which was the 697th event held at the venue, my 251st parkrun and 168th different course I'd attended. Last week I celebrated my 250th parkrun event and celebrated the official milestone in relatively low-key fashion. If you weren't already aware parkrun celebrates official milestones at 25, 50, 100, 250, 500 and 1,000 events, with a range of coloured merchandise 'unlocked' and available to purchase at each stage. 3 years on from celebrating my 100th parkrun at Bushy, and five years at least until I reach my 500th I returned to Leybourne Lakes and took part in the event volunteering as a tail-walker. I figured that by walking the event I'd be able to encourage more people to participate alongside me and so I was joined by Stephanie and Hayden who walked around with me. Phoebe joined us in making the trip, but got as far as the start line whilst Oliver couldn't quite get himself out of bed. That was my fourth effo...

On the 16th August 2025 I ran the Ruthin Memorial Playing Fields parkrun which was the 164th event held at the venue, my 249th parkrun and 167th different course I'd attended. In the early 90's, I spent.time.on holiday with my Grandparents in North Wales and have lots of childhood memories of the times we spent there. Since I've had my own children, I've always wanted to take them back with me so I could share a nostalgic look back at my childhood whilst given them their own memories to treasure. For whatever reason, we've not had an opportunity to do so, until now. With Gillingham playing Tranmere Rovers in August, I was able to peice together a short itinerary that allowed us to spend an extended weekend in the North West. Using an Airbnb style accommodation outside of Wrexham we planned to travel up on the Friday, watch Gillingham on Saturday and then spend Sunday and Monday exploring the best of what North Wales has to offer. It wasn't quite long lazy days ...

On the 9th August 2025 I ran the Fulham Palace parkrun which was the 510th event held at the venue, my 248th parkrun and 166th different course I'd attended. Last weekend, once I'd got home from my trip up north Stephanie called me over and asked me just what the hell I thought I was doing. Dazed and confused I asked her what she was talking about. She explained that she'd opened the parcel that I had ordered by mistake and/or curiosity. It was a long cardboard tube and I was completely in the dark. I hadn't ordered anything and so was completely mystified. I opened the lid and slid out the poster, unrolling it full of excitement as I realised what it was. It was a huge poster with a list of all the parkrun venues broken down into geographic regions. There were checkboxes next to each venue and a roll of 'tick' stickers so I could add stickers next to all the venues that I'd visited  I spent a good hour working through my tick list, oblivious to the origin ...

On the 2nd August 2025 I ran the Hyndburn parkrun which was the 323rd event held at the venue, my 247th parkrun and 165th different course I'd attended. 92 days after Gillingham took on Port Vale to bring the curtain down on the 2024/2025 football season, they took the field again to take on Accrington Stanley in the curtain raiser for the new campaign It meant that 92 days had also passed since my last football/parkrun double when I visited Isabel Trail parkrun along with Hayden and his mate Henry. Combining football away days with parkrun tourism has opened up areas of the country that I wouldn't ordinarily be able to visit direct from home. It also extends the football day significantly as we are no longer travelling up and back on the same day and so getting a chance to see the local area more widely than just simply the town and it's football stadium. I'd saved up some extra hours to give me and Hayden the ability to travel up earlier on the Friday afternoon. Rath...

On the 26th July 2025 I ran the Markshall Estate parkrun which was the 178th event held at the venue, my 246th parkrun and 164th different course I'd attended. As parkrun day fell on my birthday it was a chance to have a rare Saturday morning with my family in tow - although that didn't quite include Oliver who can't be convinced to get up early in the morning for anyone. So knowing that I'd have them joining me, and knowing that they'd not be willing to participate i had to encourage them by other means - breakfast. My normal planning schedule now had another criteria it needed to meet. Event number, unvisited and a stones throw away from aeam bacon sandwich. Top of the list that met all of those parameters was Markshall Estate, my 17th Essex venue and home to Mrs Salisbury's of Coggeshall Tearooms. Once again, another example of where the road to parkrun has taken me to places I would never have otherwise heard of, let alone visited. An hour from home, a rela...

On the 19th July 2025 I ran the Watermeadows parkrun which was the 252nd event held at the venue, my 245th parkrun and 163rd different course I'd attended. Visiting different parkruns has always been about keeping my running motivation going. I figure that if I keep going back to my home event week after week, I'd lose interest and miss a week which would lead to two weeks and before I know it parkrun becomes something I used to do. Tourism has always been about ticking things off, all the events in Kent, letters of the alphabet, closest parkruns to football grounds and arbitrary numbers. But on Saturday for the first time I visited a parkrun where it actually felt like it meant something, a personal homage to someone I loved deeply. My Nan and Grandad lived in Towcester when she was diagnosed with cancer, eventually succumbing to the disease in 2005. I remember vividly the last time I visited her, knowing she wasn't long to live and her expressing her sadness that she...

On the 12th July 2025 I ran the Old Deer Park parkrun which was the 696th event held at the venue, my 244th parkrun and 162nd different course I'd attended. I had previously arranged to visit Old Deer Park a couple of weeks back, but instead ended up at Reigate Priory. On the Old Deer Park Facebook group it stated that the course would be using its alternative route and so knowing what I knew about the original course I wasn't sure whether the alternative route would be an upgrade or not. Three laps, all on grass around the perimeter of some rugby pitches doesn't scream out and enjoyable run. But I should know by now not to judge a book by it's cover and that facebook comments/reviews are entirely subjective. Another factor, often overlooked when visiting particular parkrun venues is the weather conditions. On Saturday we were at the prakmof a third summer heatwave. The grass was yellow like straw and the dirt on the ground was dusty like a fine powder.  Worse still wa...

On the 5th July 2025 I ran the Battersea parkrun which was the 33rd event held at the venue, my 243rd parkrun and 161st different course I'd attended. When Battersea parkrun was announced I was grateful, a new parkrun event in easy commutable distance for me to visit and to tick off one of my lower event numbers i'd not yet visited. So for 32 weeks I had to wait patiently for my turn to visit was an immediately popular event. I remember reading about Battersea on Facebook groups, firstly why there wasn't a parkrun in Battersea park and then eventually the campaign and public consultation in order to organise one. Battersea is home to a multitude of running and other events so to not be home to a parkrun event for a long time seemed to be unusual. But where there is a well there is evidently always a way. My challenge this week, rather rarely in recent times was how to get there. Aside from a few events in London I've tended to drive in rather than use public transport....

On the 28th June 2025 I ran the Tooting Common parkrun which was the 412th event held at the venue, my 242nd parkrun and 160th different course I'd attended. Last August I made my way around the South Circular looking to reach Tooting Common to take part in their Saturday morning parkrun. But traffic was so bad due to an overturned car that I had to divert at the last minute and headed to Brockwell parkrun instead. A little under a year later I nervously head around the South Circular again in a second attempt to reach the venue. My paranoid state of mind even put extra contingency time on the travel to cover all eventualities. Which is how I found myself parked up at the Dr Johnson Avenue car park at 8am feeling a mixture of relief and foolishness. Lightening hadn't struck twice and all my panicking hadn't come to anything. After completing my daily Wordle and Sudoku and killing the 30 minutes extra time off on my phone I got out to explore the park. Tooting Bec Common is...

On the 21st June 2025 I ran the Brighton & Hove parkrun which was the 855th event held at the venue, my 241st parkrun and 159th different course I'd attended. parkrun first started in Bushy way back in 2004 before slowly evolving into the worldwide Saturday phenomenon that it is now. It was originally called the Bushy time trial and before the rebrand to parkrun there were ten time trial events spread over the United Kingdom, with Brighton & Hove being one of them. Naturally there is a challenge within the tourist community to tick them all off and after my visit on Saturday I'd visited exactly half of them. It was also my third visit to the city to take part in parkrun after already running at the Hove Promenade and Bevendean Down events. There are two more events left to visit at East Brighton and Preston Park and I've completed the set. My last visit was last January at Hove Promenade on what was quite possibly the coldest parkrun event I'd ever taken part i...

On the 14th June 2025 I ran the Wisbech parkrun which was the 92nd event held at the venue, my 240th parkrun and 158th different course I'd attended. Catton parkrun in Norwich, according to Google maps is a 2 hour and 15 minutes drive away from my house. According to my 5k planning app this is the 150th closest event to where I live. The question is therefore how far is acceptable to travel just to partake in a free Saturday morning 5k run, considering the abundance of choices within my own local area? My justification for visiting Wisbech for parkrun was a flimsy one. To my knowledge the event wasn't likely to be one of those spectacular events that every parlrunner needs to visit. But it was celebrating it's 92nd event and I needed to visit a parkrun with that event number, particularly if I wanted to achieve my goal of eventually raising my Wilson Index up to 100. If I was feeling slightly guilty for the unnecessary stretch of my carbon footprint, fate had its own way o...

On the 6th June 2025 I ran the Hazelwood parkrun which was the 282nd event held at the venue, my 239th parkrun and 157th different course I'd attended. The beauty of parkrun tourism is the variety and the imbalance of expectations Vs reality. With over 2,000 parkruns across the world the variety part is easy to understand, but the expectation Vs reality element is far more nuances. Without YouTube or social media photography the only way of knowing what a parkrun course might be like is by reading the description on the course website. Some descriptions are reasonably detailed whilst others are brief, even a single line in some cases.  'An out and back route along the nation cycle route as far as the red postbox and back' course descriptions can be that simple and so as someone who is about to visit you don't know the running surface, the terrain, whether it's flat or hilly or somewhere in-between. So you're left to your own imagination as to what to expect. An...

On the 31st May 2025 I ran the Reigate Priory parkrun which was the 513rd event held at the venue, my 238th parkrun and 156th different course I'd attended. In preparation for a parkrun I ensure that I do my research beforehand. What's the course like, where to park, how popular is it, all the standard things. But sometimes knowing too much can be counter-productive. Reigate Priory parkrun is a great example of knowing too much before you go. I knew that it was hilly and as a result I'd let it get into my head and had convinced myself long before I had actual arrived at the park on Saturday morning that I wasn't going to complete the event and that the hills were actually going to kill me.  Upon arrival on the Saturday morning I was blessed with a beautiful sunny summer's morning with high temperatures and little wind. The sun always makes everything look that much pleasant and the surroundings at Reigate Priory were very much that and more. Based in the centre of ...

On the 24th May 2025 I ran the Hanworth parkrun which was the 232nd event held at the venue, my 237th parkrun and 155th different course I'd attended. Last week I missed parkrun for non-holiday reasons for the first time since the spring of 2022. I'd had a long great innings but sometimes life is more important and unexpected things take precedent. Stephanie has been suffering from some form of discomfort after eating for several months and had a second serious issue where the pain she experienced caused her to faint and lose consciousness. When it happens late at night in the ensuite bathroom it becomes a rather scary and traumatic experience, with paramedics called to the house and a visit to the A&E department necessary. It was a long and tiring night, with no real explanation from the Dr before we were sent back home again. But after a night spent awake and in discomfort I didn't have the energy or the will to traipse across the Dartford Crossing again to tick off ...

On the 10th May 2025 I ran the Beckenham Place parkrun which was the 374th event held at the venue, my 236th parkrun and 154th different course I'd attended. It was also an event with a fair few surprises. Normally I'll have seen a video of some description of the parkrun course and had a fair sense of what the course might look like, at least in a 2D kind of way. But for some reason YouTube didn't seem to have much in the way of Beckenham Place parkrun videos and that suggested to me that the event doesn't have much to shout about. What I did know however was that the event was operating a different version of their standard point-to-point course and has been for over a year. Works to the pathways in the park had meant much of the course was unavailable and so they adapted by operating a two-lap version of their course instead. Which all in all led me to not having much in the way of expectations prior to this event. I was joined once again by Mark, who asked me what ...

On the 3rd May 2025 I ran the Isabel Trail parkrun which was the 231st event held at the venue, my 235th parkrun and 153rd different course I'd attended. parkrun rules state that children under 11 years old need to be accompanied by and adults within arms length. Which is fine and all fair enough. But what happens when you have two 10 year olds that are on complete opposite end of the athletic spectrum? Back in August I took Hayden's best friend Henry with us to Morecambe where alongside the football he completed his first parkrun. On dropping Hayden off at school a couple of weeks ago Henry came up to me and asked if he could come with me and Hayden on our next away day. I agreed, but one of the conditions was he needed to join in on Saturday morning at 9am for our standard 5k walk, jog or run.  Initially I had planned to book a Premier Inn in Stoke-on-Trent and run Hanley parkrun, but the local Premier Inn prices had gone through the roof on what I suspect to be celebrating ...

On the 26th April 2025 I ran the Morden parkrun which was the 40th event held at the venue, my 234th parkrun and 152nd different course I'd attended. Just when you think you are edging ever closer to LonDone status another parkrun pops up and the goalpost move ever wider apart, making it even harder to obtain that elusive crown. However, it does have benefits in that a closer event to home makes easier options for filling up the Wilson Index - parkrun snakes and ladders! 9 months or so ago Morden parkrun became the latest event to join the roster and I marked it down as a possible venue on my calendar. But for one reason or another it kept getting pushed back until eventually the stars aligned and I made to event number 40. By completing the event I leave just event number 33 remaining all the way up to 58, with gaps at 59, 62 and 65. The gaps become a little more frequent after that but the goal is to eventually complete 1-100 which is one of the harder 'achievements' to ...

On the 19th April 2025 I ran the Quakers Walk parkrun which was the 75th event held at the venue, my 233rd parkrun and 151st different course I'd attended. I have got a rather long list of planned events in an excel spreadsheet that is loosely put together with some form of logic, but heavily caveated that things are likely to change. For example I can't really put plans in place now for August and September until the football fixtures are released at the end of June. But they are there anyway waiting for me to adjust when the time comes Planning out this way does occasionally create some unexpected opportunities. I had worked out that Gillingham weren't playing on Saturday as it was Easter, so I planned to visit Quakers Walk parkrun with the idea of possibly making a family day of it with Steph and the kids. It would mean an early start, but we'd done it previously and had a good day out afterwards. But I hadn't quite considered Gillingham playing the day before a...

On the 12th April 2025 I ran the Gladstone parkrun which was the 601st event held at the venue, my 232nd parkrun and 150th different course I'd attended. In social media groups discussing parkrun adventures there's frequently tales of parkrunners who have bumped into someone famous on their weekly timed walk, jog or run. 'Famous' can mean lots of different things these days and so those celebrities can range from anyone, like Paul Sinton-Hewitt, the founder of parkrun to Joe Wilkinson the comedian, Gillingham FC fan and occasional parkrun participant. I even ran an event once where Dame Kelly Holmes was present and hadn't even realised until I'd read about it later on social media. So you can forgive me for feeling a little excited when I arrived at Gladstone parkrun and immediately spotted Olympic legend Ellie Simmons! She was attending her first parkrun event as an ambassador of parkrun to help further promote the parkwalk initiative which aims to encourage f...