Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

On the 15th February 2025 I ran the Burnham on Crouch parkrun which was the 322nd event held at the venue, my 224th parkrun and 142nd different course I'd attended. There are places that I simply would never have visited in my life had parkrun not been invented. Burnham-on-crouch is precisely one of them. Situated at the far end of Essex, due east of South Woodham Ferrers, another town dotted along the River Crouch that I took wouldn't have visited had it not been for parkrun. Burnham-on-crouch was therefore the latest stop on my Saturday morning journey and home to yet another free timed 5k running event. Joining me again this weekend was Mark and my brother in law Richard who had a rare luxury of a free weekend when his wife and children were away and he could live a bit more loose and free. He also volunteered driving duties which was a nice change for me letting someone take control behind the wheel for a change. I was able to admire the Essex countryside and take in stran...

On the 8th February 2025 I ran the Grovelands parkrun which was the 693rd event held at the venue, my 223rd parkrun and 141st different course I'd attended. Overall, running twice a week consistently for the past three to four years I've been incredibly fortunate with injuries considering my age and general health/weight. But after a few weeks off resting my calf it was perhaps inevitable that I'd pick up another niggle and that has proved to be the case. For the past few days I've been having pain when standing from a sitting position on my right leg and haven't really been able to identify where abouts the pain has been coming from. Poking and prodding around the leg makes no difference as there is no pain anywhere, but as soon as I stand I end up hobbling into the first few steps before regaining a normal walking motion. It's for that reason I persevered with parkrun and turned up again on Saturday morning as once I'm moving generally it feels okay. So t...

On the 1st February 2025 I ran the Burgess parkrun which was the 552nd event held at the venue, my 222nd parkrun and 140th different course I'd attended. Last week I missed my first parkrun since the autumn of 2022. Since then I've not been able to attend on three previous occasions as I was away on holiday in countries where parkrun hasn't quite reached. But in terms of choosing not to attend or not being able to attend through injury I've had an incredible streak. But after my calf injury at Oak Hill parkrun I made the decision to have a week week off to try and recuperate. So instead of running someplace on a Saturday morning I went to Cyclopark and volunteered alongside the other wonderful high-viz heroes and barcode scanned for the very first time. I've managed to rack up a few volunteer credits here and there on a Saturday, Marshalling and writing run reports, but most of my volunteering experience has taken place on a Sunday morning at Junior parkrun down at...

On the 18th January 2025 I ran the Oak Hill parkrun which was the 633rd event held at the venue, my 221st parkrun and 139th different course I'd attended. During the week I try to get another run in, which is normally Wednesday afternoon as work give us a wellness hour in which to do something related to wellbeing. For me this has been useful and helps with keeping a regular habit of running going outside of parkrun. This week I was at Shorne Country Park where I was running the parkrun route to complete my mandatory 5k. However, towards the end I felt a niggle ok my calf and thought best to stop as I didn't want another repeat of the injury that sidelined me a couple of years ago, albeit on the other leg. I thought I'd done the right thing, spotted it early, stopped and rested ahead of Saturday morning. I even sat with some ice whilst watching the television but it all proved ultimately in vain. Oak Hill parkrun is based in North London near Enfield. We arrived nice and e...