Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

On the 24th January 2025 I ran the Fountains Abbey parkrun which was the 526th event held at the venue, my 273rd parkrun and 188th different course I'd attended. There are parkruns and then there are parkruns. The events that are 'must visit' or 'iconic', at least in the eyes of the parkrun tourist community. It's an elite list of parkrun venues which stand out as scenic, brutal or both. Whinlatter Forest for its elevation and scenery, Great Yarmouth North Beach for running on sand and Woolacombe Dunes for its location and tough as nails course. Fountains Abbey is often spoken of and features weekly on Facebook groups as one of the most beautiful and scenic parkrun courses in the UK. Bring based near Ripon, North Yorkshire it's an event that's not exactly on the doorstep. Fortunately as a football fan and supporting Gillingham around the country there are opportunities for me to combine two things, parkrun with love of the beautiful game. Once the footb...

On the 17th January 2025 I ran the Crane Park parkrun which was the 644th event held at the venue, my 272nd parkrun and 187th different course I'd attended. I had it all planned out. Crane Park, followed by Ingrebourne hill. And I would have successfully visited all 65 parkruns in Greater London. But then up popped Greenwich Peninsula parkrun and made it 66 events. Which might just be another one to add to the list, but my self-imposed rule of not running the same event number more than twice means that I'm not going to run the new parkrun in Greenwich for at least a year. LonDone status is going to have to wait. There is also the risk here that the day before I eventually run Greenwich Peninsula parkrun another new venue appears and the whole wait starts over again. Oh well! Me and my silly rules. Anyhow, we can't control the future, so let's make the most of today. And today was the turn of Crane parkrun, where once again I was joined by Foordy who had his first tast...

On the 10th January 2025 I ran the Castle Park parkrun which was the 356th event held at the venue, my 271st parkrun and 186th different course I'd attended. It was a case of third time lucky on Saturday morning as I made it to Bishops Stortford for Castle Park parkrun. I had attempted to run the event on two previous occasions but hadn't made it. The first, last summer due to a night in A&E as Steph had a Gall Bladder episode and more recently on New Year's Eve when my friends convinced me to run somewhere more local. I was joined again by Foordy who continued his parkrun renaissance on another cold and chilly morning. We followed the instructions given to us by the event website and found ourselves at a Waitrose carpark which had strict parking signs up that prohibited stays longer than two hours and stated a minimum spend must be made in the adjoining store. Debating whether to move and find elsewhere to park we worked out that we would be able to be well within tim...

On the 3rd January 2025 I ran the Sizewell parkrun which was the 318th event held at the venue, my 270th parkrun and 185th different course I'd attended. After revisiting Dartford Heath on New Year's Day I was keen to get back on the tourist trail and continue with my Saturday morning adventures. Foordy had joined me for two of the last three parkrun days and being back from injury I think he's secretly got the bug back again. So when he called me and said he wanted to buy a pair of shoes and needed to pick them up in Bury St Edmunds I knew there was an opportunity to be had. I might just add a caveat here, and state that this is typical random Foordy behaviour and my eyebrows would have been raised had I had this conversation with someone else. Bury St Edmunds does of course have its own parkrun event, and the sensible thing would have been to visit the parkrun in town and pop to whichever shop we needed to afterwards to pick up the aforementioned shoes. But that was too ...

On the 1st January 2026 I ran the Dartford Heath parkrun which was the 324th event held at the venue, my 269th parkrun and the second time I'd visited the event. As per Christmas Day, it's become a recent tradition to start the new year with a parkrun. I had planned a fairly low-key New Year's Eve and wanted to start 2026 by getting up early and driving over to Bishop's Stortford to tick off Castle Park parkrun. But like the previous time I'd planned to visit the event, my best laid plans were scrapped into the bin on the night before. Talking with Foordy, Aimee and Reaso on New Year's Eve whilst enjoying a few light beverages they managed to strike a deal. They'd join me at parkrun in the morning providing they didn't need to get up quite so late. Fair deal all things considered, so a quick review of the 5k app allowed a new plan to be put into place. I last ran Dartford Heath in 2022 right at the beginning of my parkrun tourism journey. It was when I ...

On the 27th December 2025 I ran the Great Dunmow parkrun which was the 303rd event held at the venue, my 268th parkrun and 184th different course I'd attended. 2025 has been another year of remarkable parkrun activities. I missed three weekends, one where I was injured and twice through supporting Stephanie through her Gall Stone problems. Its not lost on me that although I supported her for two weekends out of 52, without her support in letting me do my thing I literally wouldn't be able to do what I do. Her selflessness in taking the children to their clubs on a Saturday morning means she too has an early start to her weekend and in my mine, not nearly as an enjoyable one. But she does meet her sister for breakfast at a local cafe for a weekly catch-up so it's not all parental duty. Of all those weeks attendance in 2025, I never repeated a week at the same venue, but I did manage to revisit three events, including another visit to my 'home' parkrun at Cyclopark, ...

On the 25th December 2025 I ran the Maidstone River Park parkrun which was the 593rd event held at the venue, my 267th parkrun and the second time I'd visited the event. In recent years it has been a new tradition to attend parkrun on Christmas Day to get the festivities under way. This is normally attended at Great Lines, but as I'd racked up a list of 99 different parkrun events without repeat I had to find somewhere else to keep the run going and hit the centenary figure. We may have an abundance of parkrun venues close by to Gravesend, but not everyone runs a Christmas Day event and so the pickings were a few far and between. I had to also consider that it wasn't Great Lines that would upset my tourist streak, Dartford, Bexley and Leybourne Lakes would also see my streak reset. Fortunately Maidstone River Park were running, and as I hadn't visited the event since 2022 my tourist streak was well protected. It was also a venue that I hadn't blogged about before, ...

On the 20th December 2025 I ran the Lytham Hall parkrun which was the 295th event held at the venue, my 266th parkrun and 183rd different course I'd attended. Attempting to watch all of Gillingham Football clubs league games across a football season is not without challenge. League two is a tough league with lots of northern based sides which equates to expense both in time and finances. This would be hard enough as it is for majority of people without factoring the extra parameter of parkrun. Last season I visited Fleetwood Town for the very first time, combining it with a weekend break in Blackpool and visited both the ground and the local parkrun along Fleetwood Promenade. That was back in August and it was freezing cold and blowing a gale during the height of summer so goodness knows what December was going to be like! With that in mind my original intention was to travel part distance on Friday and stop over somewhere in the north west, Wigan or Preston where travelling dista...

On the 13th December 2025 I ran the Gunnersbury parkrun which was the 655th event held at the venue, my 265th parkrun and 182nd different course I'd attended. 2025 has been a year of methodically ticking off events around London in an attempt to complete and visit all parkruns across the region. The plan was almost complete, with just three more events to go. One more before Christmas, one in January and completion of all 63 in February of 2026. But parkrun world is an ever changing beast and new events appear on an almost weekly basis. Despite there being parkrun events across almost every London borough there's always room for one more and so that has proved. Three weeks ago a new event popped up on the events map in Greenwich, just outside of the O2 arena. 63 became 64 and that elusive regional status became one step removed. So what's the big deal?  Well, normal people who haven't quite taking it to the extremes that I have aren't affected. They would just chan...

On the 6th December 2025 I ran the Harwich parkrun which was the 483rd event held at the venue, my 264th parkrun and 181st different course I'd attended. Gillingham are never likely to win the FA Cup, but that doesn't stop us Gillingham fans from dreaming the dream every season. This year however, as many years previously the dream lasted momentarily as we were knocked out in round one away to Newport County. Gillingham were not the only supporters who had their hopes dashed, so did fans of Colchester United. And seeing as Colchester and Gillingham both had a free Saturday the officials of both clubs agreed to bring the match, which was scheduled in the midweek forward by a few days. And not only that, but to retain the television coverage by playing the game at the earlier time of twelve o'clock (instead of the traditional time of 3pm). This arrangement had plenty of benefits, with sound rationale. But for me it meant all sorts of changes and rearrangements needed to happ...

On the 29th November 2025 I ran the Shrewsbury parkrun which was the 496th event held at the venue, my 263rd parkrun and 180th different course I'd attended. As Stephanie was recovering from a long awaited Gall bladder removal, I was forced to miss a week's worth of parkrun as I carried out family tasks as she recovered from her operation. I am only able to do what I do on a Saturday morning because of her selflessness and so missing a week was no hardship. She is well and better now, after what is quite a routine surgery. Hopefully now she can get on with a better quality of life pain free and without worrying about potential attacks after eating the wrong kinds of foods. The next stop on the Gillingham FC schedule was an away fixture to Shrewsbury Town. We have all previously visited Shrewsbury, back in 2021. A weekend dominated by my mistake on booking.com.  Arriving at the hotel on Friday night there was no record of my booking. Eventually after some investigation they wor...

On the 15th November 2025 I ran the Bug Hunter Waters parkrun which was the 71st event held at the venue, my 262nd parkrun and 179th different course I'd attended. Big Hunter Waters is a relatively new event, and it was due to that fact that found me travelling up the M11 nice and early on a Saturday morning. I was looking to run an event that filled a gap in my Wilson Index. For those not paying attention the Wilson Index is the maximum number of contiguous event numbers that I have attended. That number currently stands at 59, but I've gaps throughout the 60s and 70s which I am trying to fill with a longer term goal of getting a Wilson Index of 100. This does mean, with events being fairly few and far between at lower ends of the event number spectrum that to achieve this goal that I may need to travel a little bit further than perhaps is sensible. I am fully aware that travelling distances on a Saturday morning, just for the pleasure of running 5k for half an hour of my tim...

On the 8th November 2025 I ran the Somerdale Pavilion parkrun which was the 234th event held at the venue, my 261st parkrun and 178th different course I'd attended. There are a handful of parkrun events that have gained iconic status. Events such as Whinlatter Forest, Woolacambe Dunes, Fountains Abbey and Great Yarmouth North Beach are often spoken about by parkrun tourists as 'must visits' and are notorious for either being a challenge or just breathtakingly beautiful. Somerdale Pavillion parkrun fits into the upper echelon of 'special' category and is famed specifically for it's quite bonkers course layout and 'curly wurly'. Which is the name given to the spiral part of course that winds around in a circle to the centre and comes back out again, all on a single path. Football once again came to my support and was used as a vehicle to make parkrun tourism more palatable. Driving three hours to Keynsham just for a 5k run is difficult to justify in anyon...

On the 1st November 2025 I ran the Wormwood Scrubs parkrun which was the 671st event held at the venue, my 260th parkrun and 177th different course I'd attended. A week after ticking off Greater London event number 62, it was back up to the Big Smoke again for number 63. Although this time around I was a little unsure on the best way to get there. In recent trips to London venues it's been easy to drive, but with Wormwood Scrubs being located fairly centrally my first thought was to head in by train. From Gravesend, or Ebbsfleet getting into London on Saturday morning can be a quick, if not expensive way of travel. Adding on the cost of car parking at Ebbsfleet and the connecting tube via the Central Line the cost of commuting to Wormwood Scrubs proved quite off-putting. However, the scrubs has a fairly reasonable sized carpark and despite a route that took me through central London driving once again proved to be the more viable option. For an added bonus I even managed two t...

On the 25th October 2025 I ran the Osterley parkrun which was the 544th event held at the venue, my 259th parkrun and 176th different course I'd attended. Over the course of the year I've steadily been ticking off the Greater London venues, so that by the time Saturday morning had come around I had ticked off 60 of the 65 venues across the region. Having visited almost all of what Greater London has to offer I could say that I've seen it all. From venues with over 1,000 participants. Venues with multiple laps, multiple hills or in the case of Thames Path Woolwich a Walnut Whip/Curly Wirly feature slap bang in the middle of the course. Across a size of 607 square miles the 9,000,000 inhabitants of London are spoilt for choice on Saturday mornings, but those living in the west are fortunate in that they will.have slightly easier access to Osterley, which until Saturday was to me just a stop on the Piccadilly line. But it is of course much, much more than that. A national tru...

On the 18th October 2025 I ran the Thonock Lane Farm parkrun which was the 104th event held at the venue, my 258th parkrun and 175th different course I'd attended. This season's league two lineup once again consists of a large northern based majority. Not quite as strong as recent seasons but as an away supporter it has meant many miles travelling to north to watch the Gills.  The fixture list is computed randomly, and in spitting out our away fixtures majority of the longer northern based trips are this side of Christmas. Which has meant achieving Hayden's goal of watching every League match this season has eaten out of his prospective Christmas budget! As per my previous posts, my go to parkrun venue of choice on our away day travels is the closest one geographically from the stadium that we intend to visit. On this occasion that would have been Cleethorpes but they were running an event number which I've already ran and so therefore doesn't meet my rather arbitr...

On the 11th October 2025 I ran the Maldon Prom parkrun which was the 555th event held at the venue, my 257th parkrun and 174th different course I'd attended. A couple of years ago the parkrun organisers asked the maker of the 5k app to remove some.of the number based challenges that had caused some events to get overwhelmed on occasions that they weren't prepared or expecting it. One of those challenges was the 'nelson' challenge and involved ticking off events 111, 222, 333 etc. My approach to touristing is to visit as many different events as possible and to try and ensure that I visit on a unique event number that I've not ran before. This approach does mean eventually I'll tick all numbers off irrespective of whether they are a prime, nelson or any other that people want to attach a label too  Having already visited 17 of the 24 events in Essex I was keen to tick off yet another one. I had seen plenty of videos filmed at Maldon Prom as a running based YouTu...

On the 4th October 2025 I ran the Houghton Hall parkrun which was the 330th event held at the venue, my 256th parkrun and 173rd different course I'd attended. The first named storm of the season, storm Amy brought with her weather disruption all across the UK with forecasted winds up to 100mph and caused a series of parkrun cancellations across Friday and into Saturday morning. Being well trained by now in the art of the last minute weather related detour, I needed to keep my wits about me and show some of the agility skills I barely get the opportunity to display out there on the course. Although it wasn't just the weather that was causing me logistic challenges. First it was the football calendar, then it was bacon rolls long before Amy came along. Gillingham were scheduled to play MK Dons at Stadium MK which meant that I'd have time to do parkrun in the morning and have time to get to the game by 3pm with one of our more local away games. But the powers that be at Sky t...

On the 27th September 2025 I ran the Rickmansworth parkrun which was the 378th event held at the venue, my 255th parkrun and 172nd different course I'd attended. After visiting as many parkrun events as I have, you'd think that I would be more than happy to skip over the first-timers briefing. But the first-timers briefing isn't solely for those new to parkrun, it's also aimed at tourists who are visiting the venue for the first time and important information about the course, it's route and general specific event details are provided. Had I not stopped to listen to the first-timers briefing at Rickmansworth on Saturday I would have found myself incredibly confused and quite possibly lost, or setting myself a PB time I'd never be able to beat. According to the course information page on the event website the course was two laps with a long start/finish straight at either side. But during the briefing we was informed that the website was out of date and that the...

On the 20th September 2025 I ran the Severn Bridge parkrun which was the 279th event held at the venue, my 254th parkrun and 171st different course I'd attended. There are over 2,000 parkrun events worldwide, with just over 800 in the UK. Each event is unique, but there are some that stand out in the crowd and dare I use the term, grown to become 'iconic'. Events such as Bushey for the spectacle of 1,500 stampeding across the start line like a scene from Braveheart. The painful sand dune ascent as Woolacambe Dunes or the scenic beauty of Fountains Abbey. These are events that tourist groups on Social Media have popularised and so visiting them not only becomes visiting a parkrun event it becomes a badge of honour. When the football fixture list came out and Gillingham were scheduled away at Newport County on a Saturday morning, I knew straight away what my weekend was going to look like. There's an abundance of events is easy reach of Newport, but the one I really want...