Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

On the 28th January 2023 I ran the Mile End parkrun which was the 499th event held at the venue, my 115th parkrun and 45th different course I'd attended. With a still striken bird mobile, I had to face the choice of running locally, or trying to attempt a parkrun by public transport. Fortunately from Gravesend we have easy access to London by train and where London is concerned there are an abundance of parkruns to choose from. I settled on Mile End, mainly because it was the closest event that had a Prime Number that I hadn't ran before and that it wasn't very difficult to get to. From Gravesend you can get the High Speed service to Stratford International, walk through the Westfield Shopping Centre and catch the Central Line from Stratford one stop on the Central Line to Mile End - all easy and straightforward which is exactly what I did. With public transport there is always the worry or concern around delays and cancellations, but as mentioned last week it's alway ...

On the 21st January 2023 I ran the Sutcliffe parkrun which was the 73rd event held at the venue, my 114th parkrun and 44th different course I'd attended. I've mentioned on these pages a number of times the benefits of a versatile plan. I'm also a believer in things happening for a reason. This week's parkrun was a combination of circumstances that validated both of those beliefs. The original plan stated Ifield Mill Pond in order to pick up an 'I' for another step on the alphabet challenge. But Stephanie reminded me that she and the other Bird family females were off to London for a boozy brunch to celebrate my sister's 40th birthday which meant I was needed to be home in time to pick up Hayden from football training and Phoebe from her performing arts class. No problem at all! Let's revert to a plan B - Sutcliffe parkrun which is only up the A2 and meant I'd be home in time to pick up the children. On the Thursday before parkrun day my friend Mark ...

On the 14th January 2023 I ran the Billericay parkrun which was the 222nd event held at the venue, my 113th parkrun and 43rd different course I'd attended. After visiting all of the parkruns in Kent and working my way through the parkrun alphabet there isn't any other goal in mind at the moment other than trying to run at different venues to keep enjoying blazing the parkrun tourist trail. So my next few planned runs have been designed around event numbers and ticking off events that are prime numbers, fibonacci numbers and those that are considered a Nelson . Which is how I found myself at Billericay parkrun in the wind and rain on a cold and miserable January morning, celebrating the 222nd event held at the venue. With the wind and rain came conditions that were a direct result of the weather. Crossing the park in order to reach the start I slipped and slid, nearly fell over and resented the idea of four laps around the park that comprised a section of grass and wondered why...

On the 7th January 2023 I ran the Victoria Dock parkrun which was the 156th event held at the venue, my 112th parkrun and 42nd different course I'd attended. One of my running goals this year is to complete the parkrun Alphabet and run at the remaining letters, I, V, Y and Z. The challenge being that both Y and Z require significant planning, effort and in the case of Z overseas travel. With that in mind what better way to start the new year of parkrun tourism than by ticking off one of the attainable letters? Irrespective of whether I needed the letter or not, the Victoria Dock parkrun would have been one of those on my 'want to do' list anyway. Running around the Victoria Dock in East London out alongside the dockside hotels and the ExCel centre with views of the O2 arena, docklands and the Emirates airline cable car the event is one of the more unique venues in the parkrun portfolio. According to various parkrun groups any visitor who attends the event and shows a parkr...

On the 1st January 2023 I ran the Shorne Woods parkrun which was the 435th event held at the venue, my 111th parkrun and a repeat of one of 41 different courses I've attended. After I'd completed the Margate parkrun on December 17th I decided to enjoy the Christmas period without touring and repeating my local events at Cyclopark, Great Lines and for the first time since New Years Eve 2020 Shorne Country Park. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were spent at Cyclopark and Great Lines respectively and I enjoyed the pleasure of setting new PBs at both events. I wasn't quite so fortunate yesterday on New Years Eve where I ran slightly slower at Cyclopark, but I still managed to set my fifth fastest time at the event. I've wanted to return to Shorne Woods for a while, in the knowledge that my previous times were set during the beginning of my parkun story and I'd improved a little since I last ran a competitive attempt at the event. My last visit was on New Years Day 202...

On the 17th December 2022 I ran the Margate parkrun which was the 439th event held at the venue, my 107th parkrun and 41st different course I'd attended. Multiple events had been called off around the country in the days leading up to the weekend, and as I lay in bed on Friday night refreshing the Margate parkruns facebook page for news I was secretly hoping for a cancellation too. I'd been feeling rough all weekend and I had a sneezing, coughing Stephanie lying next to me who had gone through the same dramas. But schedules are schedules and as part of the plan I was due to complete the Kent parkrun set at Margate which ordinarily I could have shifted. However, I had volunteered to mark the occasion by writing the run report for the events website and didn't want to let anyone down by not attending. So after a final check on the morning of the event for further news on facebook, I ventured out at minus something degrees and de-iced the car with a cough and sniffle and wond...

On the 10th December 2022 I ran the Tonbridge parkrun which was the 391st event held at the venue, my 106th parkrun and 40th different course I'd attended. Last week at Whitstable was the moment where it felt like the seasons had changed. Out had gone the autumn and winter had taken it's place. Yesterday morning we woke up to thick frost and icy conditions, winter had certainly arrived alright. But was parkrun going to survive the conditions? That was the million dollar question. I'd not been affected by cancellations before, as in the sense that ordinarily if an event was called off, I'd shrug and stay at home in bed. But as a new tourist devotee with plans and schedules cancellation can cause allsorts of replanning conundrums. It is of course part of the game and one shouldn't expect too much of events, particularly as safety is paramount. Winter becomes a game of roulette and so far it seems, so good. No pre-planned cancellation at Tonbridge and no updates via ...

On the 3rd December 2022 I ran the Whitstable parkrun which was the 571st event held at the venue, my 105th parkrun and 39th different course I'd attended. For some bizarre, masochistic reason I cannot understand I've wanted to run a parkrun on the seafront with big wind, dramatic waves and plummeting temperatures. It sounds romantic to me, madness to others, but is the reason why I had two coastal events planned for December. First up? Whitstable! Up until very recently, I had never been to Whitstable which I found strange considering in forty plus years as Kentish man I'd been to virtually every other seaside resort in Kent and arguably Whitstable is one of the finest and most popular of all. Nevertheless, I found myself driving down Thanet Way a little over a month from my first ever visit with the weather very different than before. Upon arrival at Marine Parade, the road that runs along the top of Tankerton beach, separated by Tankerton slopes I was comforted by the w...

On the 26th November 2022 I ran the Royal Tunbridge Wells parkrun which was the 359th event held at the venue, my 104th parkrun and 38th different course I'd attended. As Tonbridge parkrun was called off again for the second week in a row due to localised flooding I was able to regig my planner once more, opting instead to run at Tonbridge's near neighbour - Royal Tunbridge Wells. I had originally planned to run here a few weeks back but issues with my foot and a gout diagnosis put pay to that, but I'd been looking forward to this one, not just for ticking off another Kent parkrun venue but to finally tick off 'R' from the parkrun Alphabet. The event is one of those that are fairly well covered on social media with YouTube videos of the course so I had a pretty good sense of what to expect. I'd also been to Dunorlan Park as a child and could remember it for its beauty. It's located on a valley with a lake at the bottom, there are formal garden areas, a play...

On the 19th November 2022 I ran the Canterbury parkrun which was the 381st event held at the venue, my 103rd parkrun and 37th different course I'd attended. I was torn this week between Tonbridge and Canterbury, both of which I'd scheduled this week and next, but elected to head towards Canterbury  on account of its further distance from home. Next Friday we are in London for Mums 60th birthday celebrations so didn't want an extra early start after a late night before. It worked out well in the end as Tonbridge was eventually cancelled due to flooding on the course after some significant rainfall this week here in Kent. It was still rather wet and miserable on Saturday morning and the temperature had notably decreased too. I wasn't really sure what to expect with Canterbury as like Bedgebury the week before information online was quite hard to come by. There were whispers of a challenge on the course and the word 'hill' had been mentioned once or twice so it p...

On the 12th November 2022 I ran the Bedgebury Pinetum parkrun which was the 271st event held at the venue, my 102nd parkrun and 36th different course I'd attended. After my last parkrun at Charlton on the 29th October, I sat at home watching football on the television and at the full time whistle got up to get a snack from the kitchen. My foot which had caused me some issues in the days leading up to the event was now swollen and almost impossible to walk on. I spent most of the following day waiting to see someone in A&E where a GP diagnosed me with gout and prescribed me with a dose of antibiotics. I spent the next week having multiple conversations with people about my age, my diet and my alcohol intake and firmly defended all three. It also meant that any running activity was out of the question. My goal of running 50 parkrun events in a calendar year was over and my planned parkrun schedule had to be rewritten. It also meant that I could volunteer at my local Cyclopark e...

On the 29th October 2022 I ran the Charlton parkrun which was the 55th event held at the venue, my 101st parkrun and 35th different course I'd attended. In and around trying to get the parkrun venues in Kent ticked off, I've been simultaneously trying to work my way through my local parkruns that I've not done yet, in particular those that sit either side of the A2 corridor. One of those such runs is Charlton, which I planned to run to coincide with event number 55, which is one of the remaining Fibonacci sequence numbers I am still yet to do. Prior to the run, on the Thursday night watching the climax of the latest Stranger Things series on Netflix I was stretching my feet out and felt a bit of a twinge in the big toe of my right foot. I didn't think anything of it, until the next morning when walking down the stairs was a lot more painful than it should have been. As I was off work on a days leave and had planned to visit Whitstable for a stroll along the coastal pat...

On the 22nd October 2022 I ran the Bushy parkrun which was the 899th event held at the venue, my 100th parkrun and 34th different course I'd attended. Not to be confused with the town in Hertfordshire, Bushy park lies in South West London - a stones throw away from Hampton Court Palace. It is in fact a Royal Park, one of eight in London and is the second largest of them all. It's famous for its herds of red and fallow deer which roam freely across the park itself. In 2004 a man named Paul Sinton-Hewitt arranged a 5k running event at the park between running friends that was known as the Bushy Time Trial. The event was then replicated at Wimbledon Common three years later and further Time Trials soon followed. These events were then renamed to parkrun and a global initiative was born. As it was my 100th parkrun, what better way to celebrate my centenary than a pilgrimage to the place where it all started? Knowing that it was my 100th event and the next official parkrun mileston...

On the 15th October 2022 I walked the Cyclopark parkrun which was the 100th event held at the venue and my 99th parkrun event overall. I had planned to run the Royal Tunbridge Wells parkrun and keep up my chain of tourist events going, but a request to Stephanie from the Cyclopark run director changed my mind and my schedule has now been rewritten. I hadn't planned on walking either, but a combination of circumstances dictated otherwise. Being my local event I knew that the centenary milestone was fast approaching for the Cyclopark and I should have drawn my schedule up around it. But I had wanted to attend Royal Tonbridge Wells on account of theirs being a prime number event as well as the R that I am still missing as part of the alphabeteer challenge. These challenges are easily addictive and interfere with rational thought, hence my decision to skip Cycloparks centennial celebrations. However, Hayden and Phoebe have swimming lessons on Tuesday at the same place as Sarahs childr...

On the 8th October 2022 I ran the Walmer and Deal Seafront parkrun which was the 144th event held at the venue, my 98th parkrun and 33rd different course I'd attended. After two recent visits to the Kent Coast made even better by the weather, you'd forgive me for being cautious on betting on a hattrick. But as it was, I headed to another Kent venue at the seaside with amazing blue skies, no wind and spring like temperatures. The Walmer and Deal Seafront venue is probably the furthest venue in Kent to reach via my house as there isnt a direct route. So I set off at 7:20 with the sun low in the sky directly ahead of me as I head east along the M2 and A2 towards Dover.  I had never visited Walmer or Deal and so part of the appeal for me in ticking off all the parkruns in Kent is visiting places I'd never been before and exploring my home county. I had planned this run with the intention of ticking off another Fibonacci number (144), but hadn't realised the event was celeb...

On the 1st October 2022 I ran The Leas parkrun which was the 86th event held at the venue, my 97th parkrun and 32nd different course I'd attended. Working my way around the parkrun venues of Kent has left me at the mercy of the weather. Planning when to run specific events has been combining a number of variables including event numbers, event types and location. But it's also meant autumnal visits to the coast where wind conditions could potentially be tricky making for some difficult runs. I love the sea and the coast in all its seasons so have no concerns about running into a biting, near gale force headwind. In fact, I am actually relishing it. On the Friday night before I was due to run The Leas parkrun we went into town for my niece's 16th birthday meal. It was tipping down with rain and the wind was blowing strongly. I tried to remember the last wet parkrun I'd ran and struggled to recall anything other than a few soaking wet Cyclopark events towards the end of ...

On the 24th September 2022 I ran the Kingdom parkrun which was the 107th event held at the venue, my 96th parkrun and 31st different course I'd attended. This week I was due to run the Folkestone parkrun event, but was changed as detailed in my last update . This swap in the schedule was not only fortunate due to the great weather at Folkestone last week but meant that I could run Kingdoms 107th event and tick a prime number off in the process. Not sure I have done my planning well enough if things like this accidentally happen as they should certainly happen by design. Attempting to tick off parkruns by letters of the alphabet might seem a little obsessive to the outsider. But my argument is that without these obsessive type of interests I'd never have the experience of running events like Kingdom which are absolute gems in the parkrun event portfolio. And my experience of running these events enhances my appreciation for the organisation and for those who volunteer each week...