Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

On the 29th April 2023 I ran the Roundshaw Downs parkrun which was the 666th event held at the venue, my 128th parkrun and 57th different course I'd attended. I had a conundrum this week. My parkrun planner has been arranged for a number of weeks and I knew that I had another Nelson number event lined up at Roundshaw Downs. However a post on Facebook made me question my choices and whether or not I needed to reschedule. As mentioned last week, these number challenges are completely arbitrary and have no formal recognition by anyone from parkrun. It stems from an app made by an enthusiast that has gathered a cult following and those cult followers can cause some unintended chaos. Earlier this year at Wimbledon Common parkrun, the event held their 777th running - a Nelson number and the first opportunity for participants to knowingly 'collect' a number towards the challenge. That week, over 1,000 people turned up and inundated an event that normally gets an average of 400 od...

On the 22nd April 2023 I ran the Milton Keynes parkrun which was the 610th event held at the venue, my 127th parkrun and 56th different course I'd attended. As a parkrun tourist I've had to start asking myself how far is too far for touring? Okay, so Whinlatter Forest was pretty much as far as I could have gone for a parkrun in this country but was part of a weekend trip. As was the Monsal Trail and the two I've done overseas. But on a standard Saturday how far is too far to travel, run for 30 minutes and travel back again? That was the question I pondered to myself when I discovered that Milton Keynes was hosting its 610th parkrun event, a number I needed to collect towards completing the Fibonacci challenge. These challenges are arbitrary really, a load of nonsense in the scheme of things and aren't rewarded anywhere other than a tick on a mobile app that has accumulated a few fans within the wider parkrun community. I use these numbers, along with Primes and Nelson...

On the 15th April 2023 I ran the Ifield Mill Pond parkrun which was the 111th event held at the venue, my 126th parkrun and 55th different course I'd attended. The primary reason for attending the Ifield Mill Pond parkrun was of course to collect the letter 'I' as part of the parkrun alphabeteer challenge. This means I've now collected all of the letters available from within the UK leaving me just the elusive 'Z', which necessitates a trip overseas. I coincided my visit with another Nelson number, the first of the sequence which is of course number 111. It appeared that I wasn't the only tourist with this ambition as upon turning up to the venue there was clearly a large tourist contingent notable by the number of yellow and black 'cow' buffs. The fact that there were an abundance of tourists wasn't lost on Amanda, the volunteer who gave the first timers meeting, who started by wryly asking 'so, dow have any tourists this week?' in fact...

On the 8th April 2023 I ran the South Norwood parkrun which was the 233rd event held at the venue, my 125th parkrun and 54th different course I'd attended. After the experience of Whinlatter Forest parkrun last week, this week parkrun jaunt was going to feel very much like a poor relation. However, every parkrun is a unique experience and every course has its own characteristics making them all memorable for completely different reasons. I'd chosen to run South Norwood parkrun for two reasons, one it's part of the LonDone venue list and secondly it was celebrating a Fibonacci event I'd not done yet. There was a decision to be made between this one and Alton Water, where I'd discussed the possibility of running there with Stephanie and the children in attendance before having a day out somewhere on the Suffolk coast, but Hayden had a football match and so we were led into doing what was easiest for Hayden's game. Stephanie and the two younger children came along...

On the 1st April 2023 I ran the Whinlatter Forest parkrun which was the 188th event held at the venue, my 124th parkrun and 53rd different course I'd attended. Over the course of writing this series of parkrun related blog posts there have been many explanations about how plans have evolved and changed, but this one may just be the most random. Originally I had planned to attend Chalkwell Beach, event number 89 to tick off another Prime Number. But Shaun Williams scored a 94th minute winner against Carlisle for Gillingham last week and on an air of confidence, boosted by the late drama my friend Reaso and talked about how we should attend the next game on the calendar, Barrow away.  But first I needed to talk to my Dad. My Dad and I had a been talking about Barrow away for a number of weeks as it was one of the games that Dad was desperate to go to. He may well have retired as a fully fledged football fan, but the little part of him who remembers those days recalled Barrow as a le...

On the 25th March 2023 I ran the Hackney Marshes parkrun which was the 593rd event held at the venue, my 123rd parkrun and 52nd different course I'd attended. When I was a kid, I had a t-shirt made by Nike, or Adidas - one of the two. It was black with distinct football pitch markings across it and other related football messaging. But it was the distinctive football pitch markings that would always prompt a question from people whenever I wore the t-shirt as to what they represented. I didn't think that they represented anything until someone answered the question for me. They were representing the football pitch markings at Hackney Marshes. Since then, I've been fascinated by the thought of an area of parkland devoted to over 80 football pitches and have read books, watched movies, documentaries and television programmes about football in this part of East London and its impact upon the culture of grassroots involvement in the national game. In the 1960's and 1970...

On the 18th March 2023 I ran the Raphael parkrun which was the 333rd event held at the venue, my 122nd parkrun and 51st different course I'd attended. Last week was a trip to Malling, a venue I'd ran at before and enjoyed revisiting a lovely course. But I missed the thrill of arriving at a new venue and experiencing something new and fresh. Which is why I wanted to hit the tourist trail again and start chipping away at the 50 I need to reach the magic 100 different parkrun venues. Raphael park in Romford was celebrating event 333 this week, which is another set of collectable numbers known as the Nelson challenge. These numbers are 111, 222, 333 etc and is named after Admiral Lord Nelson who allegedly had only 1 eye, 1 arm and 1 leg at the end of his life. Romford is also reasonably close to home and was one of the closest events for which I've not yet attended, despite being over the other side of the river. I was surprisingly joined by my mate Foordy who was home again f...

On the 11th March 2023 I ran the Malling parkrun which was the 296th event held at the venue, my 121st parkrun and 2nd time I'd attended the event. After a period of heavy touristing culminating in last week's 50th different event celebration in York, I found myself with a bit of a dilemma. I had planned to run at Alton Water , a scenic run around a lake near Ipswich which was celebrating its 71st event. But as usual the challenge of getting access to the car wasn't straightforward and so I was trying to decide between three events in London from which to choose from; Fulham Palace , Clapham Common or Burgess . So I put the question to the boys on our WhatsApp group and the answer from Mark was, have I done the one at Leybourne Lakes? Last April, I ran Malling parkrun, event number 249. I came 100th out of a field of 256 participants in a time of 28:17. I ran the event with Mum and haven't been able to pursuade her to join me on a parkrun ever since!  The course that...

On the 4th March 2023 I ran the York parkrun which was the 450th event held at the venue, my 120th parkrun and 50th different course I'd attended. Any UK based parkrunner with ambitions to tick off a parkrun beginning with each letter of the alphabet is likely to have a commute on their hands. Until very recently there was only one parkrun that began with Y. Pre-COVID, you had the option of Yeovil Montague or York, but the former fell by the wayside. In recent weeks Yarborough Leisure Centre has popped up doubling the opportunities available, but based In Lincolnshire it is still a sizeable effort to get there for many. My parkrun itinerary has been planned around reaching York in time to celebrate my 50th different parkrun venue. This was why, over the festive period I elected to run at events I'd already visited before as otherwise it would have meant falling out of sync. Looking at the football calendar, Gillingham were due to play Harrogate Town on March 4th. A ground I ha...

Back in the December of 2011, my eldest son Oliver was a mascot for Gillingham FC as a treat for his fifth birthday. Last weekend, history repeated itself as my youngest son Hayden experienced the same thing as a celebration of his eighth trip around the sun. Reading back through the blog I wrote after Oliver walked out on the hallowed turf of the Priestfield Stadium I was struck by the contrast between the circumstances of both boys mascot appearances. Oliver was very much living my dream for me and he was a vehicle for living out the things I wanted to do as a child but never did myself.  Oliver enjoys playing football and has had an incredible football experience growing up playing at academy level when he was younger and could have achieved huge things if his heart was in it. But he hasn't quite been bitten by the same football bug that Hayden and I have. Hayden has developed a passion for the Gills since we've been season ticket holders, culminating this season in our Le...

On the 25th February 2023 I ran the Southwark parkrun which was the 409th event held at the venue, my 119th parkrun and 49th different course I'd attended. I may well sound like a broken record, but I'm going to say it again anyway. I was going to be doing a particular parkrun this week, but couldn't due to car woes and that living in Gravesend we are incredibly lucky to have multiple routes into London via rail. It certainly feels like a rinse and repeat story of these parkrun encounters and so it was again this week when the in-laws car broke down rather than my own. As we are reliant upon borrowing their car on Saturday mornings it meant I was unable to travel to panshanger as planned and had to find an alternative via public transport. I could have just ran locally but I wanted to hit my goal of completing my 50th different venue at York next week and so had to find a plan B. Southwark parkrun ticked a few boxes, it was a prime number event (409) and it also ticked off...

On the 18th February 2023 I ran the Lordship Recreation Ground parkrun which was the 17th event held at the venue, my 118th parkrun and 48th different course I'd attended. Lordship Recreation Ground was one of two events that started on the same day in the autumn of last year and offered me an opportunity to fill in some of the early event numbers that are missing from my 'wilson index'. Being event number 17 it was also another chance to complete a prime number event, another gap that needed filling in my parkrun numbers game. Being half-term and Saturday morning clubs being on half-term break it was also an opportunity to invite the family to join me in my latest parkrun adventure. Hayden and Oliver still had football practice as normal, so Phoebe was the unlucky beneficiary this time around as she was the only one who had an amended routine - what better way to spend the morning than with a Daddy and Daughter day? The high speed train service into London has revolutioni...

On the 11th February 2023 I ran the Peckham Rye parkrun which was the 391st event held at the venue, my 117th parkrun and 47th different course I'd attended. Saturday morning parkrun events are, as mentioned previously on these pages dictated by obscure challenges relating to some numeric sequence of some kind, or alphabetically connected to the name of the event. This week it was slightly different as it was linked to an invite. Since my project manager at work found out about my parkrun tourism exploits he has been urging me to join him in his part of London for a run and breakfast catch-up. Which is how I found myself getting up at the crack of dawn and heading up to South East London by train to run Peckham Rye parkrun. From Gravesend there are no direct trains to Peckham Rye, so I had the choice of changing at Dartford or Lewisham, with the former being the better option in terms of timings. I was met by Matt, whose arrival had coincided with mine demonstrating the efficiency...

On the 4th February 2023 I ran the Bromley parkrun which was the 607th event held at the venue, my 116th parkrun and 46th different course I'd attended. I had some good news this week with the repair of our car which saw a new battery installed and back to road worthy status. This meant that I would be able to continue as planned and drive to the new Stockley Country parkrun for event number 4, with the goal being to complete the gap in my Wilson index. I had drawn up a contingency plan in any case but was nervous about travelling by train the day after a train strike as the network suffers with teething issues the day after industrial action. However, late in the week I received a message from my friend Mark who was keen to participate again this week but had a time window in which he needed to be back home. It's always more enjoyable having someone to share the parkrun experience with than travelling on my own so I was more than happy to tweak.the plan accordingly. Via Whats...

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...