Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

On the 26th August 2023 I ran the Southall parkrun which was the 81st event held at the venue, my 143rd parkrun and 71st different course I'd attended. After two weeks off enjoying a family holiday to Corfu where parkrun is yet to reach, I had a choice to make. Enjoy a other weekend parkrun free or get back on the running horse and keep up the habit. Fortunately for me I got back in the saddle. Routines are easily broken and as I'm not a natural runner there's always that fear that I'll simply stop one day and just not run again. I run because I need to, my body needs exercise and parkrun helps me maintain some semblance of an active lifestyle - the touring part is all just trying to make it more enjoyable. I had chosen Southall back one day when I was writing my schedule based on the fact that it was a flat course and that after two weeks of gyros, Mythos and Ouzo I'd need something gentle to break me back into it. Southall was actually my second post holiday run....

On the 5th August 2023 I ran the Woodbank parkrun which was the 649th event held at the venue, my 142nd parkrun and 70th different course I'd attended. The start of the football season is one of the most eagerly anticipated matches of the year and so when the fixture list came out and Gillingham were pencilled in to play Stockport County at Edgeley Park there was no way I was going to miss it! As Reaso and George were on holiday it was only Hayden and I who were going to be in attendance which gave me an opportunity to convert the days football into another parkrun tourism adventure. Ensuring that I was able to attend parkrun on time we travelled up by train after work on Friday and arrived at a local Premier Inn just after ten. This is a great way of traveling as it breaks the day up, albeit at a slightly increased cross. After what was a gloriously dry and sunny Friday we woke up Saturday morning with heavy rain. I looked out of the window from our room and looked at our clothin...

On the 29th July 2023 I ran the Eastbourne parkrun which was the 542nd event held at the venue, my 141st parkrun and 69th different course I'd attended. A couple of weeks ago parkrun asked the developers of the 5k achievements app to change their functionality and remove all challenges relating to event numbers including the Fibonacci, Prime and Nelson number challenges.  As documented on my previous parkrun blogs these challenges were completely arbitrary and didn't mean anything to anyone if you completed the set. For me, it was always a bit of fun and added some form of structure to my parkrun planner whereas otherwise it all felt a little bit random. I was due to attend Wormwood Scrubs this weekend for their 555th event and another Nelson number but despite the fact that I'm not entirely behind parkruns decision to remove these challenges I am certainly going to respect it. The thought behind the removal is that these occasions have the possibility of overwhelming smal...

On the 22nd July 2023 I ran the Stockley Country parkrun which was the 28th event held at the venue, my 140th parkrun and 68th different course I'd attended. After a week off touring it was back in the road for another new parkrun venue and a low event number to help contribute to my growing collection of lower parkrun event numbers. Today was also the fourth birthday of my local parkrun, Cyclopark and so I was in a bit of a dilemma. I had arranged to meet my work colleague at Stockley Park and so didn't want to let her down by cancelling so I changed last week's tourist venue (Walthamstow) to a revisit and rerun at Cyclopark for an early birthday celebration instead. As it was, it went incredibly well as I set a new PB time of 27:11! It was also great running with Auntie Melinda and Richard my brother-in-law. Unfortunately, after all the change of plans and not wanting to let my colleague down I received a message from her this morning saying that she wasn't able to m...

On the 8th July 2023 I ran the Edenbrook Country parkrun which was the 56th event held at the venue, my 138th parkrun and 67th different course I'd attended. One of my work colleagues is a keen runner and has recently completed the Manchester and London marathons. Whilst he's not a regular parkrunner (due to family commitments) we made a date in the diary for me to join him at his local event - Edenbrook Country. Just over a year old, the event is held at Edenbrook Country park which is near Fleet in Hampshire. Edenbrook itself is a small village recently built as a housing development with local facilities included as part of the build including the country park and leisure centre. The start takes place at the leisure centre itself where there was ample parking in the overflow carpark. I arrived a little early and took myself for a walk around the first part of the course before heading back and meeting my colleague where we observed the pre-run briefing and listened to the c...

On the 1st July 2023 I ran the Aldenham parkrun which was the 347th event held at the venue, my 137th parkrun and 66th different course I'd attended. There are not many parkruns that start with the letter A, and having already visited Ashford, I had the choice of Ally Pally or Aldenham in which to complete the 'Namely' challenge - yet another arbitrary parkrun community challenge. This one a simple exercise of running a parkrun for every letter of your name. Luckily for me, my name is short and contains enough of the common letters to make the challenge a straight-forward one. Others have much more work to do, poor Christine Kowazki should she exist! Aldenham it was then, chosen to tie in with another Prime Number and the relative ease of access. Around the M25 and south down the A1 towards Elstree and Borehamwood. Elstree of course famous for its television studios and home of the EastEnders television set. In fact, driving to the event from coming of the main motorway ro...

On the 24th June 2023 I ran the Riddlesdown parkrun which was the 577th event held at the venue, my 136th parkrun and 65th different course I'd attended. I hadn't really done my planning very well this week, if I had I'd not have picked a trail run. Running hungover is far from pleasant at any time, trail courses in the summer even more so! I knew that Hayden's football presentation night was on Friday and I should perhaps have either run locally at my home event, or repeated one that I'd done before but I was adamant that my tourist streak was going to continue, and so it did. After a late night and a few drinks, it was up at the crack of dawn with the early light coming through the loft window and waking me up, a good couple of hours earlier than I'd intended. But that's been the way of the last few weeks since the temperature has dropped and our skylights at the front of the house have been opened overnight. A short trip around the M25 and I found myself...

On the 17th June 2023 I ran the Canons Park parkrun which was the 283rd event held at the venue, my 135th parkrun and 64th different course I'd attended. At the time of writing there are 76 parkruns inside the London Orbital motorway, the M25. Before Saturday I had attended 26 of them. It is my hope and ambition to tick them all off and in order to do so I needed to complete my 27th venue, Canons park - chosen because it was also one of the few events this weekend in the area that was also hosting an event that was a prime number. I enjoy visiting events in London, because so far all the events I've completed have been at venues I'd never dream of visiting and are little green spots of calming open space in what is otherwise a concrete jungle. The other benefit of visiting different parkrun events in London is getting off and visiting other tube stations that I'd otherwise invariably miss out in normal touristing situations. Saturdays event allowed me to visit Canons P...

On the 10th June 2023 I ran the Bevendean Down parkrun which was the 313th event held at the venue, my 134th parkrun and 63rd different course I'd attended. Every now and then I get a response to my weekly message on the boys WhatsApp group when I post where I'm running on the Saturday ahead. A couple of weeks back I'd mentioned to my friend Mark that I had a tough course coming up, Bevendean Down. But when he found out where it was he told me that Brighton was too far to go for a 5k. But when I wrote my WhatsApp update I made it sound as appealing as I could and I was therefore surprised when Mark replied back for further details. What time will we be back? What time will you pick me up? Are you thinking about it then Mark? Maybe... And so I found myself with company travelling down the M23 bright and early on Saturday morning as we head down to the south coast on the hottest day of the year for one of parkruns toughest challenges. Bevendean Down parkrun is one of five pa...

On the 3rd June 2023 I ran the Bethlem Royal Hospital parkrun which was the 131st event held at the venue, my 133rd parkrun and 62nd different course I'd attended. If choosing parkruns by event numbers, or for one of the arbitrary challenges wasn't difficult enough, then adding course characteristics to the mix and you've gotten yourself another variable to add to the mix. Courses change over the seasons and a course that runs well in the summer months is a completely different beast during the winter. Bethlem Royal Hospital falls into that category - mud, glorious mud in the winter/beautiful meadows adorned with buttercups in the late spring/early summer. I'm not afraid of the mud, in fact I quite like a wet and muddy event. But when your feet are buried and you run leaving your shoe behind is the type of mud I've not quite managed to brave just yet. As my options grow increasingly smaller the more I tourist, the more chance there is that on one wet wintery day I...

On the 27th May 2023 I ran the Thames Path, Woolwich parkrun which was the 4th event held at the venue, my 132nd parkrun and 61st different course I'd attended. Last week I gave an explanation of the Wilson index and how visiting event number 30 went some way towards making progress with this 'achievement'. This week, I visited an event that was hosting a it's fourth parkrun which filled that missing gap raising my Wilson Index from a 3 to a 19. Geeky, arbitrary achievements aside it was nice to have a newly arranged parkrun fairly close by to explore. Particularly as the photograph's and reviews that had been shared online since its inception have painted a picture of the event that makes it a must see visit for any parkrun tourist. As the event was only in Woolwich I was able to get the train from Gravesend which was a nice change from the car and some of the longer distance drives I've done on a Saturday morning. From Woolwich Arsenal train station the meet...

On the 20th May 2023 I ran the Leavesden Country parkrun which was the 30th event held at the venue, my 131st parkrun and 60th different course I'd attended. Of all of the different number challenges of this strange parkrun subculture I've found myself within, the Wilson index (WI) is probably the trickiest one to achieve. Simply put, the WI is the highest numbered event you've attended. If you've never ran an inaugural event then your Wilson Index would be zero. If you run an inaugural and come back the following week your WI would be 2 etc. Even though I've ran at 131 different events my Wi is still only 3, as I've not yet ran at a number 4 . Once I do, my WI will increase to 19 as I've ran at events 5 through to 19... Make sense?  Anyway, so whenever a new event pops up it's always an opportunity for me to tick off one of my lower, unvisited parkrun event numbers - in this case event 30. Leavesden Country Park is only hour from home, just around the ...

On the 13th May 2023 I ran the Bedfont Lakes parkrun which was the 641st event held at the venue, my 130th parkrun and 59th different course I'd attended. I wasn't going to parkrun this week and was going to volunteer locally instead but it appeared that many of the closest venues had a full roster including my home parkrun Cyclopark. The reason for not running was quite simple, I'd booked to take part in my first 10k run in Seaford which took place this morning as I write this. I wasn't entirely sure that running a 5k run the day before my first 10k run was the best idea. But after not finding a volunteer spot I decided to keep the tourist streak going instead. Bedfont Lakes wasn't initially my intended venue, but after a look at my schedule and planner I decided to change things around somewhat and save my originally planned event, Rendlesham Forest for another day. I've heard good things about it and so want to enjoy that one fully. I figured Bedfont Lakes w...

On the 6th May 2023 I ran the Dunstable Downs parkrun which was the 137th event held at the venue, my 129th parkrun and 58th different course I'd attended. I'd read a blog post about Dunstable Downs parkrun via the excellent blog7t , authored by fellow parkrun tourist Steven Stockwell. The photos looked amazing and so I added the venue to the long list of venues I needed to tick off and visit. Situated on the top of an escarpment Dunstable Downs, managed by the national trust has quite stunning views across the Vale of Aylesbury. Upon my visit, it was rather cloudy and grey, and so whilst the views I had were stunning they would be even more so on a clearer day. The course is made up of a single lap which starts outside the visitors centre and is ran in an anti-clockwise direction. From the start, the course heads to the right and participants enjoy a nice downhill stretch which is soon rewarded with a steep return back uphill. The course returns back the way it started and be...

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...