Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

On the 24th February 2024 I ran the Dover Waterfront parkrun which was the 24th event held at the venue, my 171st parkrun and 95th different course I'd attended. In December 2022 I ran the Margate parkrun , earning myself 'A total Kent' status which is given informally to anyone who runs all of the parkrun events in Kent. At the time this would have been a full set of 24, but on the 9th September 2023 a 25th event was added when Dover waterfront ran their inaugural event. I could of course visited Dover sooner and reclaimed my unofficial title already. But I've been saving my visit to coincide with an event number I'd not ran at yet to try and fill gaps in my 'Wilson Index' (another phrase/unofficial challenge from the parkrun tourist lexicon).  Once again I was joined by the two Andrew's who have unwittingly become parkrun tourists recently, albeit without wanting to self-identity with that label. I'll keep calling them my running companions until ...

On the 17th February 2024 I ran the Southend parkrun which was the 529th event held at the venue, my 170th parkrun and 94th different course I'd attended. All week leading up to parkrunday I'd planned to visit Oak Hill parkrun, for what feels like the fifth attempt. Everytime I add it to the planner something crops up and I don't end up making it and run elsewhere instead. This week was no exception. The message arrived on my phone Friday morning. 'Can we run Leigh-on-Sea or Southend?'. It was from my friend Foordy and it was too random a request to be random. I acquiesced and said that Southend wouldn't be a problem. But it wasn't until later in the day that I received a follow-up message explaining the reason behind it. Foordy needed a new pair of swimming goggles and unlike most normal people, avoided Amazon and wanted to hit the closest swimming Google shop to home... Which happened to be in Leigh-on-Sea. It could have been a lot further I suppose! And ...

On the 10th February 2024 I ran the Wollaton Hall parkrun which was the 128th event held at the venue, my 169th parkrun and 93rd different course I'd attended. Last week I revisited Malling parkrun on request of the two Andrew's who are enjoying the parkrun experience but haven't quite taken to touring in the same way as I have. Despite having a posse of pacers I wasn't able to get anywhere near to last year's PB, although I suspect the heavy night of alcohol the night before was partly to blame. I didn't mind the revisit as I knew I had this weekend coming up and it's been a weekend that I've looked forward to now for some time. Last September a colleague in my department arranged a volunteering day at Wollaton Hall which involved us spending an afternoon in the walled garden and doing chores around the place to try and maintain it's upkeep. As part of the day we had a guided tour of the house, including walking out around the rooftop and deep unde...

On the 27th January 2024 I ran the Brentwood parkrun which was the 377th event held at the venue, my 167th parkrun and 92nd different course I'd attended. It's now part of my weekly routine, rewriting my parkrun planner on the basis of my mate Foordy and his last minute decision making. I've planned my parkrun schedule out well in advance and there are routine changes depending upon cancellations or last minute things that crop up. But invariably I'll stick to a plan. Foordy doesn't and he likes to live a day at a time. Nobody answered my weekly call to arms and so I assumed I'd be running by myself at the as planned Crystal Palace event. Foordy was due to head down to Folkestone with Will and Reaso and so I was very much looking forward to the challenge. But I got a text message on Friday morning from Foordy saying that he and Reaso were available on Saturday morning after all and would be up for a parkrun, albeit one a bit closer than Crystal Palace.  Challen...

On the 20th January 2024 I ran the Cassiobury parkrun which was the 404th event held at the venue, my 166th parkrun and 91st different course I'd attended. Having enjoyed the last few weeks with running company having Foordy join me on my parkrun fix, it was time for me to go it alone again. Whilst Foordy is still over in the UK he wasn't able to attend this week due to issues with his knee and there's no reason to aggrivate anything further just for the sake of it. Since Foordy has been back, the runs that we've done have tended to be flat, and mostly tarmac so this week I was going to suggest an off road course with a few hills thrown in for good measure. Ideally we'd do Lullingstone again, but with wanting to keep up this streak of new courses I pencilled in Brentwood which looks.to be a great challenge. Nevertheless it will.wait for another day as Foordy was unavailable. My original plan was to visit Cassiobury with the goal of ticking off another of the parkru...

On the 13th January 2024 I ran the Hove Promenade parkrun which was the 357th event held at the venue, my 165th parkrun and 90th different course I'd attended. My Saturday had looked very different at the beginning of the week. I had planned to travel north to watch Gillingham Vs Accrington Stanley, as I've still got three grounds in league two I've not visited with Accrington being one of them. The plan was to make an early start and stop off in Birmingham and run a parkrun with easy access of the M6. But Hayden received an invitation to a birthday party and accepted the better offer. I contemplated travelling north by myself, but it's a long way and there will hopefully be other opportunities. Plan B was to tick another event off inside the M25, but when I shared the details with Foordy who is still home at the moment he suggested an alternative. He wanted to run by the sea and wondered if there was anything in Brighton that fulfilled his criteria. Indeed there was a...

On the 6th January 2024 I ran the Barking parkrun which was the 533rd event held at the venue, my 164th parkrun and 89th different course I'd attended. At the time of writing there are 62 parkruns in the Greater London region, and by my calculations 76 inside of the M25. My aim is to try and complete both totals by the end of the year and after visiting Barking this morning I have 28 and 35 left respectively. Once again I was joined by Foordy who is back home for an extended break from life in Canada. He said he wasn't feeling it this morning but went on to crack a new parkrun PB so I'm no longer trusting his pre-run psychology. Barking parkun is two anti-clockwise laps around Barking park and is virtually pancake flat and entirely on tarmac paths. Starting in the centre of the park by the play area and cafe, participants meet at the finish line where there is a tarp of trust for people to leave their belongings as they run. Before the briefing takes place the run director...

On the 1st January 2024 I ran the Catford parkrun which was the 225th event held at the venue, my 163rd parkrun and 88th different course I'd attended. The hardest parkrun of the year is the special event held on New Year's Day. Getting up out of bed after the night before and having to moderate how much you can drink (unless your not driving) all adds to the challenge. The last thing you need after all of that is a challenging course.  Being New Years Day I was limited in which event I could attend. Not every course hosts a special event on New Year's Day and with two years worth of touristing under my belt the closest event to me that I've not completed yet is getting ever further away. I contemplated re-running Bexleyheath which was my very first tourist venue (before touristing was a thing), but I figured Catford wasn't that much further up the road so why not visit their instead. I was joined again by Foordy who is having an extended stay at home. He and his m...

On the 30th December 2023 I ran the Basildon parkrun which was the 443th event held at the venue, my 162nd parkrun and 87th different course I'd attended. Before we get onto my trip over to Essex, there's the small matter of Christmas Day and my return visit to the Great Lines where I ran for the 16th time and has now become customary on Christmas Day. I finished in 139th position out of a field of 374 participants in a time of 28:31. My last three visits have all finished within times just 8 seconds apart - Mr Consistency! Last year I kept to local events and paused the tourism game over Christmas, but with a long streak collected I wanted to keep up the momentum so chose to start working through my list of nearest events not done yet. Top of the pile was Basildon and so that's where I found myself on the last parkrun day of the year. Also, seeing as it was Christmas my friend Foordy is home for the festive period and he messaged me saying he'd come along again with m...

On the 23rd December 2023 I ran the Chalkwell Beach parkrun which was the 127th event held at the venue, my 160th parkrun and 86th different course I'd attended. Last year I completed my last parkrun before Christmas with a trip to the seaside and ran Margate parkrun. This year I decided to follow suit and complete another coastal event in the hope that they'd be big raging winds and rain to do battle with. Strange guy aren't I?! I chose to run at Chalkwell Beach which is just to the east of Southend pier. I'd been there plenty of times before, using part of the course for parking when on a day trip to Southend.  The start is approximately 3 kilometres further east along the coast and there is plenty of places to park up before the event. The course is a simple and straightforward one. An out and back towards the pier. It is evidently a popular event with a growing number of people arriving before the start full of Christmas cheer with many dressed up as Santa, elf...

On the 16th December 2023 I ran the Sunny Hill parkrun which was the 174th event held at the venue, my 159th parkrun and 85th different course I'd attended. Having suffered a little bit with my leg at last week's parkrun I decided to take friends and family advice and have a rest. Every evening I sat with an icepack on my thigh and missed my usual Wednesday wellbeing run in the hope that I'd not suffer or make worse whatever it was that was affecting me. I also considered my choice of venue, instead of Sunny Hill I thought I'd look to run somewhere a little flatter. I'm also borrowing Mum and Dads car whilst they are away travelling so I've got easy access to a reliable transport that I can use to travel to further away venues whilst the car is in my care. But after a couple of weeks of unplanned, last minute changes I decided to stick to the script and tackle whatever Sunny Hill had in store for me. Last week, I bemoaned the direction instructions provided by ...

On the 9th December 2023 I ran the Hockley Woods parkrun which was the 384th event held at the venue, my 158th parkrun and 84th different course I'd attended. These pages of tales of parkrun tourism are littered with revised plans, changes of venues, weather related disruptions and generally things not going as expected. This weekend was probably the greatest example of all of those things happening at once. I'd originally scheduled a visit to Sunny Hill parkrun, but Stephanie said that she thought the car was making funny noises so I changed to Highbury Fields as I could visit quite easily by train. We are borrowing my mum and dad's car for a period of time whilst they go on their travels starting this week, so our car issues will temporarily go away whilst we have two cars for the duration of that period. My niece Layla was off Saturday and wanted to come along with me, which was great - the more the merrier. However, on Thursday she asked me if she could give it a miss ...

On the 2nd December 2023 I ran the Valentines parkrun which was the 599th event held at the venue, my 157th parkrun and 83rd different course I'd attended. Last week I skipped the tourist trail again. Twice in three weeks I revisited a previously attended event and twice in three weeks I set a new course PB. Last weekend was a revisit to Mote Park parkrun for event number 74. I first visited for event number three, struggled in the heat and on the hills and set a time of 30:18. In much cooler temperatures and 18 months of psrkrunning behind me I set a new time of 27:59 which greatly exceeded my expectations. But whilst I certainly enjoyed returning to Mote park and enjoyed what is a lovely course. I also had the pleasure of sharing the experience with Reaso and Amelie who smashed her first full length parkrun. I couldn't help but miss the feeling of discovering a new course for the first time and the fulfilling sensation of adding another tick against the lost of events I'...

On the 18th November 2023 I ran the Finsbury Park parkrun which was the 611th event held at the venue, my 155th parkrun and 82nd different course I'd attended. Once again my parkrun plans this weekend were reconfigured at the last minute by issues with our car. Ideally our Meriva would visit the scrap man and call it a day, but finances dictate otherwise. Friday night whilst driving home from Gillingham Football Club to visit the new club shop I noticed strange sounds coming from the vehicle. Once home it was confirmed to be an issue with the exhaust. So Friday night, right at the last minute I screwed up my plans to head over to Essex for Markshall Estates 98th event and trawled the map to find an alternative event that I could complete by public transport. Adding further complication to my last minute planning was the realisation that engineering works at Gravesend would mean an extra challenge to my morning travel plans. I asked Stephanie if she was able to get me to Ebbsfleet ...

On the 11th November 2023 I ran the Erdigg parkrun which was the 277th event held at the venue, my 154th parkrun and 81st different course I'd attended. Last weekend my touristing plans came to an abrupt halt. It was my friend Marks birthday and he'd arranged to run Shorne Woods parkrun and was being joined by Reaso and George. Weather in the lead up to the weekend has been horrific and wasn't much better on the Saturday morning. I didn't have a car and so wasn't relishing a train trip to North London and Oak Hill as I had planned. Instead I decided to remain local and joined the others at Shorne Woods where I ran for the fifth time and proceeded to set a new PB of 27:52 which was just shy of three minutes better than my previous best. This week was a return to new experiences and for me my first parkrun in Wales as we head to Wrexham to watch Gillingham and complete another weekend double. If I could and if my budget was able to stretch that far I'd visit ever...

On the 28th October 2023 I ran the Rendlesham Forest parkrun which was the 89th event held at the venue, my 152nd parkrun and 80th different course I'd attended. The first rule as a parkrun tourist is to have a plan B. If you have a plan C it will likely come in handy, particularly during this time of year when the rainy season adds jeopardy to the best laid parkrun plans. I had pencilled in Rendlesham Forest for this weekend, but last week's cancellations meant that Thornham Woods wasn't able to run, and that their event 20 wasn't going to run for another week. Perfect for me, I was still looking to attend an event 20 for my Wilson index and rejigged me diary accordingly. As the kids were on half term and their weekend clubs cancelled it offered us as a family an opportunity. I suggested to Stephanie that we head out for the day on Friday, stay over night somewhere in the evening and attend Thornham Woods on the Saturday morning. After much faff and discussion that...

On the 21st October 2023 I ran the Dulwich parkrun which was the 541st event held at the venue, my 151st parkrun and 79th different course I'd attended. After three weeks of parkrun events that featured hills, hills and more hills it was time to put that grueling effort to good use with a parkrun PB attempt at everyone's favourite PB attempt parkrun location - Dulwich parkrun. The course record here is an astonishing 13:57 which was set five years ago but consistently people come close as a whole range of athletes, including Olympians use the event as part of their training programmes. I'm not an athlete and far, far, far from being an Olympian, but if it's good enough for them it's good enough for me and well, everything's relative right? Dulwich parkrun was also the next stop on my long running ambition to run all of the parkrun events inside of the M25, so a chance to kill two birds with one stone. If I failed in one goal, I'll have definitely achieved t...

On the 14th October 2023 I ran the Hilly Fields parkrun which was the 517th event held at the venue, my 150th parkrun and 78th different course I'd attended. The last two parkrun events I've been to have involved hills. It's no surprise then that Hilly Fields parkrun also contains them, and was deliberately chosen for that fact. I can only get better at running uphill if I practice doing so. It should also help me when I finally do another flat one, even it's psychological. Upon arrival it was clear why the park had been given its name. A green space in the middle of a built up area in south east London centered around a field that was made up of a hill. Various paths ran across the space and I headed upwards to the top where the parkrun starts and finishes. At the summit of the hill is a tarmac path and along its route is a cafe, a play area and a couple of tennis courts. Running from west to east participants start from the western end next to the cafe and head east ...

On the 7th October 2023 I ran the Church Mead parkrun which was the 78th event held at the venue, my 149th parkrun and 77th different course I'd attended. All week long I'd been preparing myself for the Wendover Woods parkrun and tackling everything that event would likely entail, including the tough uphill climbs. However, a rare last minute discovery changed my mind and I found myself tackling a different hilly challenge in nearby Amersham instead. Looking through the 5k challenge app on Thursday evening I discovered that Church Mead parkrun would be running it's 78th event on Saturday morning and as that event number is one of those below 100 I'm still to tick off I decided to change my plans.  I'd known that the Church Mead parkrun was going to be a challenge as I'd seen videos on YouTube profiling the event. As my niece Layla had already agreed to come with me I had another decision to make. Do I show her the video and put her off, or do I take her along o...

On the 30th September 2023 I ran the Ally Pally parkrun which was the 516th event held at the venue, my 148th parkrun and 76th different course I'd attended. When I asked my friend Reaso if he wanted me to pick up his son George for this week's parkrun he asked where I was heading. "Ally Pally", I said. And that was the end of that. The next ten minutes was spent listening at how steep the hill was up towards the Alexandra Palace and how drunken darts fans roll down it after a day on the beer watching the arrows. He explained how steep it was and how close he'd come to having a coronary and wouldn't wish running up it on his worst enemy. I had, as always done my research. I'd also seen the Ally Pally on television enough times and so knew that grounds of the parkrun would be the hillier variety. But the graphic picture that Reaso had painted put a nervous fear into me and I drove towards north London on Saturday morning with deep regret! Hills and I don...