Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

On the 15th February 2025 I ran the Burnham on Crouch parkrun which was the 322nd event held at the venue, my 224th parkrun and 142nd different course I'd attended. There are places that I simply would never have visited in my life had parkrun not been invented. Burnham-on-crouch is precisely one of them. Situated at the far end of Essex, due east of South Woodham Ferrers, another town dotted along the River Crouch that I took wouldn't have visited had it not been for parkrun. Burnham-on-crouch was therefore the latest stop on my Saturday morning journey and home to yet another free timed 5k running event. Joining me again this weekend was Mark and my brother in law Richard who had a rare luxury of a free weekend when his wife and children were away and he could live a bit more loose and free. He also volunteered driving duties which was a nice change for me letting someone take control behind the wheel for a change. I was able to admire the Essex countryside and take in stran...

On the 8th February 2025 I ran the Grovelands parkrun which was the 693rd event held at the venue, my 223rd parkrun and 141st different course I'd attended. Overall, running twice a week consistently for the past three to four years I've been incredibly fortunate with injuries considering my age and general health/weight. But after a few weeks off resting my calf it was perhaps inevitable that I'd pick up another niggle and that has proved to be the case. For the past few days I've been having pain when standing from a sitting position on my right leg and haven't really been able to identify where abouts the pain has been coming from. Poking and prodding around the leg makes no difference as there is no pain anywhere, but as soon as I stand I end up hobbling into the first few steps before regaining a normal walking motion. It's for that reason I persevered with parkrun and turned up again on Saturday morning as once I'm moving generally it feels okay. So t...

On the 1st February 2025 I ran the Burgess parkrun which was the 552nd event held at the venue, my 222nd parkrun and 140th different course I'd attended. Last week I missed my first parkrun since the autumn of 2022. Since then I've not been able to attend on three previous occasions as I was away on holiday in countries where parkrun hasn't quite reached. But in terms of choosing not to attend or not being able to attend through injury I've had an incredible streak. But after my calf injury at Oak Hill parkrun I made the decision to have a week week off to try and recuperate. So instead of running someplace on a Saturday morning I went to Cyclopark and volunteered alongside the other wonderful high-viz heroes and barcode scanned for the very first time. I've managed to rack up a few volunteer credits here and there on a Saturday, Marshalling and writing run reports, but most of my volunteering experience has taken place on a Sunday morning at Junior parkrun down at...

On the 18th January 2025 I ran the Oak Hill parkrun which was the 633rd event held at the venue, my 221st parkrun and 139th different course I'd attended. During the week I try to get another run in, which is normally Wednesday afternoon as work give us a wellness hour in which to do something related to wellbeing. For me this has been useful and helps with keeping a regular habit of running going outside of parkrun. This week I was at Shorne Country Park where I was running the parkrun route to complete my mandatory 5k. However, towards the end I felt a niggle ok my calf and thought best to stop as I didn't want another repeat of the injury that sidelined me a couple of years ago, albeit on the other leg. I thought I'd done the right thing, spotted it early, stopped and rested ahead of Saturday morning. I even sat with some ice whilst watching the television but it all proved ultimately in vain. Oak Hill parkrun is based in North London near Enfield. We arrived nice and e...

On the 11th January 2025 I ran the Great Notley parkrun which was the 490th event held at the venue, my 220th parkrun and 138th different course I'd attended. On New Year's Day Foordy and I ran the Chelmsford parkrun. At most events there is a tarpaulin which visitors use to place coats and bags and suchlike whilst the event takes place. This feature of a parkrun event is caused the 'tarp of trust' and after the Chelmsford event Foordy collected his coat unaware that his front door key had somehow fallen out along the way  He contacted the volunteer team and as luck would have it, they'd found his set of keys and so he arranged to pick them up, but me being me had to make things difficult and so something relatively straightforward ended up being something not quite so. Essentially I was looking to protect my tourist streak, running Chelmsford parkrun again two weeks after I'd visited would have reset my tourist streak from 58 to 2. I'd recently cut it from...

On the 4th January 2025 I ran the Black Park parkrun which was the 746th event held at the venue, my 219th parkrun and 137th different course I'd attended. With the weather changing quite dramatically and temperatures dropping, we've entered into cancellation season and so some last minute adjustments to the schedule are advisory, and plans B, C and D are a sensible necessity. The original plan was to travel down to the south coast and run Littlehampton Prom, but as the previous event was cancelled it put the event number out of sync and would have meant repeating an event number had we visited it. As I know Foordy has a preference for flat coastal events plan B was Southsea in Portsmouth but a combination of the weather and a dodgy Hamstring changed the plans again. Foordy had been feeling a bit of tightness in his hamstring and wasn't sure that going full beams on an out and back was a good idea. He suggested a trail course that with the cold temperatures would be firm u...

On the 1st January 2025 I ran the Chelmsford Central parkrun which was the 562nd event held at the venue, my 218th parkrun and 136th different course I'd attended. 2024 was quite a year for me in parkrun terms. I had run a parkrun every Saturday throughout the calendar year and would have had the full set had it not been for one thing - Oliver's 18th birthday. I tried my best, but it wasn't to be. Could we celebrate Oliver's 18th birthday as well as keeping my parkrun streak in tact? In fact, I hadn't missed a parkrun event on a Saturday morning since August 2023 and had my original suggestion been followed we would have successfully combined both.  We had decided to celebrate Oliver's birthday by enjoying a weekend away with three of Oliver's best buddies. Originally I'd suggested Krakow in Poland. Stephanie and I could enjoy the Christmas markets and festivities whilst the boys could get acquainted with vodka and enjoy the nightlife. Krakow has a coup...

On the 14th December 2024 I ran the Hampstead Heath parkrun which was the 622nd event held at the venue, my 215th parkrun and 135th different course I'd attended. After two weeks of weather related conversation, it was nice to have something else to talk about for a change. Instead of wind and rain the question was; what is the toughest parkrun in London? There are candidates: Sunny Hill, Hilly Fields and Lloyd which all crop up frequently I'm these debates and I can make a case for all of those one way or another as I've unfortunately ran them all. However, there is definitely now a new contender, one that I believe takes the crown and possibly by some distance. Hello Hampstead Heath! Our morning started off potentially ruining our parkrun day before it had even started. I awple early in the morning before my alarm was due to go off and a tossed and turned waiting for it to finally ring. Eventually I noted the crack in the bedroom curtains was brighter than it should have...

On the 7th December 2024 I ran the Highbury Fields parkrun which was the 616th event held at the venue, my 214th parkrun and 134th different course I'd attended. If last week was a cautionary winter tale warning about mud, this week is chapter two - entitled 'wind and rain'.  Thanks to Storm Darragh parkrun events across the UK were being cancelled on the basis of safety. The parkrun map on the 5K app was a sea of red pins denoting that the event was no longer going ahead. Initially across the east, but spreading westward and I was frantically refreshing the screen of news from Highbury Fields, my chosen event this weekend. The event Facebook page, although still available hadn't been updated for years and so I had no real context of whether the event was likely to cancel or not so waking up on the Saturday morning it was a case of getting to the event to find out one way or another. Highbury Fields was one of those events I had pencilled in the get to by trains such i...

On the 30th November 2024 I ran the Malling Rec parkrun which was the 22nd event held at the venue, my 213th parkrun and 133rd different course I'd attended. This time of year is the time to choose a parkrun course carefully. Selecting a venue that is ran on tarmac paths rather than grass saves the heartache of having to clean trainers and risk life and limb slipping over on mud infested trails and grassland. Unfortunately when you are a bit OCD as I am and are selecting venues based on their event numbers rather than practicality, you run the risk of heading towards a sticky and muddy ending. Malling Rec popped up earlier in the year as a new parkrun venue and despite the name is nowhere nearly Malling as we know it. The town near Maidstone doesn't have a parkrun, albeit it did have an event nearby called Malling which as a result of all this confusion renamed itself as Leybourne Lakes which now far more geographically accurate. The new Malling Rec event is based in Lewes in ...

On the 25th June 2016 I ran the Bexley parkrun which was the 229th event held at the venue, my 10th parkrun and 2nd different course I'd attended. On the 23rd November 2024 I returned back for my second visit at the 596th event held at the venue. I'm very fortunate to be able to parkrun every weekend and even more so to visit a different parkrun each week. It's only through Stephanie and her commitment to running the children around on Saturday mornings at their various clubs that allows me the freedom to continue doing what I do. Inevitably though, the two sides collide and neither of us are able to be in two places at the same time and so compromises need to be made. Phoebe had a singing assessment day in Maidstone early on Saturday morning and Hayden had his football training which finishes anywhere between 10:15 and 10:30. Stephanie was able to drop him off but I needed to pick him up so I needed to choose a parkrun that allowed me sufficient time to get back for the e...

On the 16th November 2024 I ran the Wantstead Flats parkrun which was the 648th event held at the venue, my 211th parkrun and 132nd different course I'd attended. Last week after Roding Valley parkrun I had a discussion with a member of the parkrun tourism group on Facebook who told me of the eight additional events that made up the full Total PIED challenge, which is all of the Essex venues plus those that are now part of Greater London, or the historical part of Essex. Of those eight, I had one left to visit - Wanstead Flats, and it just so happened that I'd pencilled this in the diary for this week coming! I was joined once again by Mark who was available, but had to be home promptly afterwards for a pre-Christmas day out with the family. I assured him that everything would be fine and I'd have him home all in good time. Following instructions from the event website we parked up at the carpark, which is around 1km away from the start. Wanstead Flats and surrounding grou...

On the 9th November 2024 I ran the Roding Valley parkrun which was the 337th event held at the venue, my 210th parkrun and 131st different course I'd attended. Just like Kent, Essex has a series of parkruns that are no longer part of Essex and are now a part of Greater London. So depending on who you speak to there are either 32 parkrun events to complete the set, or 24.  For me, I'm treating Kent and Essex the same. In that I'm aiming to complete all the events in the county and any that are now under Greater London, tick them off under that jurisdiction instead. So the goal on Saturday was to reach the halfway point of the Essex parkrun odyssey and tick off the twelfth venue in the county.  My friend Mark accompanied me along the A13 and M11 where we parked up as instructed on the Roding Valley parkrun website. Two minutes later a car pulled up alongside me and cousin Nick appeared with his wife Jenny. Talk about punctual! After last week's meet up at Wimpole Estate ...

On the 2nd November 2024 I ran the Wimpole Estate parkrun which was the 507th event held at the venue, my 209th parkrun and 130th different course I'd attended. My cousin Nick messaged me a year ago saying that he'd been inspired by my parkrun exploits. He'd seen my Facebook posts and was just about to undertake his first parkrun at Soham Village College. We made plans to meet up and I was going to enjoy his home course with him, but his father-in-law passed away suddenly and he had to make an emergency dash to the Philippines in order to attend the funeral. We never quite made those plans again as life once again got in the way, until a couple of weeks ago Nick got back in touch and brought the conversation back to the table. Just as I had gotten with Cyclopark, Nick has developed a home run fatigue and wanted to try somewhere new. We both suggested Wimpole Estate as it was an event that I really wanted to do and he'd heard good things being relatively close to his ho...

On the 26th October 2024 I ran the South Woodham Ferrers parkrun which was the 276th event held at the venue, my 208th parkrun and 129th different course I'd attended. A little while ago I redrew my parkrun planner with a whole new strategy. Rather than a focus on London events I decided to prioritise those events closest to me geographically. It means that for every week that passes I have to travel that little bit extra further to the next event. There are anomalies to this plan, the fact that the actual nearest to me that I've not done yet is Beckenham Place which I'm putting off until the course returns back to its original point-to-point configuration and others where I am aiming to combine football with parkrun, or next week when I meet my cousin Nick. The first week of this revised schedule threw up South Woodham Ferrers, which is just over the water in Essex in a place that I've never heard of until this thing called parkrun came into my life. It worked out bea...

On the 19th October 2024 I ran the California Country parkrun which was the 221st event held at the venue, my 207th parkrun and 128th different course I'd attended. There are parkruns I want to visit as they are iconic, like Great Yarmouth North Beach which is ran on sand, or Fountains Abbey for it's scenic beauty. There are other parkruns I want to visit purely because I like the name. Father Collins, Peter Pan and Pocket all fall under this category.  So when I was putting my plan together for this weekend and had no idea where to go, I chose a parkrun purely on that fact that it sounded cool and I'd always wanted to go to California. Even though the country park in Wokingham was nowhere near the west coast of America, and as far as I can tell, nowhere nearly related. As we start to get deeper into the autumn and November appears ominously closer, us tourists need to start keeping our wits about us. Weather can and quite often does cause havoc and can sometimes lead to s...

On the 12th October 2024 I ran the Thornham Walks parkrun which was the 58th event held at the venue, my 206th parkrun and 127th different course I'd attended. There are a grand total of 277 parkrun events across the South East, Greater London and Eastern regions of which majority are within a two hour commute of home. When people ask me how long I plan to tourist for or when do I think I'll stop I use this collection of events as my answer. Which means inevitably that I'm going to have some early starts and/or overnight stays in order to get to some of the more distant events, particularly those in East Anglia and the northern coastline of Norfolk. This weekend I was heading for Thornham Walks parkrun in order to tick off event 58, one of my remaining few event numbers that I hadn't ran yet to try and get my Wilson Index up into the 60's. Thornham Magna the town in which the event is held is the other side of Ipswich and so from home an hour and 44 minute drive aw...

On the 5th October 2024 I ran the Volksgarten parkrun which was the 201st event held at the venue, my 205th parkrun and 126th different course I'd attended. After our day touristing in Cologne we head south of the city for a day at Phantasialand, one of the very many German theme parks in the country and arguably one of the very best of it's kind anywhere in the world. We had a great day and enjoyed as many of the rides and attractions as we could. Truth be told, a two day visit would have been better, but when you have only a single day there you have to make the most of it which we did. Highlights included Taron and FLY, the latter being a launched flying coaster where you are laying down and literally in the flying position. Both coasters were ridiculously long and seemed to go on forever which was a refreshing change from similar attractions at Alton Towers and Thorpe Park where you come off things feeling rather short changed. Stephanie continued to feel the effects of ol...

On the 3rd October 2024 I ran the Rheinpark parkrun which was the 158th event held at the venue, my 204th parkrun and 125th different course I'd attended. Every parkrun country is allowed to host a one off parkrun on a non-saturday as a 'special event day'. The UK uses theirs on Christmas Day, the US on thanksgiving and Germany on Unity Day which is their national holiday which takes place every year on October 3rd. Earlier this year we planned a short family break. The plan was to spend the weekend in Holland and to run two parkruns, including their special event either side of some touristing and visits to some European theme parks. However, those plans were ruined when we realised two days before we were due to leave that Oliver and Phoebe's passports lacked sufficient validity for them to travel. We did as any responsible parents would do and went without them. As part of the compensation package agreed with Oliver and Phoebe I suggested that we would book another ...

On the 21st September 2024 I ran the Colwick parkrun which was the 611th event held at the venue, my 202nd parkrun and 124th different course I'd attended. Following the Gills around the country has enabled me to combine football fandom with parkrun touristing and expand the range of possible places to visit on a Saturday morning massively. But travelling with Hayden in tow means that I have to make a few compromises when it comes to picking an appropriate venue. As Gillingham were playing Notts County again we had an opportunity to tick off another one of the many Nottingham events. We had already done Wollaton Hall which is a jewel in the Nottingham crown and so I didn't necessarily have a preference which of the others to visit. Having a look at the event numbers of all the courses available I had already run most of them and so the only one that met all of the criteria was Forest Rec. We also had the option of Colwick which is the closest event to Notts County and would ha...