Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

On the 5th April 2025 I ran the Alexandra parkrun which was the 184th event held at the venue, my 231st parkrun and 149th different course I'd attended. No sooner had Hayden and I arrived home from our trip to Harrogate, it was time to get back into the car and head north again. Gillingham were due to visit Manchester again for their third ever visit to Salford City football club. Hayden and I have attended every single game Gillingham have played against Salford and at the beginning of the season this was one that we'd pencilled into the diary as to having to do. It just so helps that there's always something to do in Manchester and combining it with a parkrun there is a wealth of options to choose from. Despite having done Heaton Park before our fixture last season, and Woodbank before playing Stockport the year before there was still plenty to choose from. I wanted to do Peel parkrun, but I'd already ran at the scheduled parkrun event number so settled on Alexandra ...

On the 29th March 2025 I ran the Pontefract parkrun which was the 650th event held at the venue, my 230th parkrun and 148th different course I'd attended. Horse racing isn't my thing, and so a visit to a venue that hosts horse racing isn't necessarily on my list of places to go to. Had it not been for parkrun I'd not have visited any at all, but after York, Pontefract racecourse was the second parkrun venue I'd ran at where horse racing is also held. Being a Gillingham fan in league two this season has meant a lot of long away trips and lots of hours on the road. It has also provided opportunities to tick off a few parkruns in areas of the country I'd not be able to justify travelling to just for a 5k run. Combining football and parkrun tourism has also allowed me more time to explore the towns we play football in which has been an unexpected pleasure. This seasons we've done Doncaster Rovers, Morecambe, Fleetwood, Notts County and Carlisle all in combinati...

On the 22nd March 2025 I ran the Clapham Common parkrun which was the 269th event held at the venue, my 229th parkrun and 147th different course I'd attended. In the last few months or so I'd driven into London and passed Clapham Common in order to get to someplace else. On each occasion, whatever time of day the area around Clapham Common has been teeming with people out on the streets running or jogging along their way. It didn't take make perception or research for me to confirm my suspicions that when I eventually got around to running Clapham Common parkrun that it was going to be a well attended event. Well attended events tend to mean parking problems and London isn't short of that in the first place. As with Wimbledon Common a few weeks previously I had done a fair amount of investigation. Driving was by far the quickest option, but it carried a risk of being unable to park. Public transport would have dropped me right outside the door, but would have been more...

On the 15th March 2025 I ran the Homewood parkrun which was the 368th event held at the venue, my 228th parkrun and 146th different course I'd attended. If I had my way, I'd have been in Accrington running Hyndburn parkrun before ticking a new football ground off to watch Accrington Stanley Vs Gillingham. But Hayden's best friend had a birthday party at 3pm on Saturday, which as far as I'm concerned should be made illegal. Saturday afternoons are sacrosanct and should be reserved solely for the beautiful game. Once I found out that another away day was no longer on the cards, I started to make provisional plans to head to Wormwood Scrubs and started to plan my route using public transport. There are three parkrun venues in London that I think will be tricky to get to and park by car, Wormwood Scrubs, Fulham Palace and Battersea all needing an extra level of planning when it comes to attending their events. However Stephanie had also made plans and I was asked to be hom...

On the 8th March 2025 I ran the Harlow parkrun which was the 475th event held at the venue, my 227th parkrun and 145th different course I'd attended. This parkrun journey, as I've said before plenty of times, has taken me to places that I would never have been to if it wasn't for this strange hobby of mine. I've driven up the M11 plenty of times and every time I've ever done so I've driven past Harlow without so much as a second thought. But like many of my other visits to parkrun venues, I've driven back home again with misconceptions addressed and a completely different view of the place than before I went there. On my way to pick up Mark, I got a text message just as I was almost arriving at his house. 'I've just woke up, go without me'.  I like to plan things in detail and wanted to arrive at 8:30 in order to give myself the best opportunity to park in the small carpark at the venue.  Arriving at a crossroads shortly after I received Marks m...

On the 1st March 2025 I ran the Wimbledon Common parkrun which was the 883rd event held at the venue, my 226th parkrun and 144th different course I'd attended. After the glamour of last week and a trip to Scotland for my first venue north of the border it was back to bread and butter tourism this week with a trip to south London and Wimbledon Common parkrun. Over the course of my travels I've grown to know the roads in and around the capital more intimately and have grown to either love or hate certain routes. The south circular can be filled quite clearly in the box marked 'bin'. Coming off the A2 at Eltham and starting the long slow crawl, mostly at 20mph is never an enjoyable experience. The parkrun course page for Wimbledon Common warns against driving and advises to visit via public transport. Tourism advice via Facebook suggested that the car park was fairly large, but the event is popular and so arriving early was well advised. Which is all well and good until y...

On the 22nd February 2025 I ran the Holyrood parkrun which was the 122nd event held at the venue, my 225th parkrun and 143rd different course I'd attended. With Gillingham playing Carlisle I had an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. Firstly, visit Brunton Park - home of Carlisle United for the first time and second, to visit a Scottish parkrun. The closest Scottish parkrun to Carlisle is Crichton, a short 45 minute drive away. But I had alternative plans that were potentially a little more extravagant. I wanted to do an iconic Scottish venue and the closest one that met that criteria happened to be in Edinburgh. Would it be possible to stay overnight Friday in Edinburgh, run parkrun and make it back down to Carlisle in time for a 3pm kick-off? That was the task I set myself and it was actually quite straightforward. Trains to Carlisle from Edinburgh are fairly regular and frequent so there was no worry on that part. So plans were made and bookings confirmed. We travelle...

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 ...