Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

On the 6th June 2025 I ran the Hazelwood parkrun which was the 282nd event held at the venue, my 239th parkrun and 157th different course I'd attended. The beauty of parkrun tourism is the variety and the imbalance of expectations Vs reality. With over 2,000 parkruns across the world the variety part is easy to understand, but the expectation Vs reality element is far more nuances. Without YouTube or social media photography the only way of knowing what a parkrun course might be like is by reading the description on the course website. Some descriptions are reasonably detailed whilst others are brief, even a single line in some cases.  'An out and back route along the nation cycle route as far as the red postbox and back' course descriptions can be that simple and so as someone who is about to visit you don't know the running surface, the terrain, whether it's flat or hilly or somewhere in-between. So you're left to your own imagination as to what to expect. An...

On the 31st May 2025 I ran the Reigate Priory parkrun which was the 513rd event held at the venue, my 238th parkrun and 156th different course I'd attended. In preparation for a parkrun I ensure that I do my research beforehand. What's the course like, where to park, how popular is it, all the standard things. But sometimes knowing too much can be counter-productive. Reigate Priory parkrun is a great example of knowing too much before you go. I knew that it was hilly and as a result I'd let it get into my head and had convinced myself long before I had actual arrived at the park on Saturday morning that I wasn't going to complete the event and that the hills were actually going to kill me.  Upon arrival on the Saturday morning I was blessed with a beautiful sunny summer's morning with high temperatures and little wind. The sun always makes everything look that much pleasant and the surroundings at Reigate Priory were very much that and more. Based in the centre of ...

On the 24th May 2025 I ran the Hanworth parkrun which was the 232nd event held at the venue, my 237th parkrun and 155th different course I'd attended. Last week I missed parkrun for non-holiday reasons for the first time since the spring of 2022. I'd had a long great innings but sometimes life is more important and unexpected things take precedent. Stephanie has been suffering from some form of discomfort after eating for several months and had a second serious issue where the pain she experienced caused her to faint and lose consciousness. When it happens late at night in the ensuite bathroom it becomes a rather scary and traumatic experience, with paramedics called to the house and a visit to the A&E department necessary. It was a long and tiring night, with no real explanation from the Dr before we were sent back home again. But after a night spent awake and in discomfort I didn't have the energy or the will to traipse across the Dartford Crossing again to tick off ...

On the 10th May 2025 I ran the Beckenham Place parkrun which was the 374th event held at the venue, my 236th parkrun and 154th different course I'd attended. It was also an event with a fair few surprises. Normally I'll have seen a video of some description of the parkrun course and had a fair sense of what the course might look like, at least in a 2D kind of way. But for some reason YouTube didn't seem to have much in the way of Beckenham Place parkrun videos and that suggested to me that the event doesn't have much to shout about. What I did know however was that the event was operating a different version of their standard point-to-point course and has been for over a year. Works to the pathways in the park had meant much of the course was unavailable and so they adapted by operating a two-lap version of their course instead. Which all in all led me to not having much in the way of expectations prior to this event. I was joined once again by Mark, who asked me what ...

On the 3rd May 2025 I ran the Isabel Trail parkrun which was the 231st event held at the venue, my 235th parkrun and 153rd different course I'd attended. parkrun rules state that children under 11 years old need to be accompanied by and adults within arms length. Which is fine and all fair enough. But what happens when you have two 10 year olds that are on complete opposite end of the athletic spectrum? Back in August I took Hayden's best friend Henry with us to Morecambe where alongside the football he completed his first parkrun. On dropping Hayden off at school a couple of weeks ago Henry came up to me and asked if he could come with me and Hayden on our next away day. I agreed, but one of the conditions was he needed to join in on Saturday morning at 9am for our standard 5k walk, jog or run.  Initially I had planned to book a Premier Inn in Stoke-on-Trent and run Hanley parkrun, but the local Premier Inn prices had gone through the roof on what I suspect to be celebrating ...

On the 26th April 2025 I ran the Morden parkrun which was the 40th event held at the venue, my 234th parkrun and 152nd different course I'd attended. Just when you think you are edging ever closer to LonDone status another parkrun pops up and the goalpost move ever wider apart, making it even harder to obtain that elusive crown. However, it does have benefits in that a closer event to home makes easier options for filling up the Wilson Index - parkrun snakes and ladders! 9 months or so ago Morden parkrun became the latest event to join the roster and I marked it down as a possible venue on my calendar. But for one reason or another it kept getting pushed back until eventually the stars aligned and I made to event number 40. By completing the event I leave just event number 33 remaining all the way up to 58, with gaps at 59, 62 and 65. The gaps become a little more frequent after that but the goal is to eventually complete 1-100 which is one of the harder 'achievements' to ...

On the 19th April 2025 I ran the Quakers Walk parkrun which was the 75th event held at the venue, my 233rd parkrun and 151st different course I'd attended. I have got a rather long list of planned events in an excel spreadsheet that is loosely put together with some form of logic, but heavily caveated that things are likely to change. For example I can't really put plans in place now for August and September until the football fixtures are released at the end of June. But they are there anyway waiting for me to adjust when the time comes Planning out this way does occasionally create some unexpected opportunities. I had worked out that Gillingham weren't playing on Saturday as it was Easter, so I planned to visit Quakers Walk parkrun with the idea of possibly making a family day of it with Steph and the kids. It would mean an early start, but we'd done it previously and had a good day out afterwards. But I hadn't quite considered Gillingham playing the day before a...

On the 12th April 2025 I ran the Gladstone parkrun which was the 601st event held at the venue, my 232nd parkrun and 150th different course I'd attended. In social media groups discussing parkrun adventures there's frequently tales of parkrunners who have bumped into someone famous on their weekly timed walk, jog or run. 'Famous' can mean lots of different things these days and so those celebrities can range from anyone, like Paul Sinton-Hewitt, the founder of parkrun to Joe Wilkinson the comedian, Gillingham FC fan and occasional parkrun participant. I even ran an event once where Dame Kelly Holmes was present and hadn't even realised until I'd read about it later on social media. So you can forgive me for feeling a little excited when I arrived at Gladstone parkrun and immediately spotted Olympic legend Ellie Simmons! She was attending her first parkrun event as an ambassador of parkrun to help further promote the parkwalk initiative which aims to encourage f...

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...