Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

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...