Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

On the 25th July 2026 I ran Egham Orbit parkrun, which was the 76th event held at the venue, my 297th parkrun and 209th different course I'd attended. Back in May when I was researching Egham Orbit parkrun I came across a cafe in town named Egham on Toast, which I was thoroughly impressed by. As puns for cafes go, that's certainly up there and I felt obliged to visit after my parkrun had finished. Of course back in May we never ever made it as far as that, being stuck in traffic on the M25 meant no parkrun at all that morning. So when it came to rearranging my visit for another day it became a perfect birthday weekend venue. Over the past few years we've turned my birthday weekend into a celebratory family breakfast. Last year was Markshall Estate, where we all trudged along to, kids against their wills and wife not exactly enthusiastic either. The breakfast trumps parkrun which is 30 minutes that they have to endure as an aperitif. At least this year they got to enjoy wat...

On the 18th July 2026 I ran Oaklands College parkrun, which was the 70th event held at the venue, my 296th parkrun and 208th different course I'd attended. Last week I missed my second parkrun of the year and only my seventh in the past four years. Whilst I got stuck in traffic back in May, my absence this week was for much better reasons. My nephew Elijah was turning 18 and my sister wanted to celebrate as a family. A few ideas were thrown around from a trip to London, to Dublin before someone lobbed the word Ibiza into the mix. As soon as that was mentioned I developed a severe case of FOMO and so a plan was born. A flight out Friday afternoon from Stansted to Ibiza, a night on the tiles, a club overnight and a flight straight back to Stansted early Saturday evening. No hotel, no change of clothes, a proper no fuss, no thrills visit to the party island of Europe. To say that the weekend went well would be an understatement. Elijah, least expecting his boring Uncle Adam to be boa...

On the 4th July 2026 I ran The Plens parkrun, which was the 83rd event held at the venue, my 295th parkrun and 207th different course I'd attended. Had it not been for parkrun I would never have heard of the Plens, Desborough or Desborough Leisure Centre. But there I was, two hours from home on a Saturday morning outside a shiny new leisure centre slap bang in the middle of a new housing estate ready for another 5k run. The Plens was celebrating it's 83rd event and in my quest to reach 100 on the Wilson Index I took an opportunity to fill a gap. After all, with no football to rush home for, and long warm summer mornings what better things to do with my time than driving up the M11 and A14 in persuit of a place is never been to before and likely never will. Some courses are simple and straightforward to explain, others are a little more complex but achievable with the clever use of words. Others are batshit crazy and require seeing to understand them. In simple terms the Plens ...

On the 27th June 2026 I ran the Ben's Yard parkrun, Ely which was the 65th event held at the venue, my 294th parkrun and 206th different course I'd attended. Working through the event numbers attempting to visit all events from 1-100 requires a little bit of planning and a lot of patience. There are elements of luck involved too. For example, event 65 and Ben's Yard coincided nicely with the hot summer months. Running a trail course on a farm during the winter would be great fun, but avoidable where possible. It was also lucky in that after the event I was able to pop in again and see Auntie Sue, cousin Nick and his wife Jenny. Eating breakfast in the garden under a gazebo isn't something we can do at home, so to be able to do it with the company of family we don't see often was a bonus. With the hot weather continuing and my ankle still showing levels of discomfort after my twist at Dereham two weeks ago I wasn't planning on full beans attacks. The course, mos...

On the 20th June 2026 I ran the Clair parkrun which was the 609th event held at the venue, my 293rd parkrun and 205th different course I'd attended. I had been putting off Clair parkrun for the longest time. It sat out quite obviously on the map as I visited parkruns around it and left it increasingly isolated as I avoided it like the plague. Originally I had planned to visit St Alban's parkrun, but Foordy didn't fancy another trail course and he rightly pointed out that my ankle wouldn't appreciate it if I twisted it again having still been in recovery from the week before. By rights I shouldn't have ran at all, but my addiction needs to be fed and so I compromised with Foordy. I'd fine him a nice tarmac based course, but found him a course I could walk around if the need may be. Clair parkrun fit all of the criteria. What was four laps on tarmac around an undulating course which a former work colleague had labelled disgusting was an opportunity for me to walk...

On the 13th June 2026 I ran the Dereham parkrun which was the 99th event held at the venue, my 292nd parkrun and 204th different course I'd attended. Dereham parkrun isn't exactly around the corner and with a 2 hour and 15 minutes drive ahead of me I questioned my life choices more than once whilst turning off my alarm clock at 5:45.  I've debated the pros and cons of traveling distances to get to parkrun on these pages before and have attempted to ease my guilty conscience by combining it with trips to football. That could almost be true with my trip to Dereham, afterall the event parking is located at Dereham Town Football club who play in the Eastern Counties Premier League Division (Step 5). I even entered the stadium both before and after parkrun to use the toilet although I can't claim a stadium visit on the basis that no football took place. Sadly I couldn't really see much of the ground as it was surrounded by fencing, and was surrounded on each side by sma...