Adam Bird - My Personal Blog

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...

On the 6th June 2026 I ran the Meon Valley Trail, Wickham parkrun which was the 62nd event held at the venue, my 291st parkrun and 203rd different course I'd attended. Socially speaking my life plans are formed around parkrun on Saturday mornings, football and how I can combine the two. Sometimes real life gets in the way and I have to juggle a dilemma or live with the consequences. This week my aim of driving almost two hours to a parkrun event on the basis that it was hosting it's 62nd event collided with Hayden's end of season football presentation evening. Do I change parkrun plans to allow for a heavy nights celebratory drinking, or do I remain sober and go to bed early like a good parkrunner and deny myself a good night out? The end of the season football presentation is a celebration for the parents as much as it is for the boys. The achievements that they've shared together after a long season. The parents have put in the hard yards, getting boys to training on...