Marcia in Ortonovo, 25 Jan

The weather was just awful on Saturday, lots of wind and rain up till late Sat night. Amazingly, true to the local forecast, it was bright and clear on Sunday morning for our marcia in Ortonovo, an old hilltop town in Liguria near Carrara. As we drove up to Ortonovo, the road became narrower and narrower until it turned into a one-vehicle lane (for two-way traffic). Sure was glad Debi was the driver on this trip! It was quite a challenge to drive through town to get to the parking lot which was already full by the time we got there about 8:45, so we did what Italians do, parked along the narrow road. Ortonovo offers lovely views of surrounding towns, esp. Nicola (little hilltop town in photo on left) and the snow-topped Alpi Apuane (Alpuane hills, from where Carrara marble is extracted). We set off through town and quickly went up a steep unpaved trail. Due to the rainy weather the past two days, the path was wet and slippery, not very good for running. The first section of the route was well marked but we could not find directions that separate participants to the different routes 7K or 14K (we have decided to do the 14K). We reached the first refreshment station (hot tea, water, lemon and orange wedges, also cakes and cookies!) and saw the sign that says the continuing path was slippery. We decided to continue on the trail instead of the alternative, i.e. get on the paved road. We still did not see any arrows indicating the 14K route. Our shoes were getting muddy and wet, at one point the path became a little stream. After exiting the wet and slippery path onto asphalt (hurray), we got a little confused, not knowing whether to go left or right (where's that arrow?!!). We took the left turn, saw an arrow a few km down and asked some cyclists who assured us that we were on the right route. Not too long after that, we found ourselves back where we parked the car! We checked our Garmins respectively, we certainly did not do 14K, not even 7K! Once again we got lost/confused and completed only 5K. It was a bummer since we wanted to put in more distance as part of our training for the Dublin Marathon. We discussed doing the route again but the prospect of going through wet and slippery paths was not appealing. So we decided to collect our goodies (a bottle of wine each from Lunae, a well-known winery in the area) and went running in Marinella. We did the figure-8 loop around the farm in Marinella, 5K. Lots of people were out running/walking there too, the sun came out between clouds -- we had a satisfactory workout after all. Will do a post on the Marinella route some time, we also identified other possible training routes, like the bike path along the coast that run from Carrara to Viareggio that will make a really long run.

Marcia in Sarzana, 18 Jan

Morning started off cloudy, turned into light drizzle after we started. This Sunday's marcia was held in Sarzana, near the ospedale (hospital). I brought an umbrella as did a number of other walkers. Yes, we decided to mostly walk due to the fact that our legs were protesting the previous day's 12K workout. It was a good thing that we chose the 8K route (the other options were 16K or 22K) - it went steeply uphill at one point, towards the town of Falcinello. But the trail was lovely (and a little wet and slippery), going through one of the old hilltop towns in Liguria, saying "buongiorno" to the friendly people we passed was cool. The goodies from this marcia was a bottle of wine and a bag of pasta, not bad for the 3 euro registration fee :)

Lucca run, 17 Jan

We decided to drive down to Lucca, about 50 min from Lerici, to run on the wall of the city, a first time for my friend Debi. I have done this course umpteen times when I lived near Pisa. Saturday turned out to be a perfect day for running, cool and sunny, lots of people were out jogging, bicycling, skating or strolling on the wall. We did 2 slow turns around the city (the wall is 4K around), then tried a run-5-min, walk-5-min to give our legs a break. Completed 12.5K in 1:34, my first long run of the year. Unfortunately we forgot to take photos which was a pity since the weather was clear and there was a big open market in town, next to one section of the wall. Ah well, maybe next time.

First run of 2009, 11 Jan

We did our first marcia of 2009 in La Spezia, 11 Jan. It started out flat but as normal for these events, the course quickly went uphill. The summit of the route offers a great view of La Spezia port. Weather was cold and sunny, great for running. Was supposed to do the 7K route but got lost (they need to paint more arrows on the route, esp. for us "stranieri"). Somehow I met up with the 14K participants and went down with one gal I know. It was great meeting up with the marce regulars despite the language barrier. We got a pack of coffee each after finishing the marcia!

Note: "Marcia" is an Italian term for a walk/run non-competitive event. The ones we attend are organised by local sports clubs in the Liguria and Lunigiana area almost every Sunday. Each club hosts an event on its home turf, the course may run over paved roads, streams, steep/rocky/wet hillsides, paths behind homes, villages or farms. Normally at least two distances are offered with a few routes as far as 40K. Some "marce" (plural of marcia) are special or commemorative events, a few are held in towns outside the region. The local clubs organise buses or people carpool to these "gita sociale" events, scheduling lunch at a restaurant as part of the trip. Marce go as scheduled, even during the rainy winter or hot summer Sundays. Participants find out where a marcia is held, show up at the starting point at 8:30 or so, register by paying a small fee and then follow arrows painted on the route. Most participants are regulars and are familiar with the routes, so hapless newcomers like us have a tendency to get lost since the arrows don't always show up at intersections :). The hosting club have members stationed every 5K or so to supply refreshments, water or hot tea. At the end of the marcia, snacks and drinks are offered. Participants turn in their registration stub to collect a souvenir which may be T-shirts, coffee, a bottle of wine, jar of honey, etc. depending on the hosting club. There are trophies for the club with the most participants, the oldest participant, youngest participant, and so on. One finds a spirit of comradeship at these events, and a good place to interact with Italians of all ages who are into fitness.