Porcari Corre, 15 Feb

This morning's weather was the coldest we've encountered, frost in the fields, as we set out for our first "gita sociale" (social outing, i.e. marcia outside of our local area) in Porcari, a little town not far from Lucca, about an hour drive away. Not knowing what the course was like, I decided to wear my cross-trainers instead of running shoes (recall the wet, slippery slopes of past runs). This marcia offered varying distances: 3, 5, 12, 17, 20 and 25K, which means that entire families can participate. You can tell this is different immediately by the fact that there were hundreds of people everywhere, volunteers controlling traffic and a general festive atmosphere. We had to park quite far away, as the huge field which served as a parking lot was already full. We signed up in the crowded registration area (for only 2 euro each), asked for a map (there was none, we were told to follow the arrows) and set off. I soon found out it was a bad idea to have left my running shoes at home: most of the first 6K or so was on asphalt; after only 2K my shins were hurting. However it could be due to the fact that it was so cold, both Debi and I had problems warming up enough to stretch. I finally warmed up and found my stride after about 3K and began to enjoy the surroundings. We jogged up, towards the distant hills until we were among olive grooves and vineyards (bare vines at this stage), at one point we caught up with a tractor on the road. The clear sunny weather was perfect for picture taking. We actually found the course clearly marked (wow!), blue arrows on the road, blue signposts at intersections where the different distances separate, even km markers in several places. At one point, there was a big blue NO! marked on a path to indicate that we were not supposed to go there. If only all marce were so well marked! There were a number of memorable moments on our 12K route: crowded drink stations where they served water, hot tea, hot chocolate, coffee, cakes and some delicious fig tart. At one part of the trail, some people dressed in costumes greeted little kids -- this being Carnevale season and there was a Carnevale festival scheduled in Porcari later in the day. At one point we almost got lost, there was a confusing sign saying 20km which we thought pointed to the longer route so we went past the turnoff. We were not the only ones, but another group of walkers behind us figured out that the turn off was the correct route. So, signage at this marcia wasn't perfect after all. At the last major intersection we had a choice of taking the natural route or scenic route with a challenging descent. Both provided awesome views of the town below. That later part of the route also provided some consolation on my choice of shoes as we had to go down a steep hill slope made muddy by melting ice. We returned to the starting point at about 11K by our Garmins, not 12K. Goodies on this marcia were obvious since finishers were walking around with 6-pack paper towels. We also got some other freebies: playing cards and cotton puffs. I think these were sponsored by a company that makes paper products in the area. We ended the day with a walk around Lucca town to meet up with Debi's young friends, Marta and Anna, who were visiting. We had lunch, did some shopping/window shopping and looked around the antiques market.