This was our first overseas parkrun! We were staying in Pisa, but Lucca was a straight-forward 30 minute train ride away, with the parkrun start being quite close to Lucca Station.
The “language” of parkrun transcends any earthly tongue and so it was, in this charming ancient city in Tuscany, that we mingled with the local inhabitants to share the fun that is parkrun. We even had a pre-run warm-up, led by Giovani, who instucted us all in Italian. This was not in any way a barrier, since we just had to watch what he was doing and then followed suit; and by the time that session was over we could safely say that we had added a few extra words to our limited Italian vocabulary 🙂
It is fair to say that this particular parkrun attracts many parkrun tourists, so it was not too surprising that English appeared to be the lingua franca during the chilling and milling. Credit also has to be given to the core team especially the RD of the day who unfalteringly gave the briefing in both Italian and English. (Sono Europeo 😉 )
And soon we were on our way, running round the “Walls” of Lucca. The course follows a circular promenade, on a raised up mound which followed the perimeter of the ancient city. To one side, looking within the circle, we had a view across the old city and, looking outside of the circle, we could see the green-belt (outer ring) of parkland within the outer core of the “new” city and suburbs.
Running Commentary 
How come I did not know you’d been keeping a blog too! This parkrun looks amazing. I’m longing to get to try out some of the overseas offerings. Glad you both had a fab time – and found it ok!
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Hi Lucy..I have only just started this blog, and am posting a couple of blogs, retrospectively, to mark some parkrun highlights. I wont be posting every week but thre are still a few more blogs in the pipeline…
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Excellent! I shall be stalking you – in a good way, obviously. I love seeing other people’s accounts of parkrun and other running adventures. Love your blogs name too, inspired! Happy writing. Lx
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I really must impove my keyboard skills… I think I might have already sent you a reply and pressed SEND inadvertently too soon (blame the distraction of Ciara raging at our windows atm) before checking the draft…Anyway I was going to say that an earlier iteration of the blog name was Running In (as I was newly a parkrunner at the time that I first opened a WordPress subscription). 4 and a bit years down the track, so to speak, and “Running Commentary” seems to be more apt (if not plagiaristic 😉 ). I’m probably going to rely heavily on photos (mine and parkrun’s) with rather fewer words than you would usually muster. I think its true to say that your blog has been an inspiration to me to revisit blogging and now, with some excellent parkrun adventures to relate, I have some material to work on. Blogs to come…past milestones and perhaps a few tangental topics as the mood takes me, and who knows what rich pickings there might be from RSR.
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Well, I’m really excited you’re doing this, it’s brilliant, and you take great pictures so great opportunity to share them. I get the ‘Running In’ idea but agree it’s handy that you’ve relaunched as Running Commentary, because that has a longer – indeed infinite life span – and also, inherently excellent and appropriate. Will be so exciting to compare experiences at the same events, and indeed to stalk your progress elsewhere! Enjoy. I will! Lx
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