Parkrun Italia!

Puff!

Having just completed the Etna parkrun in Sicily we had someone take a nice photo of us. The Italians, especially in Sicily, have gone nuts about parkruns and there are already 4 of them on the island with more planned. This run was a pleasant four laps round the woods (but it was their 'B' course as due to tree felling activities their regular two lap course was unavailable. Behind us with volcanic smoke drifting into the sky was Mount Etna! The park in question was already a third of the way up and we certainly felt the altitude. We then drove up to the summit visitor centre passing enormous lava flows from recent eruptions - this is very much an active volcano!

Etna - 2001 eruption!

Am I being followed?

This photo depicts Vicky's very nice '50 up' Parkrun t-shirt. It also gives you an idea of the very pleasant trail taken by the Favorita Parkrun which consist of two laps round the woods. This is only a couple of miles out of central Palermo and considering there are over a million Sicilians living in the metropolitan area, it's a quiet secluded area, perfect for a parkrun. (Although when we recce'd the area the evening before we did spot several 'ladies of the night' patrolling a spot very close to the start of the run!) We didn't realise it at the start but we were victorious in the 'parkrun ashes' - we finished ahead of the other tourists this week, Graham and Deirdre from Brisbane, but that might have something to do with their late start!


And guess who was first lady - here's a record of Vicky's run - gender position 1st!

Stop Polizia!

We are the police!

Here's a typical Italian police car - this one belongs to the Polizia Municipale, Palermo branch parked on via Maqueda in the heart of the city. You might perhaps expect Italian police cars to be Fiats but no - this one's a Renault. Police cars are generally the only cars to be seen with no dents

We'll protect you.

But then what's this parked a few yards away? These are the civil defence guys, their remit, according to Wikipedia is the prediction, prevention and management of exceptional events. We used to have a civil defence corps in the UK but this was disbanded in 1968. (Just as I became old enough to join!)

Smart car!

But aren't the police in Italy called carabinieri? Yes that's right but these police are a division of the army. They are the equivalent of the French gendarmes and they have nicer cars! They played a significant role in suppressing the Mafia in Sicily since they don't have local connections.

We'll always catch you!

And of course if you're going to get pulled over while speeding (which we never saw happen to any of the Italians who went flying past us at well over 100 mph), it will be by a fast blue car (often with Polizia Stradale written on the side.) They're not all Lamborghinis by the way!

We're the tree police!

And we're just some local police!

The prison police!

The financial police get involved with everything!

2 x 5K

Gosh Martin looks keen!

A frantic last week of running in March - two 5K races in four days! I competed in the low key Denbighshire 5K and finished in 3rd overall (21:57) - there's me on the left of the picture with the yellow gloves. John M on the right (orange vest) is looking worried on his return to racing after a year out - no need to worry as he won the race with comfort. And just four days later I ran in the very competitive Wirral Seaside run from the Leasowe lighthouse - although I was 49th I still managed to come in sub 20 in my best 5K time for years (19:41).


Here's a snap of the Leasowe lighthouse on a fine day - race entries are taken in the lighthouse (on the ground floor!) and we start somewhere near the point where this picture was taken - we turn right and right again to run along the promenade to the finish - it's a nice warm down jog back to the start (unless it's a cold windy day as it was last Wednesday. I did however carry a lightweight windproof top which helped.)

Weather is pretty dreadful for this time of year with lots of rain, snow and cancelled races but all will change in April hopefully!