Stralugano 10k weekend

This weekend I decided to stay in town to get ready for Florence next weekend and also compete in the 10k in Lugano. Saturday we ran errands, since everything is closed on Sundays. We went to another town on the other side of the mountain pass called Bellinzona. It is famous for the castles, which we didn't make it to on this trip. Instead we had coffee in the piazza and made a trip to one of the nicer COOP, grocery stores.
Sunday was my first experience running an organized race in Europe. Things were pretty much organized like any other race I've participating in the US, except for some minor exceptions. First, was the start time. Typically races start early, but this 10k, not until 10:15am. This follows the whole idea of Sunday being a day of relaxation I guess or maybe they wanted to make sure people had time to attend a church service first. At any rate, it was kind of nice not to have to wake up at the crack of dawn. There was also a 30k and the outfits some serious runners were wearing were anything but subtle...short short shorts...The 10k course was a beautiful route through the main part of town and all along the lake (Remember that park Kelly, where the Dr.Suess tree was last year). For the 10k runners completed the loop 3 times and the 30k runners took a separate route out to Morcote and back to Lugano. I decided to stick to the shorter distance, and hopefully train for half marathon coming up in November in Italy. Some of the other differences were the sweaty men that didn't seem to see you up ahead and ran into you while passing, and the fact that even if water was not available in glasses it was okay to drink out of a liter bottle and then let someone else have some too. The best and most surprising part was the massagi room where at the beginning and end of the race you could get a double massage (two therapists at once) and there was no shame in taking off your shorts. We walked in and many women were half naked on the massage table...no biggy! Another quirky part is that the results are already up online and you can also print out what they call a "diploma" with the name of the race, your time and a beautiful backdrop of Lugano. Love it!
























After the race, we walked back to Montagnola and then I headed to Morcote with some friends and out of towners. It was a perfect day with the sun shining and we had a leisure stroll along the lake popping into various shops. I've added some more pictures to give you an idea of how picturesque the area really...in case you don't believe me yet.