I had planned to go to Madison, MS to run or be a volunteer in the MTC half-marathon event that would take place in the city on Saturday, December 9.  However, I had to change plans at the last minute since a close friend of our family needed an urgent ride to the New Orleans airport very early that morning.  By the way, Jim the Cool President Coll and Keith Budweiser Barrett represented very well the Pine Belt Pacers Club in that race.  Look the results at <http://www.mstrackclub.com/Results/2006/HMara/2006HMar.htm>. 

 

Back to the report, I took my friend to the airport and then went to run a 5K race it the archifamous and worldwide known city of LUTCHER, Louisiana.  …What?  What do you mean you don’t have any idea where in the World the metropolis of Lutcher is located?  I can’t believe it! You guys are from Mississippi and you don’t know???  Mmmmmm…

 

Well, if you dear reader are one of the very few people in the whole United States of America who don’t know anything about the legendary city, let me give you a couple of facts on Lutcher, Louisiana before I continue with this race report.  Lutcher is a small community bordering the Mississippi River and located in St James Parish, 32 miles west of the New Orleans airport.  It has a “gigantic” land area of 3.4 square miles and 3,600 happy residents.  The Festival of the Bonfires is celebrated in the town every year since 1990 and is one of the highlights of the holiday season in St. James Parish.  The bonfire lighting tradition comes from the first settlers who lived close to the Mississippi River in Louisiana.  More information on the origin of the Bonfire Lighting tradition can be found in the following link à http://www.festivalofthebonfires.org/index_files/Page542.htm

 

What am I talking about? Ooh yes, I remember now…the 5K race in Lutcher.  Thirty runners participated in the 1-mile fun run at 8:30am.  Ten more people joined the crew to run 5K at 9:00am under sunny conditions but temperatures just in the 20’s and light wind.   When the gun went off I found myself leading the 40-people group.  Then I moved back to the second place and kept the position until the end of the race.  Can you believe it?  42 years have to pass before I found myself being second place overall in a running race!  However, it was not that I were flying, running exceptionally fast or breaking PRs because of an actual fantastic performance.  Sadly no! It was simply that my fellows Lutcher runners were a little slower than I that day because most of them were in the Festival celebration the night before.

 

Kenny Schexnayder from New Orleans won the race with a time of 20:02.  The fastest Colombian in Montague Boulevard finished second far away behind in 23:28.  Third place overall went to Tom Bael in 24:13.  The first female was local runner Ashley Vicknair who completed the 5K in 25:55.  Andrew Brady was the winner in the 1-mile fun run.  After the race, some people wearing Garmin Forerunners Wrist-Mounted GPS Personal Training watches said that the race was a little long (3.2-3.3 miles).  However, it seems that in fact that is just our current excuse each time we don’t finish even close to our habitual fastest times.  What a great excuse the Garmin course measure has become in 2006!  (I have used it a lot this year! :).  After the race we enjoyed fruit, Gatorade, cookies, beer, and gumbo.  Thanks for another well organized race in Louisiana.