MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / October 19, 1998

LAPLACE – Put on your running shoes and sweats. It is time again for theAndouille 5-mile Run and 2-mile Run/Walk.

The Andouille Run will be celebrating its 20th anniversary on Sunday, October 25. The run will start at 8:30 a.m. with registration starting at 7a.m. The run will be held over the same course as the past three years. Thestarting line will be in front of the Bank of LaPlace building on the corner of Belle Terre Boulevard and Airline Highway. Participants will headnorthbound on Belle Terre before taking a left on Fairway Drive.

Participants in the 2-mile Run/Walk will then make the turn back to Belle Terre and head southbound back to the finish line in front of the Bank of LaPlace.

Participants in the 5-mile run will continue down Fairway before taking a left onto Carmel Valley Drive. They will follow Carmel Valley to CountryClub Drive where they will head northbound to St. Andrew Boulevard. Aftertaking a left onto St. Andrew, the runners will continue westbound toBelle Terre where they will take a right and head northbound. They willthen loop around on Belle Terre and head south to the finish line.

The first and second overall male and female finishers in the 5-mile run will be awarded with andouille sausage. Awards will also be given to thetop five male and female finishers in the 2-mile run as well as the top five in each age group. Participation awards will be issued to walkers.The entry fee for the 2-mile is $8 before Oct. 20 and $10 after. The fee forthe 5-mile is $10 before Oct. 20 and $12 after. Participants 18 and underor 55 and over get a $2 discount on the regular pre-registration entry fee price. Proceeds from the run will benefit charities designated by the St.John Crimefight-ers.

Andouille Run T-shirts will be given to pre-registered entrants on race day. Late and race day entrants may have to pick up their shirts at theSheriff’s Office in three to four weeks. Race amenities include jambalaya,cold beer, soft drinks and fresh fruit.

The age groups for the race are 14 and under, 15-19, 20-24, 25-29, 30- 34, 35-39, 40-44, 45-49, 50-54, 55-59, 60-65 and 66 and over.

Burt Brodt, a local runner, got together with Tom Smith, a local bank president, to organize the run in conjunction with the Andouille Festival in 1979. Brodt and Smith organized the race until about 1985 when theCambridge Improvement Association took over. In 1989, local restaurantowner Mike Norton took over the festival and asked the Crimefighters is they could organize the run. The Crimefighters have been organizing itever since.

Like the festival itself, the Andouille Run has been held at a number of locations. It got its start at the drag strip on Airline Highway in LaPlaceand since then has been held on Old and New Highway 51, through cane fields, on West 5th Street, through the Cambridge and Glade subdivisions before going to its current location on Belle Terre in 1995.

Mike Diorka holds the best time since 1990, running the 5-mile course in 27 minutes, 15 seconds in 1990. Cathie Koss set the female record lastyear with a time of 31:11.

Sponsors for this year’s race are River Parishes Hospital, Time-Warner, Bank of LaPlace, State Farm Insurance-Mike Williams, Hibernia Bank, Holmes Food Mart and Prudential Insurance.

For more information contact Lt. Greg Maurin or Sgt. Mike Davis at 652-9513.

Return To Sports Stories

Copyright © 1998, Wick Communications, Inc.

Internet services provided by NeoSoft.

Best viewed with 3.0 or higher