2014 Rice Run

September is National Rice Month.  We live in Jennings, Louisiana, which sits in Jefferson Davis Parish.  The primary agricultural product grown around these parts is rice.  I grew up on a rice farm, and farmed rice myself.  A neighboring town, Crowley, has the International Rice Festival, and it is timed to coincide with the culmination of the annual rice harvest.  As you would imagine, there is lots of rice consumed around these parts.  People eat 'Rice & Gravy' every day and it is not at all uncommon to have rice for breakfast - in the form of a steaming hot link of boudin.  Most convenience stores and butcher shops serve them to hungry Cajuns that walk up to the counter for breakfast... or lunch... or supper.

For the past 24 years there has been a Rice Run held in Jennings that starts at Founder's Park downtown.  It is put on by the Rice Council and Hathaway High School's Future Farmer's of America (FFA).  Our kids have run in it for several years and Tricia and I are generally spectators.  This year I thought I would run it with Benjamin.  It had been quite a while since I ran and for a few weeks Benjamin and I trained, running down the road near our house.  We had driven the car down the road one evening and measured the appropriate distance on the odometer.  The weather was hot.  The training was tough.

The day of the race arrived and about 190 people lined up at the starting line. Benjamin and I discussed our race strategy.  In the photo below you can see me imparting words of wisdom to Benjamin regarding the race.  Those words went something like this, "Benjamin, don't let me slow you down.  Run your own race and do your best.  I'll catch up with you later and meet you at the end of the race at the banquet table by the platters of boudin."  The starting gun sounded and we were off.

Plotting Race Strategy

Benjamin ran like a gazelle on the savanna of the Serengeti.  I huffed and puffed and the last time I was able to see him was around the one mile point.  He appeared as a blue dot on the distant horizon.

Benjamin with the strong finish

You can see him in the center of this photograph that Tricia took in full stride, in an open sprint at the finish line.

Benjamin Sprinting to the Finish Line!

I, on the other hand, trudged along like a sloth mired in molasses.  Every sinew of my body was screaming for a reprieve from this self-imposed torture.  Although I'm not out of shape, I'm out of running shape and a few weeks' training was not enough.  Working in the garden and on the farm does not use some of the same muscle groups as running.  Many of those muscle groups were communicating this to me during and after the race.

Kyle Limping toward the Finish Line

I finished the race, though.  Not near Benjamin.  He placed 22nd out of 190 runners.  He did great. Me?  Well, I set records, though not in the race, but at the banquet table at the end of the race, consuming copious quantities of boudin, watermelon, grapes, oranges, and four different types of Rice Krispie Treats.

We Finished the Race!

We'll do it again next year.  It was fun training with Benjamin.  Next year we'll start training a little more in advance.  Have a Rice Day!