Cajun Country Run

Between 100 and 200 runners come out each year to run through the city streets of the home of the University of Louisiana-Lafayette’s “Ragin’ Cajuns,” at the annual wintertime Cajun Country Half Marathon, which unfolds along the roads that surround Acadiana Park.The hallmark of the Cajun Country is the home made alligator head trophies, compliments of CajunBen.com & Greg Girard. The Cajun Country Half Marathon began in 2002. The course was a double loop course that included 4 miles of cross country running. In 2014 we changed the half marathon course to an all road single loop course and got it certified by the USATF. TRAIL acquired the Cajun Country in 2010 TRAIL and purchased property to add to the Acadiana Park & Nature Station in 2012. That year we added a 10k trail run that includes a mix of cross country and technical trail running. The 10k offers some nice short hills along the banks of the Vermilion River. In 2013 we added a 5k trail run and to day there is a full compliment of running courses for every age to enjoy.

This is a smooth fast course. The only two hills of any significance are: 1) the I-10 overpass at mile 10 and, 2) the climb at the turn onto E. Alexander St. about 200 meters from the finish (which makes for a tremendous feeling of accomplishment when crossing the finish line). The run starts off traveling through the neighborhood around Acadiana Park then down Louisiana Ave. before turning onto Shadow Bluff Rd. Then it is "country time" from here on out you will see few house and will run along some nice winding tree streets along the Vermilion River then on some open roads around some cane fields.

The Cajun Country Half is an out-and-back race that starts and finishes at Acadiana Park in the northeast corner of this city, which is well-known regionally both for its college sports teams as well as for its authentic cajun cuisine, as Baton Rouge has one of the highest concentrations of restaurants of any city in the U.S.As Lafayette’s only half-marathon running road race, the Cajun Country Half is scheduled to take advantage of the cool early winter temperatures and as a warm-up to the seasonal marathons and half-marathons that take place early in the new year, including New Orleans’s Rock & Roll Marathon & Half Marathon, which takes place each February.