From: TecheToday.com – by Ken Grissom
Victoria, Texas – The Tour du Teche took its act on the road last weekend, bringing Cajun food, beer and music to weary paddlers in the Texas River Marathon.
This is a 39-mile race on the Guadalupe River from Cuero to Victoria. The race is sponsored by the Texas Water Safari and is considered a prelim for that world-famous 260-mile ultra marathon held on the San Marcos and Guadalupe rivers in June.
With the blessings of the Water Safari people, six of us went to Victoria and set up a hospitality area at the marathon finish line.
Timmy Guidry of Timmy Guidry’s Catering cooked a huge cauldron of jambalaya. TDT executive director Nicole Patin brought a display of rack cards, entry forms and maps, along with her personal play list of Cajun and Zydeco music broadcast through two speakers the size of Army footlockers. We iced down LA-31 and Passionné beer donated by Bayou Teche Bieres in a pirogue, and Ray Pellerin hauled all of it to South Texas in his motorcycle trailer.
Alan Broussard of Breaux Bridge and Trey Snyder of Parks served as goodwill ambassadors for TDT and The Teche Project, which is dedicated to the overall health of the bayou.
We ran into several old friends from last year’s Tour du Teche, and made bunches of new ones. Water Safari official Jerry Cochran it appears the top three six-man boats in the Texas River Marathon are planning on entering Tour du Teche II this October.
This year’s race will be held in stages Oct. 7-9. There will also be shorter side-races, including a pirogue marathon on Friday.
Registration is open. See www.techeproject.com.