Driving (and Running) Interstate 10: Texas to Louisiana




An intersection on I-10 near Houston: Going east leads to Beaumont.

Have you ever driven Interstate 10 or I-10 from Texas to Louisiana or any major highway in any country for that matter and had to spend the nights in hotels along the way? If so, how did your running go, if you were able to run at all ?  If this storyline tickles you, read on as this is my I-10 running story.


A beautiful sight along the route that would do Scarlett O'Hara proud!

I recently had to visit institutions that could be reached via I-10 and driving this fourth longest and southernmost east–west, coast-to-coast interstate highway in the US was the most logical means of getting round. The journey using a rented Chevy compact car began at Houston and ended up four days later in Baton Rogue.

An 8-km running route near Hobby airport (runway foreground), Houston.

I flew into Houston via Hobby airport and checked into a neaby hotel for an overnight stop.  The western part of I-10 in Houston, with as many as 12 main lanes, is one of the widest freeways in the world. As I was going east, I  found myself driving the Baytown East Freeway the next day. For running, the sidewalks along Airport Boulevard were convenient for medium distances even at night.

A 6-km route along hotel row in Beaumont, Texas (city in background).

My next stop was Beaumont, some 88 miles east of Houston, where Texas oil was first discovered in 1901. I-10 in Beaumont narrowed down to four lanes at certain points but driving was still convenient. Running could best be done in the large hotel and shopping mall parking lots.  With no pedestrian lanes along main thoroughfares, for safety reasons, street running is not advised.

A 10-km run in Jennings, deep into Cajun country of southwest Louisiana. 

The next overnight stop was Jennings, a town settled in by Midwestern farmers in the 1880s making it a Yankee settlement deep in the Cajun country of southwestern Louisiana. Running the streets of this small town was like a trip down memory lane. One would be awed by old Baptist churches and beautiful southern-style houses as if straight out of the set of Gone With The Wind!



The picturesque elevated 18-mile Achafalaya Swamp Freeway on I-10 East.

The final stop was Baton Rouge, the capital and second-largest city of Louisiana after The Big Easy, New Orleans. Located along the Mississippi River, driving to Baton Rouge is an experience in itself for one has to traverse an 18-mile (29-km) elevated highway that goes over the Atchafalaya River and surrounding swampy areas before crossing the Mississippi.



Varsity Sports: Runner's World's 2008 Best Specialty Running Store.

Baton Rouge is heavy into running and college sports.  Varsity Sports, voted by Runner's World as Best Speciality Running Store is in the neighborhood, the LSU Tigers and the SU Jaguars hold their courts on city grounds, and Shaquile O'Neal at one point ruled the town! The Tiger football team, national champions in 1958, 2003, and 2007, plays at Tiger Stadium, one of the loudest and most electrifying  arenas in the entire college sporting world.


22-km route including a loop around the lake inside the LSU campus
(Mississippi River and Tiger Stadium in background)

The campus of LSU, shaded by 1,200 live oak trees and listed as a top-20 most beautiful campus in America, is truly a runner's paradise. One can run around the Campus Lake and to the famous Indian Mounds, constructed some 5,000 years ago as territorial markers and considered as the oldest man-made structure in the continent.

6-km running trail around the lake at the live oak tree-lined LSU campus.

It is impossible really to capture in a few paragraphs and pictures the experience of both running and driving I-10- my first attempt at doing both despite having lived in the US and visiting the place very often.  But all good things come to an end and after four days and hours of meetings, 700 km of driving, and 50 km of running, I soon was out of Baton Rouge flying.

Cajun dishes, a Garmin nuvi & running in front of LSU's Memorial Tower.

The secret of my driving and running success, you might ask?  Simple really:  a Garmin nüvi^® and lots of authentic Cajun dishes such as the yummylicious Crawfish étouffé that was so commonplace in Bayou country. Perfect reason to be running, if only to burn off those excess calories!