By ROBERT L. LEE

NORCO – Commonly home to dirt-bathed, off-road trucks and screaming four wheelers, the Bonnet Carre Spillway will be swarming with cross-country runners. However, there’s one overwhelming aspect that will stay the same, the mud.

Coordinators for this Sunday’s Great Spillway Classic Trail Run have been desperately seeking rain to build the course’s sloshy character, especially with the exceptionally dry conditions in the area. That is up until this week.

High river levels have been pushing the canal higher up the banks, but with the heavy rains throughout the past week, more and more canals and bayous have been appearing across the spillway course. The mud and muck has spread and thickened, which will be much to the delight of the runners.

While some will be racing the clock for one of the Top 500 finishers commemorative awards, some will be rolling in the mud for a new muddiest runner award.

The race kicks off at the Bonnet Carre Spillway Boat Launch Pavilion and treks up the levee for almost half of the race, then goes down for the other half, which immediately begins with “The Gauntlet” through the woods, then twists along the Yacht Basin.

After finishing the three-mile course, jumps over growing mud puddles and strides through shin-deep mud, the runners will be awarded for the amount of course they’ve taken with them.

To make sure the mud-caked runners who are they claim to be, and return them to a semi-civilized condition, the Norco Volunteer Fire Department will have two trucks on hand to hose off runners near the finish line.

The race took its first steps through the spillway 15 years ago with 78 runners braving the terrain. Last year, the trail race attracted more than 1,100 eager runners.

Runners can sign up the day of the race before it begins at 8 a.m. at the spillway. For more information, call 504-482-6682 or visit www.runnotc.org.