Roach Hill Downs - Our first cockroach race!

SS was really anxious to get to the Roach Racing. We missed it at the Indiana State Fair last year, so we made it a point to go for this one. We were running late, and were one of the last few ushered into the LT before the race started.

The Roach Race Track. The "spectator" roaches are all dead or fake roaches. I thought it was very creative of them to dress them up like people.

The commentator for the race was extremely good. He was this old uncle figure who cracked a lot of jokes, and had the ability to speak non-stop during the race. There was a lady translating what he said into sign language, which I thought was extremely difficult because of the amount of adjectives and alliteration he used in his speech. At one point of time, he cheekily said a string of words which I suspect may not be real words, turned to the lady, and said "Now, try translating that!"

Before the race started, the commentator introduced his helpers for the show: Four teenage girls in yellow Bug Bowl tees, whom, when asked what they will like to be when they grow up, all coincidentally answered "entomologist". And I think to myself that I don't even know such a word existed when I was a teenager.

There were three competitors for the first race, in which each roach has to pull a tractor with a school flag behind it, namely Notre Dame, Indiana University and Purdue University. (The first two, of course, are arch-rivals of Purdue.) Each roach was introduced with a lot of ra-ra (just like how they introduce wrestlers before they enter the ring). The girls held up the roaches and their respective tractor for all to see, before placing them on the starting line.

The race was over in like three seconds. Indiana University needed a bit of nudging, and was still at the starting line when the race was over. No prizes for guessing who the winner is. We highly suspect that the race is rigged! We just don't know how they do it.

For the scond race, five kids were "volunteered" to come on to stage and hold on to one roach each while the roaches were being introduced. They each received a buggy-cap with feelers for their services. The kid with the winning roach will receive a prize, while the ones with the losers will have to eat up the roach. (Of course, he was kidding, but I think for a while, the kids really believed him.)

As the bell rang for the start of the second race, all five roaches ran off into the round racetrack. The problem was, some of the roaches ran in the wrong direction, and the commentator had to use a stick to push them back the right way. It was really hard to keep track of the number of rounds each roach ran, especially when they were scrambling everywhere, and changing direction every few seconds or so. In the end, a winner was announced (true or not, no one really knows), and everyone cheered for it.

We thoroughly enjoyed the race, and highly recommend it to everyone. We also learnt quite a bit about our six-legged friends. I don't feel as much animosity towards them now.