Here ya go, the anticipation of your Chicken Long Race Details is here:
Tacoma, Wa. 98402
Please click on the waiver link on the webscorer event page to sign your team waiver (please add your Team Name and racer names on the same waiver)
So please register as soon as possible so we can plan for food amounts to cook!
Annually this race has 2 options - Solo or Relay 10.5 miles at the Beautiful Ruston Way. Or a short course of 2 laps 5.3 miles.
Here is a short newsletter from our Kikaha Newswriter Mike Gordon who gives a brief history of the Ruston Way Solo/Relay and now called the Chicken Long Race!
Chicken Long Race offers competition, chilly weather and a bowl of hot soup
October may bring the chill of fall to Tacoma, but that doesn’t stop Pacific Northwest paddlers from entering the Chicken Long Race Solo/Relay. They know that even if they don’t win their division, which comes with a rubber chicken for a prize, they’ll have a warm bowl of Aunty Bren’s famous chicken long rice soup.
This year, Kīkaha O Ke Kai’s annual event will be held on Oct. 18. Paddlers typically race in pairs, but some choose to complete the entire 10.5 - mile race solo. In 2024, there were nearly 130 paddlers. The entry fee is $30 per paddler.
When it started in the fall of 1997, it wasn’t a relay and instead served as a way to select paddlers for the IVF World Sprints in August 1998 in Fiji. After that, the event, at the time dubbed the Ruston Relay, was born.
The soup became a part of the race because everyone was cold, said long time Kīkaha paddler Boy Chun Fook, who prepares the soup with his wife, Brenda.
“Last year, we had 80 pounds of chicken and 12 bags of chicken long rice,” he said. “You can feed 200 to 300 people one serving. But everybody likes two bowls.”
Cooking usually starts midday on the Friday before the race.
“We de-bone and shred the chicken late at night,” he said. “That work is with a lot of love and a lot of aloha.”
The name of the event changed in 2021 to underscore the post-race chicken long rice soup tradition, said Kanai Hyke, Club President. “It’s a paddling event culturally-centered around ohana, food and “talking-story.”
That’s what makes it uniquely a South Puget Sound event.
“It can be cold and sometimes rainy, but that hasn’t stopped folks from paddling fast enough to finish.” Some may push hard to the finish line, but everyone races for this special soup. It’s this special tradition started years ago by Uncle Boy and Auntie Bren that brings us all together in celebration of a great paddling season!”
Written by Mike Gordon
Kikaha Member
Any questions or if your looking for a partner please email me back.
Much Mahalo,
Boy