The Great Codfish Relay Race

Berwick Boys Foundation

During the last weekend in July, the town of Milbridge, Maine enjoys their annual codfish relay race in which the Berwick boys have entered for the past several years.  This event is so much fun and the boys really enjoy it.

The race is held in a baseball field and has a 90-foot course that is marked off with yellow rope.  About mid-track, firemen will spray a stream of water from their hoses through the running codfish-wielding racers.

The race consists of teams made up of four people, two at each end of the track.  When the signal is given, the racers must dress in four pieces of firemen's gear: hip boots, yellow jackets that must be buttoned at least once, a hat with a strap under the chin, and a pair of non-gripper style gloves. 

Once the racers are dressed, they run fully clothed across the field clenching a oil-soaked dead codfish weighing approximately 20 pounds while dodging the firemen's deluge of water and trying to reach their partner.  When a racer reaches his partner, he hands off the fish and removes his fireman's garb as quickly as possible and then takes back the codfish while his partner now hurries into the firemen's gear, takes back the fish, and runs back to the starting position.

The slightest error could lose the race.  Racers need to be careful they do not drop their codfish, since retrieving it is no easy task, as these fish are really greasy, wet, smelly, floppy and heavy.  They must also make sure that no clothing falls off, if it does they must go back and retrieve it for their partner - all wasting valuable time.

While attending summer camp on Dyer Island, just off the coast of Milbridge, the boys from Camp Berwick have won several Codfish Relay races winning hundreds of dollars and many fish medals. The Berwick Boys have won the relay for the past 4 out of 5 years.