North American Wife Carrying Championship
You might have carried your wife across the threshold, but now it's time to take it up a notch. The North American Wife Carrying Championship challenges couples to conquer a 278-yard obstacle course—over hurdles, through a muddy water pit, and up a steep sand hill—all for the chance to win the wife's weight in beer and five times her weight in cash.
The course at Sunday River is built to international specifications at 278 yards in length, with two dry obstacles and one water obstacle. The race format varies slightly from the World Championship in that there is no minimum weight limit for the wife, and the winner is determined by a head-to-head final race rather than being determined only by the finishing time in the competitor's initial round. Additionally, the North American course is run on uneven ground with elevation changes, as compared to the World course, which is predominantly flat. Helmets are not required for the North American Championship.
Wife carrying is based on husband-and-wife teams racing with the husband carrying the wife through a regulation length obstacle course featuring log hurdles, sand traps, and the always popular "widow maker" water hazard. The fastest two teams from the qualifying round then compete head-to-head in a final heat. Competing couples neither have to be married, nor must they must be comprised of a man and a woman, but both must be at least 21 years old to enter. Same sex couples, however, will not qualify for Worlds based on the World rules.
