Man and dog among competitors at 2023 UK Wife Carrying Race

The course includes a 15-metre incline and a 15-metre decline (Picture: Oliver Dixon)

The UK’s biggest wife-carrying race has taken place in Surrey, with runners competing for the chance to win a barrel of beer and a trip to Finland.

Among the more unusual racers for the 2023 edition was a man carrying a springer spaniel dressed in a wedding dress.

Participants run a 1,200-foot course in Dorking, which is littered with obstacles and water hazards, while carrying their ‘wife’ on their back.

The winner gets the prestige of being the official UK representative at the more famous World Wife Carrying Championships in Finland this summer.

According to Trionium, the organisers of the event, the wife in questions doesn’t actually have to be the spouse of the person carrying them – just a human who’s at least 18 years old.

It’s unclear if the man carrying the spaniel was aware of this rule.

Troublingly, the event website also considers it necessary to specify the person being carried should be alive.

Another rule is that the ‘wives’ should be at least 50kg, with a weigh-in taking place ahead of the race.

One runner dressed up as a dog groom to carry his springer spaniel in a wedding dress along the course (Picture: Oliver Dixon)

The winning time at last year’s event was just over two minutes (Picture: Oliver Dixon)

Those who find themselves coming below the target weight needs to wear a rucksack filled with bags of flour or containers of water until they reach it.

As well as £250 towards the expenses of their trip to the championships in Sonkajärvi, the winner of the race also receives a barrel of local ale worth £150.

Last place finishers, meanwhile, receive a Pot Noodle and dog food.

There are a couple of other special prizes too: the person carrying the heaviest wife wins a pound of sausages, while the oldest competitor gets a tin of pilchards and a jar of Bovril.

The Trionium website states: ‘You can use any one of the many recognised holds: bridal carry, piggy-back, shoulder-ride, fireman’s carry (across the shoulders), the well-recognised and very fast Estonian Hold (wife hangs upside-down on man’s back, legs crossed in front of the man’s face) or the not-so-fast but unique Dorking Hold (the reverse Estonian).’

Runners are encouraged to try out a range of positions, with differing results (Picture: Oliver Dixon)

Spectators at the event can bring their own water pistols and buckets of water to keep things interesting (Picture: Oliver Dixon)

While the UK Wife Carrying Race has only been held since 2008, the tradition is said to have a long history in the country.

Unfortunately, it is said to have originated with the Viking attack on Lindisfarne in 793 AD, when unwilling women were carried away on the backs of the invaders.

The race website says competitions were held for the 300 years or so after that, but it was only 15 years ago that wife-carrying was properly revived in the UK.

The Finnish championships, meanwhile, have been held since 1992 and offer the chance to win the wife’s weight in beer.

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