Men's Health November 9, 2026 0 Comments

Unlock Unbreakable Bonds: How Wife Carrying Competitions Forge Couples Stronger Than Steel—Are You Ready to Dominate Together?

Ever wondered what it takes to literally carry your partner through mud, over hurdles, and uphill—all while racing against dozens of other couples? Meet Danny and Katie Young. They’re not your typical fitness fanatics marking dates for the next Hyrox doubles contest; rather, they’re a couple who’ve battled their own fitness sorrows and triumphs over the years. When Danny’s brother casually mentioned an offbeat challenge called wife carrying, they didn’t just laugh it off—they watched, they dreamed, and they dared to give it a go. What started as a silly “why not?” challenge soon turned into a 278-yard test of strength, endurance, and relationship grit at Maine’s North American Wife Carrying Championship. This isn’t just a race; it’s an adventure in defying odds, celebrating love, and embracing the ridiculousness of hauling your loved one through mud pits and obstacles. Ready to see how far passion and perseverance can take you?
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DANNY AND KATIE Young are both active, but they’re not exactly the type of couple that stakes out dates on their calendar for the next Hyrox doubles race. Over the last few years, however, both went through separate fitness journeys. So on Christmas Day 2025 when Danny’s older brother, Dylan, asked if they had heard of a wild event called wife carrying, they felt ready to take on a new challenge together.

Danny and Katie watched YouTube clips of the North American Wife Carrying Championship, an annual race held every October at the Sunday River Resort in Newry, Maine. It’s exactly what the name implies: a 278-yard race where husbands carry their wives on their backs. This is not the only one of its kind—similar events are staged around the globe and there’s a world championship in Finland—and competition isn’t limited to only married or man-woman couples. The Youngs scrolled through videos of couples running a steep obstacle course, jumping hurdles and sloshing through mud pits all while struggling to stay upright to the finish. The Youngs decided they wanted to take on the event in the coming year.

“One, because it’s so silly and ridiculous,” Katie tells Men’s Health. “Two, we used to live in Boston and we wanted to get back up to New England. The competition (held October 10 this year) was right around our 16th wedding anniversary, so we figured, what better way to celebrate?”

“We are seize the moment people–even if the moment is 10 months in advance,” Danny adds. “Signing up for the competition also felt like a natural celebratory culmination of what we’d done in the last year. We felt like: this is just the sort of thing we’ve been getting ready for. Let’s go do that, to applaud a really cool year of physical and health transformation.”

The Path to the Wife Carrying Championship

DANNY AND KATIE met when they were 14 years old, dated in high school, and got married shortly after graduating college. Now 38, they live on a hobby homestead outside of Asheville, NC. Their day jobs (Danny works as a manager at Trader Joe’s, Katie is a clinical supervisor for a community mental health clinic) and taking care of their daughter, Opal, and their small farm leaves little time for traditional training.

But Katie and Danny have navigated the challenges that come with maintaining fitness through both the busy schedules of everyday life and unexpected circumstances. In August of 2023, Katie had ankle surgery and was non-weight bearing for 14 weeks. She gained more than 100 pounds, which was difficult to manage on her 5’3’’ frame. By Thanksgiving of 2023, she started walking with a crutch, but she wasn’t able to return to her workouts (mostly hot yoga) until the summer of 2024. She loves power flows, hot HIIT classes, and hot lifts. “If it’s not over 100 degrees, I’m not interested,” Katie says. “I like that it’s balance, strength, and there’s a cardio element at times.” Twice a week turned to four times a week and then six; by the summer of 2026, she had lost 120 pounds.

Danny had been a CrossFit devotee in his 20s. His job at Trader Joe’s is very physical, picking up and carrying 20 to 50 pound boxes throughout the day. He had abandoned his gym habit in his late 20s; by 30, he struggled with back problems. He returned to the gym three years ago, alternating between calisthenics and foundational compound lifts. He trained twice a week, then three times, then every day. He, too, spent the last year transforming his body from a “dad bod” to one chiseled with muscles—and in top shape, stands at 6’3” and weighs 185 pounds.

But in June of this year, Danny injured his back during a deadlift session. He didn’t lift any weights for the rest of the summer. The couple were still committed to take on the wife carrying contest—but they needed to find a new way to train. They leaned on their active lifestyle on the homestead. They keep four goats, and Katie found that carrying two five-gallon buckets of water up and down the farm’s hills several times a week increased her strength. Katie often picked up one of the 80-pound goats to “escort her out of my garden, where she wants to eat my pumpkins.”

When Danny carried the buckets, he’d sometimes throw Katie on his back. He also carried her around the house and up and down the hills near the farm. They discussed which carry style might work best for them, trying piggyback, upside-down, and other methods. They never attempted a full 278-yard training run, instead opting for spontaneous moments of carrying when circumstances allowed.

“I really like the dual challenge of it, which appeals to both of us,” Danny says. “It’s like a test of a relationship alongside a physical feat. Silly, physical antics are part of our love language.”

The Wife Carrying Championships Race

RACE MORNING IN Newry, Maine brought clear, blue skies and strong winds. Almost five dozen couples warmed up by jogging up and down the rolling hills of the Sunday River Ski Resort ski slope, navigating sections of the 278-yard course and attempting the log hurdle in the carry position. That’s one of the two dry obstacles on the course; the other is a sand trap.

Danny and Katie watched other couples warming up and did some light stretching. Danny pumped out several sets of pushups as they waited. Hundreds of spectators lined the course.

“The community element seemed really fun,” Katie says afterward. “I can see why a lot of people watch it every year, or why people participate every year.” They met a couple who’d traveled from Utah to compete. Another pair had participated every year for the last 25, while others were in their 60s.

People playing and climbing on a log structure in a scenic outdoor setting with a ski lift in the background.

Courtesy Katie and Danny Young

The Youngs practice the log hurdle.

An M.C. announced each set of couples, who competed against one another in rounds of two and for time; the fastest two teams from the qualifying rounds would compete head-to-head in a final heat to determine the winner. A record 58 couples had signed up to compete.

Finally, it was their turn. Katie and Danny wished good luck to their co-competitors, and after several false starts as the MC adjusted his mic, the couples took off. Danny jogged as Katie held on to him utilizing a variation of the popular “Estonian carry,” where she was positioned upside-down, facing his back, using her arms to grip her own legs, which were wrapped over his shoulders like a yolk. The strength and balance she’d built through yoga showed as she held steady, despite Danny’s wobbles on the uneven terrain. She relied on core strength primarily, but also her arms and inner thighs to stay in position.

“It turns out that holding on to your own legs like an upside down human backpack while your partner runs uphill, clambers over a log hurdle, and wades through mud is much harder than it looks,” Katie says. “You’ve got to crunch up as tight as you can, squeeze your legs around your partner, wrap your arms into your own legs, and brace your core; all the while feeling your blood rushing to your head. I think the only reason I was able to do it is from the strength, endurance, and flexibility I’ve gained from my hot yoga practice. Plus, if you can tolerate exercising in a 105 degree room, what’s a little bit of mud?”

The pair didn’t talk much during the race itself. “Most of the race, the noise I was making was something along the lines of, ‘this is so much harder than I thought it was gonna be,’” Danny recalls.

Katie felt the early section had gone well, even though she admittedly couldn’t see anything but the landscape passing below her. “And then, all of a sudden, I can see the ground is moving a lot slower, and Danny’s panting and saying how hard it is,” she says.

Still, they kept moving, navigating a steep uphill and then descending toward the mud pit, the course’s final challenge also known as the “Widow-Maker.” Katie had photographed the mud pit prior to the race and texted her friends with the caption, “My fate.”

Danny stepped into the mud hole, navigating the first big step downward. He wobbled. Katie, sensing his unsteadiness, didn’t want to be dropped on her neck and head. “So I abandoned ship,” she says. She threw herself into the cold, wet mud, which filled her mouth and covered her eyes and nose. “It was a pretty solid belly flop,” she added. The muddy water coated her body, officially making the Youngs the first full “mud drop” out of the 30-plus couples that had competed up to that point.

“As I felt her coming off of my back, I thought, ‘where is she going?’” Danny adds afterward.

Katie stood up, wet and laughing so hard she needed a moment to steady herself. The plan had been for Katie to carry Danny across the finish line–but after they cleared the mud pit and stepped onto dry land, he was so wet and she was laughing so hard, she couldn’t quite grip him. She jumped onto him, piggy-back, as they emerged from the mud pit and jogged the final yards to the finish line. Just before crossing, she hopped off his back and picked him up, carrying Danny across the finish, laughing as the crowd cheered.

Two smiling participants pose at a race start line, with a crowd and autumn foliage in the background.

Courtesy Katie and Danny Young

The Youngs at the Wife Carrying Championships.

The winning couple was celebrating their 10th anniversary, and their children joined them in crossing the finish line. Most of the competitors stayed through the full two-hour event, as did the spectators, watching the award ceremony and cheering for the various additional contests (best dressed couple and other superlatives.) The winning couple received the wife’s weight in beer and five times her weight in cash. Volunteers handed out beers to the entrants. Katie changed out of her wet clothes before they joined his parents, Dylan and his wife, Kristen, and Katie and Danny’s 8-year-old daughter, Opal.

In carrying Danny across the finish, Katie wanted to reinforce what Opal had learned: “Mommy and Daddy are both strong and capable, and there’s no difference,” Katie says.

What They Learned From Carrying One Another

OVERALL, THE BIGGEST takeaway from the race had little to do with their time or the physical challenge that came with hauling one another across the course. Their relationship, they say, has always been strong—and attempting a fun, unique competition reinforced the tenets of their partnership: fun, laughter, strength, and supporting each other.

Danny suggested they enter again next year, “which I’m definitely up for, competition-wise,” Katie says. “I want to do many ridiculous competitions with you,” Danny adds. “Our relationship quality has been great, and this added another fun adventure.”

After the race, Danny considered how he might approach training for their next attempt. “If we were to run it back, I would definitely add hill sprints to my routine,” he says. “I should have prepared for the fact that the race is very short and very intense. Interval sprints and sled pushing would have been more aligned with the demands of the competition.”

But nothing, in his opinion, is better than replicating the real challenge of the event: carrying a partner and working together. “Spend as much time as possible with your wife on your back,” he says. “It’s kooky and fun, and there’s nothing else that quite mimics the awkwardness of two spouses becoming one athlete.”

Anna Katherine Clemmons is an adjunct professor of Media Studies at the University of Virginia, and has written for numerous publications, including ESPN the Magazine and The New York Times.