It's Friday fun time again!

On a weekend that has more than 30 top class events in the runABC South race listing, one stands head and shoulders above all others. It is, of course, the 17th UK Wife Carrying Race on The Nower in Dorking on Sunday 16 March 2025!

Long-serving Wife Carrying enthusiast Rob McCaffrey of Trionium, race organiser from 2008 to 2024, has handed over the reins to new promoters Leith Hill Trail Runners who will retain all the essential elements of this quirky competition.

Trionium reckons wife carrying started in the UK over twelve centuries ago, on 8 June 793AD, when Viking raiders rampaged into Lindisfarne on the northeast coast, destroying the monastery and carrying off any unwilling local wenches. Such wife carrying (off) continued intermittently for around 300 years. Wife Carrying was re-introduced by the UK Wife Carrying Race in 2008 after an absence from these shores of nearly 900 years!

There are strict rules – it wouldn't be a fair competition otherwise. 'Wives' can be either sex, must weigh at least 50kg, and you don't have to be married. You don't have to carry your own wife, it could be someone else’s. Or a mate, girlfriend, boyfriend, sister or brother. They should ideally weigh less than you do, though, and they must wear a protective helmet.

The out and back course is 380m up and down a steady 15 metre ascent of The Nower, a steep grassland hill to the south-west of Dorking in Surrey. To add to the challenge, there are straw bales to hurdle and a 'Splash Zone' on the return leg, where spectators encourage competitors with a good dousing with water pistols and buckets of water!

Some amusing and one potentially lucrative prize can be won. The first pair to finish win a £150 barrel of local ale. The first British finishers win £250 towards their expenses in representing Great Britain in the World Wife Carrying Championships in Finland, dependent on their providing a write-up and photos of their exploits to the UK race director.

Novelty prizes in previous races have included a pound of sausages for the carrier of the heaviest wife (for strength); Bovril and a tin of pilchards for the oldest carrier (you know, from before the War) and the traditional Bombay Bad Boy pot noodle and tin of dog food for the last finishers.

The video of last year's UK Wife Carrying Race shows what a carry on this fun event is...

Last year's UK Wife Carrying Race winners Stuart Johnson and Hattie Cronin went to the  World Wife Carrying Championships in Finland and finished a gallant fifth.

Link to race details and results at the runABC South race listing here.

Photo courtesy of Steven McCormick Photography for Trionium