NEWRY – About 15 teams, including a couple from Lewiston, have preregistered for this weekend’s eighth annual North American Wife-Carrying Championship.

The race starts at noon on Saturday and is a wacky, timed run around a 278-yard obstacle course at Sunday River Ski Resort.

Typically, men literally carry the women upside down on their backs while sprinting uphill, around a corner, climbing over two large logs and slogging through a water pit downhill to the finish line. The water hole usually claims many racers who run side-by-side in pairs during the timed heats.

This year’s event is wide open, because last year’s winners, John and Tess Farra of Caribou, were forced to withdraw due to a knee injury, according to resort spokesman Alex Kaufman.

Winners will receive money toward a round-trip ticket to Finland to attend next summer’s World Wife-Carrying Championships, five times the wife’s weight in cash, and the wife’s weight in beer. Prizes are also awarded to second- and third-place finishers, and for special weight and age categories.

Although teams don’t have to be comprised of married couples, they must have a man and a woman, both of whom must be at least 21 years old to enter, Kaufman stated.

Women can also carry men, something that happened for the first time in 2005.

“The carry is the competitors’ choice, though most use the ‘Estonian’ carry, where the ‘wife’ holds her husband around the waist and tightens her legs around his neck, thereby freeing the husband’s hands,” Kaufman said.

Several regional competitions have cropped up in recent years across the country, besides the annual world championship in Finland where the event originated. Previous winners at Sunday River have included winners from competitions in Oklahoma and Canada, many of whom have also competed in the Finland race.

As of Wednesday, David Castro and Lacey Meserve of Lewiston had signed up to race, along with couples from Portland, North Yarmouth, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and California.

Many teams wait until the day of the event to register, which, this year, will cost $35 per team. Registration is from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Competition begins at noon, rain or shine.

“Last year’s event drew over 30 competing teams from the U.S. and Canada, and over 2,000 spectators. The winner was a former Olympian,” Kaufman noted.

For more information, visit http://www.sundayriver.com/summer/wifecarry.html.

The event is part of the resort’s Fall Festival weekend, which also includes the 20th annual Summit Challenge Race, an Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference mountain bike race. Additionally, there will be live music, a beer garden, wine tasting, the 24th annual Blue Mountain Arts and Craft Fair, children’s games and activities, chairlift rides, wagon rides and more.