Kicker: Racing for better or worse

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NICK EICHER, HOST: And they're off: two dozen couples in southern England putting their relationships to the test.

The annual U.K. Wife Carrying Race sends competitors up and down a grassy hillside—the wives clinging on while the husbands clear hay bales and dodge water hazards.

One racer summed up his approach:

AUDIO: My strategy is to run as fast as I can.

There you go. Another competitor had a different priority.

AUDIO: I’ve been told not to drop her—that’s number one. So if I fall, I need to fall forward on my face.

Very good advice. Most couples use the so-called Estonian hold—the wife hanging upside down on the runner’s back, the legs hooked over the shoulders.

After a quarter mile of scrambling and sprinting, the winners were a couple from Finland.

AUDIO: Amazing. / Really, really happy. / Yes, it feels amazing.

Adding new urgency to the marriage vow—to have and to hold: tight!

REICHARD: Very!

EICHER: It’s The World and Everything in It.

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