Our day starts off slowly today with a visit to the local Heritage Park. A collection of buildings and dwellings found in the surrounding communities brought together.

We are here early enough in the season that we have two private guides, one who just started 3 days ago and her supervisor. Both under 25 and both eager to tell us all about their collection.

But then this afternoon we head to why we’re here. The 2026 Wife Carrying World Championship. It’s time to checkout the course and scout our competition.

There are three main ways to carry a wife. First is the piggyback, second is the firemen’s carry. Then finally there is the preferred Estonian carry. This requires the wife to be upside down and facing the husband’s back, and butt.

The upside is that the husband’s arms are free to swing and brace going over the logs. The downside? The wife may drown when transiting the pond.

We try all three, and we’re going to go with the Estonian carry. Turns out it works best for both of us.

Tonight they’re holding the sprint. An abbreviation of the full course which gives us a front seat to see what’s in store for us tomorrow.

It’s funny how nervous we both are tomorrow. We don’t know why. No one knows us here, and we’ll never see any of these people again.

My goal isn’t necessarily to win, I’ll be happy to just cross the finish line. Janelle says that I’ll have no problem completing the race in under 3 minutes. She says I’m good at that…I’m not sure what she means.

If you’re up you can see how we’re doing: http://iisalmensanomat.fi/live