NEWRY, Maine (AP) — At least 50 couples are navigating a 278-yard course with log hurdles and a muddy water hole for this year’s North American Wife Carrying Championship at Sunday River ski resort.

For the competition, couples traverse a course that includes hurdles, sand traps and the water hole, with either partner allowed to carry the other.

The winners of Saturday’s race win the woman’s weight in beer and five times her weight in cash.

This year’s field includes the 2009 North American Wife Carrying Championship winners, the 2012 Nova Scotia champions and a couple that has won the world wife-carrying championships four times.

The event is part of Sunday River’s annual Fall Festival Weekend.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.