Maine producer finnishes course in championship

Originally published in Current, July 31, 2000

By Mike Janssen

Most newlywed husbands barely carry their brides past the threshold. Rob Rosenthal carried his 300 yards and dropped her in a sand pit.

Rosenthal, an independent radio producer from South Portland, Maine, and his wife, Kirsten Dorsey, competed in the first-ever North American Wife Carrying Championship, held July 15 at the Sunday River Ski Resort in Bethel. The duo successfully navigated a 278-yard course in a respectable two minutes, 30 seconds--not bad for a first-time wife-carrying competitor, but double the time of the winning couple.

The wife-carrying tradition hails from Finland, where men plundering neighboring villages used to scoop up local wives and make off with them. Crossing the Atlantic watered down the practice--the North American Championship's competitors were allowed to carry stand-in wives, though not against their will.

Rosenthal and Dorsey are the real deal, however. They married June 11, on the five-year anniversary of their first date. Not long after, they spotted a blurb in the local paper announcing the championship. "We were like, 'No way, that can't possibly be,'" he says. But after checking out the accompanying web site (www.wifecarrying.com), "we just looked at each other and said, 'We have to do this,'" Rosenthal says.

After practicing several times on the South Portland High School football field, the couple was pumped, primed, and ready to kick some wife-carrying butt. On a Saturday morning, Rosenthal and 44 other wife-carriers raced up a rocky hill, swung around a hairpin turn, and confronted the first of several formidable obstacles: a 25-foot-long waist-deep pool of water.

At that point, many of Rosenthal's competitors took face dives, thanks to the effects of sudden deceleration and the pool's slippery plastic liner. Dorsey held her nose, fully expecting to follow suit, but Rosenthal miraculously slogged forth with his feet on the ground.

Next, he strode over two miniature Finnish log cabins that served as hurdles. That part was easy for Rosenthal, who measures six-foot-two. At the end of the course, Rosenthal and Dorsey collapsed in a sand pit, taking 38th place. "We didn't care if we won, just so long as we weren't last," Rosenthal says.

Technique apparently gave some competitors the edge. Rosenthal used the "fireman's carry," slinging his 130-pound wife sideways over his shoulders, which left him one arm free to move himself forward. Other wives piggybacked on their husbands. But the winners used the complex "Estonian hold," in which the wife hangs upside-down on her mate's back, wraps her arms around his stomach, and clenches his head between her legs. The husband's arms remain free for flailing.

Rosenthal and Dorsey might not have won, but consider consulting them the next time you're planning to record a wife-carrying competition. Ever true to the radio profession, Rosenthal miked his wife with a DAT player and lavaliere, which unfortunately failed to capture the sound of the race. However, a friend ran alongside the couple with a cassette deck and shotgun mic.

Rosenthal will prepare a report on the event for Portland's community station, WMPG, and might pitch it elsewhere. "We definitely did the 'participant-observer' form of reporting here," he says.

 

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