How We Met
We met in our 2nd semester at Northern Virginia Community College in an English class. She had a homework question (I like to tease her that she pretended to have a homework question just so we’d start talking.) We started talking more and I eventually mentioned that I played church softball on a team with my dad, and she said she’d like to come to a game. So she started coming to the weekly games, and that’s how it all started.
how they asked
Back in June of 2013, Meghan was by my side as I struggled through my first Tough Mudder in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I found out the hard way during that run that I was not in nearly as good of shape as I thought I was. I continued to train and eventually convinced her to run a Tough Mudder with me. Deeper into the summer, my training was at an all time high and I decided to step it up a notch – I would train for The World’s Toughest Mudder race. I knew that I had a long way to go until I would be ready, and mentally promised myself that I would participate in the next year’s WTM in November of 2014. Over a year of training later, Meghan remained by my side and was my pit crew as I made my World’s Toughest Mudder debut in Las Vegas. She had fully supported me every step of the way whether it was training, strategizing,or even coordinating travel plans. I remember suffering from hypothermia as I shivered in the tent in 2AM. She refused to leave my side and helped to keep me warm and motivate me to get back out there for one final lap before the time cut off. At the end of the day, The World’s Toughest Mudder had created a memory for the both of us that would last a lifetime.
A couple of months later, I decided that I was not happy with my 2014 result, and wanted to return to Las Vegas to race again in 2015. When I told Meghan, she was extremely supportive and was more than happy to come back as my pit crew once again. Around February of 2015, I knew that I wanted to ask Meghan to marry me. We had been dating for almost three years at that point (the wedding will be two days after our four years of dating) and I knew that she was the one. I wanted to be creative with the proposal and do something special. I knew how much the World’s Toughest Mudder meant to both of us, and knew that there would be no better way to finish the race than by asking Meghan to be my wife. Time seemed to drag from February until November, but eventually it was time for the big day.
I was concerned about how I would actually pull this proposal off. I wanted to propose right after I crossed the finish line, but knew that I could not carry the ring with me on the course. So the night before we left home for Vegas, I packed a “post-race bag” in front of her. It contained what I would need after the race – clean clothes, shoes, deodorant, etc. I told her that I did not want this stuff getting dirty during the race, so to leave it unopened until I finished.
The World’s Toughest Mudder was exactly what I expected – a grueling race that pushed my to my physical and mental limits. After around 22 hours of racing, I truly thought that my day was done. I literally struggled to walk, nevertheless run another lap. But seeing her back at the pit area made the choice clear to me. I had to cross that finish line one more time and make this proposal perfect. So I hobbled back out onto the course to finish the last lap. I was sure to ask Meghan to bring my “post-race bag” with her to the finish line Little she knew that she had the ring with her the whole time!
Once I crossed the finish line, I handed Meghan a random piece of gear and asked her to take it back to the tent. Once she walked away, I found somebody that I thought was just a spectator, explained to her that I was about to propose, and asked if she could record it on my phone. Amazingly enough, it turned out that this person was a Tough Mudder worker, and she was able to have some of the professional Tough Mudder photographers capture the moment and record it for the live stream (that is how we managed to get such nice pictures of the moment). Once Meghan came back, I gave her a big hug and struggled to dig the ring out from the sock inside the bag. She was probably wondering why the hug was so long and what I was doing in my bag behind her back! I thanked her for being by my side every step of the way and told her that it means so much to me. I said “I didn’t quite hit 50 miles this year, but I want you to be there the year that I do.” I then stepped back, got on one knee, and asked the most important question of my life: “Will you marry me?”
