Tricia and Sean

Posted Monday, June 09, 2008 10:19 AM

How They Met

I moved to Baltimore in the summer of 2003 to do volunteer work with Mercy Volunteer Corps, and I decided to play softball with the church I was affiliated with. Sean had been living and working outside of Annapolis and had always played softball with his church. The two churches are sister parishes, and softball games were played together frequently. We met during the game, and afterward both teams would hang around for a drink or two. We didn't start dating until July 2004; as Sean puts it, it took me a year to come around and realize what I had been missing.

The Proposal

We ran the Shamrock Half-Marathon together on March 16, 2008, in Virginia Beach. This was my second half-marathon and Sean's first. I had gotten into running a little over a year ago doing mostly 5Ks, but I enjoyed the longer races too. Sean ran the occasional 5K with me, but he’d much rather go for a two-hour bike ride than a 30-minute run. I told Sean that if he ran this half-marathon, I’d stay with him at his pace. We trained together leading up to the race, and then on race day, I stayed with Sean during the entire race as promised. Sean stayed strong, even when the pain in his legs felt like it couldn't get any worse, and he stopped only temporarily for stretching breaks. When we finally reached the finish line, he hugged me and told me that he didn't think he ever wanted to run one of those again. He then said that he did know he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. He proceeded to get down on one knee and asked me to marry him. Of course I said yes, and it was perfect!

The Night Before the Proposal

Sean had the ring safety-pinned in his shorts throughout the race. The night before the proposal, we went out to dinner, and he was freaking about safety pins. I obviously assumed it was for his race number, not knowing he was planning on proposing and pinning the ring in his shorts. I couldn’t understand the need to worry about the pins, and I kept assuring him we had pins at home from our race packets. This didn’t satisfy him, and even when I confirmed that I had safety pins from old races (I’m a frequent 5K runner and therefore have many race numbers/safety pins), he still didn’t 100 percent believe me. As soon as we got home, he asked for the safety pins. Still not realizing what the big deal was, I found some for him and said something like, “Here, is this good?!” If only had I known what was in store for me the next day, I think I would’ve been a lot more understanding.

Making the News

We were lucky enough to have our abbreviated proposal story featured in The Virginia Gazette, Williamsburg’s local newspaper, and the most recent edition of the Washington Running Report. Something to definitely save for the wedding scrapbook and to send to our parents!