The Question!

I would like to propose to my girlfriend at the London marathon next year. Would be interested to hear others opinions on a few things..

  • At what stage of the race? Do I go for the end/line.. nice pictures, no danger of not finishing, memorable. Is that selfish toward other runners finishing moments (getting in the way)? Afterwards in the park?
  • Do I tell the family [that will be there] so they can best position themselves and we can confirm a point? I will be asking her Dad's permission anyway.
  • Carry the ring on me and hope to not chug it down with a gel or collect it from family just before?

I'm not concerned about a time for the run so I haven't factored in a proposal in my pacing image 

Cheers guys

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Comments

  • WilkieWilkie ✭✭✭

    No, No, No and most definetly  NOT.

    I can't say how bad an idea this is.

    What if she says no?  Or wants to say no, but with all her family watching, and doubtless a few other runners, she might feel she can't, so says YES, but then has to break it to you later...

    Ask her somewhere more private.

  • BookyBooky ✭✭✭

    I agree with Wilkie, unless you're absolutely 100% certain that she'll say yes image

  • I hope she doesn't read this forum image

    Good luck whatever you decide.

  • BookyBooky ✭✭✭

    I'd also advice privacy - it's an intimate moment, why would you want an audience?

  • Thanks for the pessimism guys! image We have been together 6 years and have just bought our first house together and i'm 99.9% sure she would say yes. 

  • RatzerRatzer ✭✭✭

    I don't agree with all the 'no's, but really, at the London Marathon??  After the end of it will be approximately akin to basting yourself in turkey fat, salting yourself, putting yourself in the oven on gas mark 5 for two hours and then jumping out - minus the jumping bit because you won't be able to jump - on her in the middle of dinner with her family.

    Would you say yes to swamp thing?

    How about when you're carb-loading the night before?  Italian restaurant for pasta, she can drink all the wine because you can't drink, Roberto's your uncle.  If she says yes you're dedicating your race to her: if she says no you've got something to run away from...

  • Ratzer I look like that at the start line and she has put up with it so far... but yeah good point - I did struggle to get even a kiss at the end of the last marathon due to my stink!

  • Well she wont be able to get to the finish line - so you cant do it there. Same with the start line. 

    Maybe in the park after the race would be best ?

    I did know a guy who took his GF to Paris for the weekend and up to the restaurant on the Eiffel Tower. Great views of the City of Love.  He proposed. 

    She turned him down.  

    Awkward. 

  • I'd say it kinda depends on what you (and she) want. If you want publicity and to be on TV, do it in the finishing straight and they're bound to show you on the BBC.  Whether you'd annoy other runners probably depends on what sort of time you'll be finishing. I seem to remember the finish line was one of the least crowded points (5 hour finish) as the road is so broad. It is difficult to spot people in the crowd at this point, so whether you can do it at all may depend on whether she's running too.

    If that's not your style, then quietly in the park afterwards

     

  • Afterwards, if you go down on one knee, you may never get up, or she may just think you have collapsed.

    I would suggest the night before also. Tell the rest of the family at the post race get together.

  • RicFRicF ✭✭✭
    Sansom wrote (see)

    Thanks for the pessimism guys! image We have been together 6 years and have just bought our first house together and i'm 99.9% sure she would say yes. 

    Why don't you ask her what she thinks of this idea instead of a bunch of strangers?

    🙂

  • WiBWiB ✭✭✭

    Is she running it as well? What if she is faster than you?

  • RicF wrote (see)
    Sansom wrote (see)

    Thanks for the pessimism guys! image We have been together 6 years and have just bought our first house together and i'm 99.9% sure she would say yes. 

    Why don't you ask her what she thinks of this idea instead of a bunch of strangers?

    Surely that would ruin any element of surprise?

  • Why don't you propose in private now, get married on the morning of the marathon, run it together in your wedding kit with 'Just married' signs on your backs and dragging tin cans behind you, then have an informal reception and post-marathon pasta party...

  • I think it's a nice idea!

    Is she running with you or will she be supporting you from the crowd? If she's running with you, then at the finish line; if you do it at the start you will just spend the whole race wanting to celebrate.

    Didn't a couple actually get married during the London marathon last year?

  • runs-with-dogs wrote (see)

    Why don't you propose in private now, get married on the morning of the marathon, run it together in your wedding kit with 'Just married' signs on your backs and dragging tin cans behind you, then have an informal reception and post-marathon pasta party...

    I saw a couple like that at the Marathon du Medoc (minus the tin cans though), thought it looked very sweet!

  • WilkieWilkie ✭✭✭
    Sansom wrote (see)

    Thanks for the pessimism guys! image We have been together 6 years and have just bought our first house together and i'm 99.9% sure she would say yes. 

    Would she enjoy the public proposal?  Would she like loads of other people knowing you were going to ask her to marry you BEFORE you did it?

    I'd definitely recommend a romantic (whatever romantic means to her, that is), quiet, proposal personally.  That way she gets to tell LOADS of people about it image

  • RicFRicF ✭✭✭
    Catalin Bond wrote (see)
    RicF wrote (see)
    Sansom wrote (see)

    Thanks for the pessimism guys! image We have been together 6 years and have just bought our first house together and i'm 99.9% sure she would say yes. 

    Why don't you ask her what she thinks of this idea instead of a bunch of strangers?

    Surely that would ruin any element of surprise?

    Duh! I never thought of that image 

    🙂

  • xine267 wrote (see)

    I think it's a nice idea!

    Is she running with you or will she be supporting you from the crowd? If she's running with you, then at the finish line; if you do it at the start you will just spend the whole race wanting to celebrate.

    Didn't a couple actually get married during the London marathon last year?

    Sorry didn't put that in, yep she will be running it also - we are running it together, not as an A or B race so it's more the experience. 

    Wilkie wrote (see)
    Sansom wrote (see)

    Thanks for the pessimism guys! image We have been together 6 years and have just bought our first house together and i'm 99.9% sure she would say yes. 

    Would she enjoy the public proposal?  Would she like loads of other people knowing you were going to ask her to marry you BEFORE you did it?

    I'd definitely recommend a romantic (whatever romantic means to her, that is), quiet, proposal personally.  That way she gets to tell LOADS of people about it image

    I honestly think that public or quiet wouldn't make a difference to her. It's more the fact that I'm asking her to marry me. Thanks for your views though!  

  • I think it's a nice idea, not for me or most people but each to their own. Best of luck to you both !!!

  • I think it's a great idea - I would have been delighted.  

     

    Personally I would go for at the finish when you are both there - but make sure you let her beat you  image

     

  • Why do you want to make it a public event?  Surely a marriage proposal is something special between two people?

    I saw a guy propose to his girlfriend in Berlin.  We were on our way to a bar and I spotted him out of the corner of my eye.  I watched them from about 30ft away.  Fortunately, she said yes, though he wasn't aware that anyone was watching.

    This amuses me, and it's the sort of thing that everyone watching a public proposal is hoping for: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnyKkA05nYw

  • GymAddict wrote (see)

    I think it's a great idea - I would have been delighted.  

     

    Personally I would go for at the finish when you are both there - but make sure you let her beat you  image

     

    woah woah woah! Let's not get crazy! image

    Intermanaut wrote (see)

    Why do you want to make it a public event?  Surely a marriage proposal is something special between two people?

    I saw a guy propose to his girlfriend in Berlin.  We were on our way to a bar and I spotted him out of the corner of my eye.  I watched them from about 30ft away.  Fortunately, she said yes, though he wasn't aware that anyone was watching.

    This amuses me, and it's the sort of thing that everyone watching a public proposal is hoping for: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnyKkA05nYw

    I'm not making it a public event purely because it's there. By the time of the event we will be finishing something that we both started working towards together.

    It is special and it still is between us two; regardless of who is watching. 

  • WilkieWilkie ✭✭✭

    If you're determined to do it at the race, I would avoid telling the rest of her family in advance. 

    Let her have the pleasure of doing that afterwards.  They won't be able to resist telling other people, so she'll end up being the last to know.

    (And asking her father? Really, no.)

  • KK, WIlkie - you guys must have a different kind of father to me.  My husband asked my dad - not if he could 'have' me  because we had already decided to get married, but he met with him alone to tell him face to face (we lived in another country) that he had asked me to marry him and I had said yes.  I advised my sisters boyfriend to do the same. They would have started married life off with my dad holding a grudge otherwise. I can't bear to think how upset my dad would have been had DH not spoken to him.

     

    Not because there is a need for a yes or no  - but some folks expect to be asked or told in private out of courtesy.  Everyone involved knows it's a formality but some fathers or mothers would be mightily p*ssed off not to be included. 

  • My sprogs future husband didn't ask me but they phoned 5 minutes after he proposed to make sure I was ok.



    Of course I was. She's his problem now ! Teehee
  • Wilkie wrote (see)

    If you're determined to do it at the race, I would avoid telling the rest of her family in advance. 

    Let her have the pleasure of doing that afterwards.  They won't be able to resist telling other people, so she'll end up being the last to know.

    (And asking her father? Really, no.)

    H didn't ask my dad before we got engaged, & his nose was put right out of joint over it. When they were next together things were a bit tense until they had a man to man chat & blamed me for being difficult. image

    Nope, I don't get it either. 

    Trouble is, I'm not entirely convinced he'd have given permission. If you are unsure of the answer, don't ask the question. Always better to seek forgiveness than be denied permission... 

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