Jason's perfectly planned proposal took place on New Year's Day at our local group run. He had ordered custom pink signs asking me to marry him, and sneakily placed them along the route before we went out for our New Year's Eve dinner date.
During our excited, just-engaged chatter, Jason joked, "Why don't we just get married at IRONMAN?" We had signed up for our first, in Louisville, about a month before. "Absolutely not!" was my gut reaction. Later, as I was telling my parents how Jason had proposed, my Dad asked where we were going to get married. I told him Jason's absurd suggestion, and he replied, "Well why not?"
So why not? I googled "IRONMAN wedding" and could find no evidence this had ever been done before. Jason and I began thinking of bride and groom themed triathlon gear, and the fun our wedding party/sherpas could have cheering us to the altar. And just like that, the excitement and spontaneity of an IRONMAN wedding started to appeal to me, too.
There would be almost no planning, low costs (first time anyone's ever said that about an IRONMAN), no grand expectations and all of our friends and family would already be there. Plus, we'd have the most amazing finish line on the IM circuit as our backdrop! It was soon settled, and we announced our news in a triathlon-themed save the date postcard.
Jason and I met at the gym almost five years ago when we were both part of a large group competing in a local mud run. The team slowly dissolved, as we each had different goals, but Jason and I continued to find races that we both wanted to do together. A few months later we were officially a couple, and that's when we saw an advertisement for a local triathlon in June.
We thought it was a crazy, almost impossible goal, but we decided to start cycling and learning to swim together. Our swim dates began with a single length of the pool, and continued until eventually we could swim for five minutes straight. We borrowed road bikes and signed up right before the race, completely unsure if we could complete the distance. However, not only did we finish, but we were hooked.
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