From a people point of view, the best thing about the Little Rock marathon is the stories it brings to town. Take Michael Tagell from Adelaide, Australia. He met Arkansan Michael Chaffin at a Ride Across America in 2012. On the basis of that fast friendship, he paid about $2,200 just in airfare to come to Little Rock and run the 26.2 miles.
Or Grant Morris, who works for the city. “I’m going to propose to my girlfriend at the finish line,” he said Feb. 28 at the Capital Hotel, which sponsored a VIP-Sponsors reception up in a mezzanine ballroom.
Several dozen racers, race fans and sponsor groups - chief among them Whole Hog Cafe North Little Rock, Baptist Health, St. Vincent Heart Clinic Arkansas, Arkansas Lamination Products and Services, the Capital Hotel, Magna IV, and Chick-fil-A - gathered for a light party early in the evening. It’s a well-traveled fact that runners party hard and poop out early.
Sure enough, there’s video of Morris standing just inside the chute, waving Lauren Faehl over with a plastic poncho, grabbing a microphone and saying over the sound system, “Lauren, I know you’ve been running for miles and miles and miles, but I have to ask you, will you run through life with me as my wife?”
The best thing about this is how discombobulated Faehl is by what’s happening. Morris catches her at the finish line, and she must have envisioned the end of this monumental 26.2-mile run differently.
Then Morris says, “She said yes!”
Cheers!
“Yeah! Right there at the finish line,” says one announcer, cutting in. “Another marathon victor.”
“Yes, a proposal right there at the finish line,” parrots the other. “Can we get some cheers for the lovely new wedding couple?”
You can catch this moment on YouTube, search “Grant Morris proposes to Lauren Faehl.”
High Profile, Pages 34 on 03/09/2014