Nicole's version:

Beep beep beep! Jolted awake by my alarm, I rolled out of bed around 7 am on Saturday, June 7, 2014.

I had been interested in checking out a trail running group, and the previous year I had found a group online, but they had already stopped meeting for the season. The next year, about half way through the trail running season, I remembered the group, and that's how I found myself making the 30 min drive to Chestnut Ridge. It was a bit of a ways out, especially for so early on a weekend!

I joined a small group of runners gathering in the parking lot of Chestnut Ridge and nervously pretended to stretch. These people looked like serious runners! Anxious to break the silence, I struck up a conversation with Ryan, who happened to be standing next to me. My opening question was, "Have you been to one of these trail runs before?" I didn't expect the conversation to make an impression on me, but I found Ryan to be charming and quite funny. After the trail run, we chatted a little more and then went our separate ways. The next two or three weeks, I went back to run the trails with the group, but Ryan was never among the runners. I was a little disappointed. I had hoped to see him again, and had even thought he might have been a little interested too.

A few months later, Ryan found me on the world wide web and asked if I wanted to fill a space on a relay team at a race he was running. While I couldn't make that race, we ended up arranging to go for a trail run at Hunter's Creek with my friends, Rob and Abigail McMillan. After that, we went on our first date, "brunch" at Sweetness 7 (best homemade English muffins!!). Unbeknownst to me, Ryan had already eaten breakfast earlier that morning, so he only ordered a bagel and a coffee. I was a little mortified I had ordered a full brunch and also concerned that he wasn't a food enthusiast. I quickly learned that Ryan definitely loves food, so no worries there!

Fast forward, and on December 4th, 2016 Ryan asked me to marry him!

(The picture was the group of runners at the trail run where we met. Nicole is in the purple tank with the hat and Ryan is in the grey shirt to Nicole's right. Photo courtesy of Fleet Feet's Facebook!)

Ryan's version:

My mother went running shoe shopping at Fleet Feet for my youngest brother, Adam. While there, my mother grabbed a flier for a trail running group. She handed me the flier at family dinner on Sunday night and encouraged me to go. I brushed it off. Maybe 3-4 weeks later, I gave in and decided to go to an 8 am trail run at Chestnut Ridge.

I noticed Nicole almost immediately when I got out of my car, and as I attempted to think of 5 questions to ask her (I always try to come up with 5 questions before starting a conversation with a stranger), Nicole asked me whether this was the first trail run I had attended - and I thought the "do you come here often line" never worked! We ended up talking for the next 15 minutes, until the trail run got started. As the pace dropped on the hilly run in and out of the gorges at Chestnut Ridge, I was very impressed that Nicole hung in there, right behind me. This girl is a trooper, I thought!

When we finished running, I thought about asking Nicole to brunch, but I wimped out. It was only 2 1/2 months later, as I laid on a mattress on the floor of my otherwise empty newly purchased house, that I mustered the courage to message Nicole. Not long after, we went for a run with Nicole's friends, Rob and Abby, at Hunter's Creek. Rob lost his shoe in a mud puddle, and Nicole almost took my left eye out when her shoulder brushed a tree branch that sprang back at me, but I was undeterred. Over the next month, we went to Sweetness 7 for brunch, Resurgence Brewery, and Pints and Pierogis at Marcy Casino. Little did I know that it would take another 7 months for me to convince Nicole to be my girlfriend.

Nicole was worth the wait. And so, beginning July 1, 2017, I get to spend the rest of my life with my best friend. We hope you are able to celebrate with us!