Dennis Galvin: ‘Marathon Proposal Guy’ Draws Anger For Proposing To Girlfriend As She Ran New York Marathon
New Jersey man Dennis Galvin is accused of pulling off the “worst proposal ever” after dropping down to one knee and asking his girlfriend to marry him — while she was in the middle of running the New York Marathon.
The public proposal during the famed race was captured on video and made its way to the internet this week. As the Sun noted, the viral video prompted a heated debate over whether the proposal was appropriate — or if the man was stealing his girlfriend’s thunder by interrupting the race which she had put in plenty of training to run. The video has led Twitter to nickname Galvin “Marathon Proposal Guy,” and there were some pretty strong feelings about it amongst social media users.
The woman, Kaitlyn Curran, was in the final 10 miles of the race on November 6 — the first time that she had ever competed in the New York Marathon. The report noted that she saw family members in the crowd as she reached the 16-mile mark of the race, which is when boyfriend Dennis Galvin jumped over the barrier and dropped to a knee in front of her.
Kaitlyn covered her face and appeared to wipe away a tear as she accepted the proposal, but informed Galvin that she didn’t have much time to savor the moment.
“I’m going to finish this race!” she told him.
SHE SAID YES: A woman who was running in Sunday’s New York City Marathon was at mile 16 when her longtime boyfriend hopped over the barrier and dropped to one knee. She ended the day with a medal around her neck and a ring on her finger. https://t.co/8xbZ6P24RM pic.twitter.com/YizdEJYOhc
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) November 5, 2018
Though Kaitlyn seemed happy enough, some on the internet were very angry. Many accused him of downplaying her accomplishment of completing a marathon by stealing the moment. Washington Post columnist Lisa Bonos said that the video is a reminder that all public proposals are a bad idea — and that the video doesn’t tell the full story.
“She said yes, cried (tears of joy or annoyance?), hugged him — and then kept running,” the reporter noted. “In the video footage, she looks happy. But couldn’t he have waited? Let the woman have her moment — all 4 hours and 24 minutes of it, which she has trained so hard for — without pulling her over to give you 30 seconds of glory.”
Others thought that Curran looked exasperated — or even annoyed — in the moment. Others felt bad that her once-in-a-lifetime moment took place as she was sweaty and out of breath from running 16 straight miles, in front of the entire world.
So why is this #nyc marathon proposal getting backlash? https://t.co/u15EjPRWEa
— KNIX Country (@knixcountry) November 7, 2018
But others defended the move, saying that Curran appeared to be thrilled with the proposal — and that everyone else was inserting themselves where they didn’t belong. Others said that she simply could have said no to Dennis Galvin if she felt that put on the spot about the proposal.
