Quad Cities Marathon and Eric's Golden Birthday
Sunday, September 26, 2010
How we got engaged
Eric and Tarah trained for 4 months for the Quad Cities Marathon and many times Eric reminded Tarah that during the marathon she had to run with him the whole way and could not run ahead of him.
When the marathon came, Eric and Tarah ran together and were doing very well until "the wall" happened. For the last 6 miles Tarah kept encouraging Eric to push himself and was worried that Eric may collapse (Eric said a couple of times that he felt like he was going to collapse). Tarah stuck with Eric until the end. Just before the finish line Eric and Tarah grabbed hands, raised them above their heads and crossed the line together. Eric's parents were right there and Tarah didn't think anything of it. She happily hugged Mr. Hatch and then Mrs. Hatch. While Tarah was hugging Mrs. Hatch, Mr. Hatch gave Eric the ring. When Tarah turned around she walked over to Eric and thought he was collapsing so she tried to help him up. She then noticed that he wasn't getting up and was on one knee. She shook her head in disbelief. Eric confessed that he loved Tarah from the moment he first saw her at the Brewery and will always love her. When he asked, "Will you marry me?" Tarah was speechless and could only shake her head 'yes' before verbally saying, "yes." The people surrounding them cheered and yelled, "Kiss her." And he did.