EUGENE, Ore. — While the Butte to Butte brought a lot of runners to their knees out of exhaustion, a local runner took a knee and asked his longtime girlfriend to marry him.
During the race, friends handed out flowers to Riley Swanson as she ran. Then, once her boyfriend, Jason Bell, finished the race he changed into dress clothes and gave her the final rose.
He then got down on his knee and popped the question.
“I was like no way, is he really doing this? Completely caught off guard, I did not see this coming at all, I thought it was going to happen tonight,” said Swanson.
The couple met when running cross country at Northwest Christian University.