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Running for love: Couple marries during marathon

A Texas couple met while running, and they didn't stop — even for their wedding.
/ Source: TODAY contributor

A Texas couple met while running, and they didn't stop — even for their wedding.

Raymond Donaldson and his new bride, the former Mary Martin, exchanged vows in the middle of the New York City marathon on Sunday. A fellow marathoner who is also a minister ran alongside them and made it official. They slipped rings on one another’s fingers and exchanged their first kiss as a married couple while still jogging near mile marker 22 with their families watching from the crowd.

The groom wore a white long sleeve shirt with a black bow tie under a black vest and then a matching pair of black running shorts, while the bride wore a white cap with a veil attached to it, a white running top and a tennis skirt.

“We met running, so we thought that would be appropriate,’’ Mary Donaldson told NBC News after the race.

The minister was a friend named Greg who they had just recently met, and he helped them enjoy the mobile wedding they wanted. Mary finished a second ahead of her new husband in 3:54.25; the two ran closely together throughout the race.

“He did the Ironman a month ago, and he’s the only one who could actually keep up with us,’’ Raymond Donaldson said. “Well, not keep up with us — actually, we barely just made it, didn’t we?’’

This was not the first New York City marathon for the couple, as Mary ran it in 2008, while Raymond did it in 1987. The couple, from Amarillo, Texas, will now head off to their honeymoon in Italy on Tuesday.

Love was certainly in the air among the more than 35,000 runners on Sunday, as another man proposed to his girlfriend at the end of the race and received a ‘yes.’