Woman finishes half marathon, finds boyfriend down on one knee waiting to propose at finish line

Kendra Molyet had been training hard for a half-marathon and was excited about completing it but she had no idea what waited at the other end of the finish line. In a dramatic moment at the Akron Half Marathon, Molyet got down one knee and proposed to his girlfriend as she completed the marathon. Kendra Molyet had just completed 13.1 miles and turned the corner when she first a small crowd holding up her name. She did a double-take and then her eyes refocused and she read the rest of the sentence being held by her friends: "Kendra Molyet Will You Marry Me?" Right in front of that small crowd was her husband down on one knee, reported People.

She ran towards him as he reached the finish line. Matt Smartnick, a lawyer at a Cleveland practice, might have popped the question but Molyet's first priority, as with any marathoner, was to end her stopwatch after completing the marathon and record her finishing time. She was tired and overcome with emotion as he crossed the line. She said 'yes' to him and held out her hand for him put the ring on. "Coming up there was a huge hill and it was super-tiring, then I saw my name in letters. It was like, 'marry me.' That was crazy," said Molyet, reported News 5 Cleveland.

The couple had met during their time at the University of Akron and had dated off-and-on for a while before meeting up by accident in New York City. They were a couple for four years before Smartnick popped the question in dramatic circumstances. Smartnick said he was always sure about marrying Molyet but he was just unsure of how to do it and said he was "waiting for the right time." Smartnick added that he was a nervous wreck the night before the marathon, getting only an hour's sleep the night before. Kendra Molyet gave him a resounding yes and gave him a kiss before accepting the ring.

Molyet's mother, Jane, appears to be the one who planted the idea in Smartnick's head, teasing her future son-in-law about doing a proposal at the half-marathon. "I told him, 'She's probably going to be a sweaty mess,'" she joked. Once the idea took hold of him, he dropped the original plan of popping the question at dinner. He wanted to go big on his proposal. "I wanted to do something memorable," he said. "I know she will have that adrenaline going through her and that sense of accomplishment when she finishes." He had to get special permission to pull off the dramatic proposal but after a lot of phone calls, Smartnick finally got it over the line. 

While the couple's friends held the message: "Will you marry me," Molyet's parents and Smartnick's mother were also there at the event for the momentous occasion, reported Akron Beacon Journal. Smartnick's mother was a little surprised by the idea but couldn't be happier. “We love her. We just love her,” she said about Molyet. He also had the blessings of his to-be in-laws.