For 42.2 kilometres, the path will be lined with flower petals and thousands of wedding guests will high-five you along the way. Your attire will be sweaty but your glow all natural.
This was the joy for two newlyweds last weekend at the BMO Vancouver Marathon.
James Makokis, 35, and Anthony Johnson, 31, said “I do” at kilometre 32 of the Vancouver marathon May 7 and they have the matching t-shirts and breath-taking turquoise rings to prove it.
“It’s definitely motivating for your time if you’re getting married,” said Johnson, who covered the distance in five hours, 30 minutes and 35 seconds. He jumped over the finish line with his new husband, whose official time was two seconds slower.
They were the 3,241st and 2nd finishers of the 45th annual Vancouver marathon.
A marathon, said Johnson, is a beautiful metaphor for marriage. "You have to work to make it work," he said in an interview before the race.
The couple planned their wedding for English Bay, and Makokis said they could see their hand-made altar and gathered family members from across the water as they ran along the Seawall in Kitsilano.
“It all went smoothly,” he said.
They slipped black tuxedo jackets over their custom-printed t-shirts and exchanged vows along with beautiful rings before embracing and running the final 10 kilometres as husbands. Johnson dipped Makokis for a long kiss and then they ran off together for a lap around Stanley Park.
“It was my first time running a marathon and I am so happy I did it in Vancouver because the people were awesome, the city is wonderful, the hosts were amazing,” said Johnson. “We saw kids running, kids with their dads, and we were like, that’s the next step.”
“Yes, we are romantics,” said Makokis in an interview before the race.
The two-spirit aboriginal men said they were pleased to declare their love out in the open for all the city to witness while also promoting exercise as time well spent together. Talk about relationship goals.
“We are also role-modelling for people of our nations and other communities,” said Makokis, a family physician from the Saddle Lake Cree Nation.
“Doing this in Vancouver was an opportunity for us to be visible, as gay men, as two-sprit men and as indigenous peoples, as young people. It’s important for us to have visibility,” said Johnson, who is Navajo and spent his teen years in Phoenix before graduating from Harvard and then moving to Brooklyn. “This is the city we fell in love in last year.”
Johnson moved north from the U.S. to live with his fiancé outside Edmonton where they run a technologically advanced, conservation-minded, agrarian-based homestead. “We’ve always been adventurous in our relationship,” said Johnson.
Twitter: @MHStewart
