This couple ran the Boston Marathon – and then said ‘I do’

Marc Flageole and Karine Cormier of Montreal got married in Arlington Street Church on Monday after running in the Boston Marathon.Lara Woolfson

Marc Flageole was disappointed when he realized he wasn’t going to finish the Boston Marathon, but something bigger was on his mind: He feared he wouldn’t make it to his wedding on time.

Flageole ran 15 miles before he got too cold and had to stop. He and his fiancee had traveled from Montreal to run the race and then get married. The ceremony was just hours away, and the love of his life, Karine Cormier, was somewhere on the route, but he had no way of knowing how far she had made it.

“I could see the worst scenario was to mess up not just the race but our ceremony,” Flageole said. “I didn’t know what was happening with Karine, because we were not planning to run at the same pace.”

Flageole did what he had to do. He left the tent and snuck onto an elite runner’s bus to try to make it to the finish line and find his soon-to-be wife.

Cormier finished the race, but says she did not do her best and didn’t train properly beforehand.

“The last 15 kilometers were hell,” she said. “I was cramping, my legs were cramping. I just wanted to finish, not knowing what Marc would do.”

And then their luck turned around, when the two spotted each other at the finish line.

“That was almost a small miracle there, because of all the people, to be able to accidentally bump into each other at the finish was great,” he said.

The two changed out of their running gear into T-shirts with the slogan “Mondays are for marathons — and weddings,” met up with the bride’s parents, and headed to Arlington Street Church in the pouring rain.

“By the time we said our vows and we got married, we were a bit more emotional than usual because we were tired,” she said. “We cried the whole time we were saying our vows.”

They were cold and wet, but it didn’t deter them from enjoying their wedding day.

“We were jumping up and down in the puddles and laughing,” Flageole said. “[The weather] was not a damper.”

Athleticism has been a big part of the couple’s relationship since the day they met. Flageole sold a bike to Cormier four years ago through an online post. That would have been the end, but when Flageole went to cash the check she wrote him, it bounced. He reached out to her again to clear up the payment, and the two started e-mailing and talking.

“We just connected,” Flageole said.

Since then, the couple has cheered each other on at a myriad of races — sometimes dressing in T-Rex, pink flamingo, or penguin costumes to lighten the mood. They got engaged on the train from Montreal to Toronto, where Cormier ran her first marathon.

“It’s really made us stronger and less selfish because usually when we run, we take care of each other,” Cormier said.

After their wedding on Monday, they took photos in Boston Public Garden, then enjoyed cocktails and food in Southie at Loco Taqueria & Oyster Bar.

“We wanted to be warm, but it didn’t change anything that we were feeling,” Cormier said. “We didn’t care about that.”

Staying true to their love of outdoor sports, the couple plans to take a three-week honeymoon next year to Nepal.

“We want to go do some hiking around the Everest base camp,” Flageole said. “It’s the trip of a lifetime.”