When Christian Malalis, 26, talked his girlfriend Julia Fu into signing up for City Chase Chicago he proposed the race as a couples adventure.
Little did she know that he’d actually be proposing there, too.
"She might have been a little suspicious," Malalis said.
Malalis proposed to Fu, in front of all the City Chasers, just before the race went off at 10 a.m. Event organizers were in on the proposal and helped to make it that much more embarrassing than it needed to be.
“They blindfolded Julia and they put a little veil on her head,” Malalis said. “She tried to feel it with her fingers, and at that point I think she knew what was going on. Then they pretended to blindfold me, but instead I got down on a knee and grabbed the ring.”
Malalis and Fu completed the scavenger-hunt like expedition wearing a top-hat and a veil. But now that the race is over, the real adventure begins.
“I don’t think we’ve had that much attention, like, ever,” Malalis, a medical resident said.
Malalis is happy the race and the proposal are over, but now reality is setting in.
“It feels good,” Malalis said of the couple impending nuptials. “But the full-fledged planning stage has hit so it’s feeling a bit real.”
The City Chase couple, who have been dating for five years, is looking to tie the knot in September 2010.
