📝Updated for accuracy
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In December 2014, Portsmouth runner Ben Chudley traced the words "Will You Marry Me" through the city's streets on his GPS running app, then showed his girlfriend Olivia Abdul the route in person. She said yes.
Runner Proposes with GPS Art Spelling 'Marry Me'
Some people get down on one knee. Others hire skywriters. In December 2014, a runner in Portsmouth, England did it with a GPS tracker instead.
Ben Chudley, 28, ran a 5.7-mile loop through the city that, when traced on his GPS running app, spelled out the words "Will You Marry Me." He was not new to the trick: Chudley had already used the same app to sketch dinosaurs and SpongeBob SquarePants along Portsmouth's streets, calling it his own "Urban Pictionary."
A Route Planned Letter by Letter
Spelling out a legible message on a running app takes more than picking a direction and going. Chudley plotted each letter's shape onto the actual street grid, running some sections and switching the tracker off between others so the letters would not blur together.
The Reveal
Once he finished the run, Chudley posted the route to Facebook. Then he went to see his girlfriend, Olivia Abdul, in person, ring and flowers in hand. She said yes.
GPS Art: A Growing Movement
Chudley's proposal was not the first piece of "GPS art," the practice of drawing pictures or spelling words by tracking movement, but it became one of the best-known examples of using it to pop the question. Others have tried the same idea since:
- A cyclist in Houston, Texas, Jon Blaze, mapped a 15.7-mile bike ride through Buffalo Bayou Park that spelled "marry me." His girlfriend, Thao Nguyen, spotted the message on the map mid-ride and said yes
- Runners and cyclists elsewhere have used the same trick to draw holiday shapes, birthday messages, and tributes to causes they care about
The habit has been made easier by apps like Strava and Nike+ that record a route and let it be shared instantly.
Why It Works
There is something deeply personal about spelling out a proposal in a hobby you already love. The effort involved, miles of planning, a route worked out street by street, says something a ring alone cannot.
For Ben Chudley, that one run became the story of how he got engaged, proof that sometimes the most romantic route is also the longest way round.