Haley Pierce and Mike Lederhouse have been in it from the long run since the very beginning, quite literally: They met in 2012 as freshmen on the track team at Georgetown University. “Mike messaged me on Facebook when he found out we would both be running for Georgetown,” Haley remembers. “We joke about it now, but the messages—filled with ‘LOLs,’ emojis, and ‘heyys’—were the precursor to our courtship. Once on campus, we became fast friends, spending time together studying and on long bus rides to cross-country meets. After a summer apart, we both knew we wanted more and officially started dating when we got back to campus in the fall of 2013.”
Mike’s proposal included, well, a long run as well. “Mike always wanted to propose at the waterfront where we first became a couple, but realized he needed a good excuse to get me down to D.C.—anyone who knows the McCoy-Pierce women knows they would give Sherlock Holmes a run for his money,” Haley says with a laugh. “Mike thought, ‘If I run the marathon, she will never suspect a thing.’ He was right, but has since realized there are much easier ways to surprise someone with a proposal.” After finishing the December 2020 race, took Haley on a walk along the Georgetown waterfront and got down on one knee in the exact spot they’d first become boyfriend and girlfriend.
