How two runners fell in love at a suburban Chicago half marathon

In about a week, thousands of runners will race to south suburban Flossmoor for a very popular half-marathon, but it will be extra special for two of the runners.

A couple of years ago, they didn't just find their way to the finish line, they found their way to each other.

The race is aptly named the Flossmoor Hidden Gem Half Marathon, and for two of the runners, the gem turned out to be a diamond.

It was a love story that Dave Alvarez thought might never happen.

"I had doubt that I would ever find somebody," said Alvarez. "I was on apps. Ultimately wasn't successful there."

He added, "It's cliché. I was told this for many years while I was single: You will meet your person and of course when you're single, you roll your eyes."

So what did he do while he waited? He did what he loved.

"Then after college, I just started running again just to keep in shape," Alvarez said. "And I had this wild idea to do a marathon one day just to challenge myself."

That was back in 2012. Now, 12 years later, Alvarez said he has 22 marathons under his belt. The Homer Glen native may have been single, but he was committed to logging miles instead, and he wasn't the only one.

Brittany Matteson of Harvard, Illinois, was a later bloomer in the world of distance running.

"It wasn't until like 2021 that I ran my first marathon," Matteson said.

But it came to her naturally, unlike the modern dating scene.

"I tried the dating apps for a short time, and realized it just wasn't really for me," Matteson said.

So, she also put her focus on putting foot to pavement. In 2022, she signed up to run Flossmoor's Hidden Gem Half Marathon.

Guess who else was there.

"It was when I saw her on the racecourse, I thought, 'It's that girl. It's that girl. I've seen her around,'" Alvarez said. "She's cute and she's pretty fast. She's keeping up with me and the guys."

And the finish line, Alvarez made his move.

"After the race, he came up and talked to me and was just saying, 'Congratulations on the race! Good job. How'd it go?'" Matteson said.

She added it was "really easy" to talk to Alvarez.

Then, the two kept talking and started running together in Chicago and on vacations to Tokyo, Boston, and New York, where Alvarez popped the question to the only woman who'd get up with him at 4 a.m. to run.

"For our honeymoon, we're running the Honolulu Marathon," Matteson said.

As one could imagine, the tale of Cupid's arrow striking on the course thrilled the founder of the Flossmoor HiddenGem Half Marathon, Tom Dobrez. He said the organizers "couldn't be more excited" for the couple.

"We knew we had something not just because of the numbers of runners that showed up, and showed their positive response, but the way the community bonded together," Dobrez said.

Now that the race is a signature event every September, the Hidden Gem Half aims to show off the southern suburb. Any added love connections are just the cherry on top.

"It was just one more thing we call 'The Gem Effect,'" said Dobrez. "Which is, we show in the community neighbors getting together and people literally falling in love over The Gem."

The Gem was even the theme of Matteson's bridal shower.

"The tables were mile markers," she said. 

The table placements resembled bib pick-ups like at an actual marathon and all the guests got their own bibs.

"It was awesome," Alvarez said.

The big day is the second weekend in September. They couldn't do the first one, since they have to run the Gem.

"As long as I'm here, I will continue to do Hidden Gem," Alvarez said. "And just looking at this year, it's a week before our wedding. It means so much more."

They said you never know when and where one will meet their person.

"Hopefully, you can find that common thing like running or a different hobby that you both enjoy," Matteson said. "But I would say yea, find something you really love first."

The happy couple decided to push back their honeymoon a few weeks so they can do one more race. They'll be running the Chicago Marathon on Oct. 13.

To learn more about Flossmoor's Hidden Gem Half Marathon, visit HiddenGemHalf.com.