Boston Marathon kiss: Mystery man's wife comes forward with letter to runner
Barbara Tatge says her daughter, Paige, dared her to kiss a random, good-looking man and take a photo of it as she ran her first Boston Marathon on April 20.
So, about halfway into the race, that's what the single 55-year-old from Lakeland, Tenn., did. "That little kiss gave me wings on my shoes for the rest of the race," Tatge said Friday by phone. The kiss was caught on camera by her daughter, Paige Tatge, a graduate student at Arizona State University, who then took to social media to find the mystery man.
The story caught the attention of national news outlets, including the Associated Press. “I would have to say I was the aggressor, but he did kiss me again,” Tatge told The (Wellesly, Mass.) Townsman. “It was just such a chance encounter that left me with such a good feeling and I was thinking, ‘Darn it, I wish I had gotten his number.’”
But then Tatge, who is divorced, learned that the mystery man is married - in a letter from his wife.
The mystery man’s wife was running the race for the first time as well, and in a letter to Tatge via The (Wellesly, Mass.) Townsman said that the attention the story has gotten has been fun. She and her husband would like to remain anonymous.
The Townsman confirmed the woman's h claims by requesting photos of the man’s outfit from the original photo of the kiss.
In her letter to Tatge, the mystery kisser’s wife said that she learned of the kiss after finishing the race and found it funny. "We all thought this story was hilarious because it is just like my husband to do that,” the man’s wife said in her letter. “It was one of many memorable stories from a great weekend in Boston.”
“For me, I’m not mad," the woman wrote. "Believe me, our friends have gotten a lot of mileage out of this story and I have thoroughly enjoyed watching them give my husband grief!" She added, “I greatly admire your spunk and courage and wish you many happy races in the future. Congratulations on your Boston finish!”
Though there will be no romantic ending, Tatge said she appreciated the outpouring of support around the nation. “I am touched by the outpouring of support of strangers that wanted a fairytale ending,” she told the Townsman, but now she’s ready for the attention to go away.
This story was originally published May 3, 2015 at 4:19 PM with the headline "Boston Marathon kiss: Mystery man's wife comes forward with letter to runner."