CHAMPAIGN – When Eric Bockelman came across the finish line in Memorial Stadium just before noon Saturday, he started a sort of awkward genuflecting motion.

"Cramping issues," said his girlfriend and running partner Erin Butler to people standing nearby.

She was right. But he had another reason for trying to get on his knee.

It became clearer to Butler seconds later, when Bockelman pulled a specially designed three-quarter-carat diamond ring from the zippered pack on his back side and pushed it onto her sweaty left hand ring finger.

"I can't get down," he said as he tried to fold his trim, 6-foot-5 frame to the turf. "Believe me, I want to."

It was hard for the family members of the Iowa couple who were in on the surprise to hear his question and her response over the din, but when he scooped her into a bear hug and picked her off the ground, the answer became apparent.

"I had no idea," said the stunned Butler. "I did say yes."

Bockelman, 23, of Iowa City, had been planning for some time to ask Butler, 24, a native of Bartlett, to marry him when they finished their third marathon together Saturday.

Her parents, Greg and Jackie Butler, her brother, Ryan Butler, and sister, Melissa Butler, all of Bartlett, along with Bockelman's folks, Tarryl and Ann Bockelman of Iowa City, were all at the finish line and knew what the romantic Bockelman had planned.

"He had the diamond imported. He designed the ring," said Jackie Butler of her future son-in-law. "He already asked Mr. Butler if he could propose. He did it the proper way."

Bockelman and Butler have been dating since January 2009, having met at a sporting-goods store in Iowa City where they both worked.

"I worked weekends and she worked weekdays. I picked up extra shifts so I could get a chance to talk to her," said Bockelman, a health science major attending the University of Iowa. He said it was love at first sight for him.

Butler was also an Iowa student when they met, but has since finished her undergraduate degree and is now working on an advanced degree in speech therapy at St. Ambrose College in Davenport, so they're about an hour apart.

Bockelman said his girlfriend was a distance runner – so is her 53-year-old father – and got him interested. Although he had played football at the University of Northern Iowa for three years and participated in track before transferring to the University of Iowa to focus on his studies his senior year, he said he "never really liked running, not long distance anyway."

"We started getting into events and really developed such a close bond. I haven't seen a match in anything else," he said, adding that he and Butler have no shortage of things to talk about while running.

And Bockelman said he went from 310 pounds in his football days down to his current 200.

"That was the best thing I've done for myself was changing and focusing on academics and losing all that weight. It's so empowering to know what your body is capable of," said the obviously fit Bockelman.

And he said he and his fiance will no doubt continue their running regime.

"I can see myself doing this the rest of my life. There's something about it, personally testing yourself. I love every aspect of it," he said.

And even though they're huge Hawkeye fans – Butler was the team mascot while an undergrad – they didn't mind committing their lives to each other in Illinois' Memorial Stadium.

"Sorry, Hawkeyes. Maybe if you put on a marathon," she said. "It was a beautiful run. Awesome. We will definitely come back."