"I am STEAMING." The marriage proposal that has the internet raging.

So, a man surprised his girlfriend by hopping over a barrier when she was in the middle of competing in the New York Marathon to propose.

How… nice.

According to CBS News, it was Kaitlyn Curren’s first time competing in a marathon. She’d been training for a year and had no doubt been thinking about (and looking forward to) this challenge for months.

She was hitting the 16th mile – almost 26 kilometres – when her boyfriend Dennis Galvin interrupted her and got down on one knee and proposed.

Curren said yes, cried, and gave him a hug. Galvin put the ring on her finger before she said she needed to finish the race.

So off she went. To run the remaining 16 kilometres.

MARATHON PROPOSAL: A woman running in the New York City Marathon Sunday had quite the surprise at mile 16 when her longtime boyfriend hopped the barrier and got down on one knee. ????????https://t.co/bsYEkAQkPN pic.twitter.com/szNTGe2nCK

— CBS News (@CBSNews) November 5, 2018

It seemed… Ill-timed. Curren was more than halfway through completing a marathon – a huge personal achievement she had trained 12 months for.

She went on the complete the marathon in four hours and 24 minutes.

Naturally, Twitter had opinions:

OMG, I am STEAMING about the guy who proposed to his GF at mile 16 of her FIRST NYC marathon. What the actual fuck? What a shitty ass thing to do! She worked hard for that shit, and he made it about him. *growls*

— Katee Robert (@katee_robert) November 6, 2018

This is a perfect proposal because there’s no better metaphor for hetero marriage than being well on your way to accomplishing your personal goal only to be stopped by a man asking you to do something else. https://t.co/wMRg1qTdaA

— Panic Pixie Scream Girl (@jelenawoehr) November 6, 2018

He messed up her time so badly.

— My Surname is Khan™ (@ejaz_k) November 6, 2018

If you’ve ever run a marathon/ultra, of which I’ve run dozens, you know that the last thing you want part way through is to have your concentration and pace interrupted by anything, much less by a self-centered guy who needs you to stop mid-race to capture his proposal on camera.

— Sarah Spelt (@SarahMSpelt) November 6, 2018

Ha. I also proposed to my now wife during the marathon, but had the decency to do it as we crossed the finish line together. (Though I suppose mile 16 is apt in the sense it’s about when the real marathon starts). pic.twitter.com/75GJL6kG5D

— Jeremy Olshan (@jolshan) November 6, 2018

Multiple critiques of that marathon proposal on my feed. Regardless of how I personally feel about it, I don’t have it in me today to be cynical about a happy moment & decide on behalf of a woman I know nothing about whether she should be mad. Wishing the couple much happiness.

— Tomris Laffly (@TomiLaffly) November 6, 2018

It gives me faith in people that no one likes a proposal during a marathon.

— John Levenstein (@johnlevenstein) November 6, 2018

The NY marathon proposal is hilarious, dude’s lucky she stopped, and she was totally over it by about the dozen second mark. I could just see her thinking, MY PACE!

— Aaron A. Wallace (@Awallace230) November 6, 2018

On a day when there’s so much discord, I’m glad we all agree that marathon proposal guy fucking sucks

— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) November 6, 2018

marathon proposal dude thought he was being all cute now the internet is ruining his life wow life comes at u fast :\

— PRISKILLA (@priskillinit) November 6, 2018

Now, Curren appeared happy with the proposal (she said yes, after all), so that is really all that matters. Well, that and her completion of the marathon!

But I… have a few questions:

1. Why did he not wait until the finish line?
2. Does she think she shaves 30 seconds off her official finish time because he totally destroyed her pace?
3. Why didn’t he take the jersey wrapped around her waist that she very clearly did not need?
4. Did the ring fit perfectly? Because uh, imagine running 16 kilometres panicked that your slightly-too-big engagement ring will fall off and be trampled by tens of thousands of runners. Eek.

Oh, plus there’s the little issue of doing it in public. The debate over public proposals is nothing new – some consider it romantic, others think it’s narcissistic and selfish.

Wedding planning website The Knot surveyed 19,000 couples about marriage proposal mistakes: Proposing in front of an audience was listed as a top 5 proposal no-nos.

The survey found that most women said proposing in public or in front of family and friends was a big faux-pas and they would prefer a private proposal with just them and their partner.

There’s no privacy in the middle of the world’s largest marathon.

For Curren, the story of her incredible, hard-earned achievement will now be more about her partner’s proposal.

Maybe she loves that. It’s absolutely possible that this was just the type of proposal she had dreamed off and Galvin hit it out of the park.

But she also could’ve wanted her marathon story to be just about her.

Unless someone really enjoys being the centre of attention or is happy for their run time to be 30 seconds slower than they’d trained for, please just… Keep it private.