BOULDER — Timothy O’Donnell tried to introduce himself to Mirinda Carfrae after a half-Ironman race in Texas in 2008, but she was in no mood for flirtation. They were in the medical tent after the race, getting intravenous fluids to treat dehydration.
“I tried to talk to her a little bit, but she was not having any part of it,” O’Donnell said. “She was pretty delirious.”
She vaguely remembers him being there.
“They kept poking me and they couldn’t find my vein because I was so dehydrated,” Carfrae said. “I was so nervous about getting my IV that it wasn’t a part of my consciousness to be meeting a new man.”
They did flirt at a pre-race pasta party the following spring in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. Not long after they returned to Boulder, they went on their first date.
He had this great idea to take her to Film on the Rocks, the popular weekly summer movie series at Red Rocks Amphitheater. The film: “Princess Bride.”
“She said, ‘I love that movie,’ ” O’Donnell said. “She starts quoting lines from it. She had never been to Red Rocks. She was super excited.”
When they got there, it was sold out. O’Donnell feared he’d blown his chance, but they went to a restaurant in Morrison and their romance began.
“We got lost in conversation,” O’Donnell said. “All of a sudden we looked around, and all the chairs were up on the other tables. We had shut the place down. At that point we were like, ‘Wow, this is pretty special.’ “
They were married last December.
“Conversation was just so easy with him,” Carfrae said. “I felt comfortable with him right away. A first date can be nerve-racking. We did have a few glasses of wine, which always helps.”
John Meyer: 303-954-1616, jmeyer@denverpost.com or twitter.com/johnmeyer
