Early Wednesday morning, runners Nikki Hiltz and Therese Haiss, who have been dating since they were teammates on the Univ. of Arkansas track and field team, announced they had gotten married last weekend, spurred to act by the worldwide coronavirus pandemic.

The pics of their private, isolated wedding were absolutely lovely and tender:

It was a wonderful message of love and hope. Their fans and others flooded Instagram and Twitter with messages of support and congratulations.

Yet buried amidst the celebration, a couple fans started connecting the dots and realized the date was April 1. “I really hope this is not an April Fools,” one fan wrote, “because it’s too beautiful.” Another wrote: “I love you guys very much but I swear I’ll hurt you both if this is an April Fools…”

Sure enough, they were right. The couple had pulled off an April Fools’ Day joke that did, in fact, fool many.

Given the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the wedding news, some people may now be disappointed to hear it’s not true.

There has been relatively loud chatter across the media and social media about avoiding April Fools jokes this year, given the situation the world finds itself in. Hiltz and Haiss obviously felt a joke that was believable and well-executed would brighten people’s day. Hiltz is known for her love of jokes and a sense of humor, posting a fart joke on Twitter hours before.

Hiltz and Haiss compete in the same event on the track — the 1500-meter. Hiltz made it to the event final at the World Championship last year and is poised to make a run at the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. The delay in the Olympics could help Haiss’ chances as well.

Either way, as of now, they will not be making the run as a married couple, and we look forward to celebrating their marriage on one of the other 364 days of the year.

Last year I interviewed Hiltz about her Olympics run and her relationship with Haiss. You can hear that interview here:

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