History Main / RaceForYourLove

* [[http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/nyregion/10newark.html In January 2010, a 28-year-old guy ran past security at Newark Liberty International Airport to kiss his girlfriend before her flight took off.]] Sounds romantic, right? Actually, its a good example of why doing this is a ''terrible'' idea in [[RealityEnsues Real Life]]. The entire terminal was shut down for six hours, flights were cancelled and delayed around the world, ''16,000 passengers'' were stranded and it cost taxpayers and airlines millions of dollars. Remember, Newark Airport is also '''where the 9/11 flight that crashed in Pennsylvania departed from''' - this not shit that they take lightly. The guy was arrested after a five day manhunt and found guilty of defiant trespass; the reaction of most New Jerseyians was that his subsequent conviction and sentence of a $600 fine and 100 hours of community service wasn't nearly enough punishment.

* [[http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/nyregion/10newark.html In January 2010, a 28-year-old guy ran past security at Newark Liberty International Airport to kiss his girlfriend before her flight took off.]] Sounds romantic, right? Actually, its a good example of why doing this is a ''terrible'' idea in [[RealLife Real Life]]. The entire terminal was shut down for six hours, flights were cancelled and delayed around the world, ''16,000 passengers'' were stranded and it cost taxpayers and airlines millions of dollars. Remember, Newark Airport is also where the 9/11 flight that crashed in Pennsylvania departed from - this not shit that they take lightly. The guy was arrested after a five day manhunt and found guilty of defiant trespass. The reaction of most New Jerseyians was that his subsequent conviction and sentence of a $600 fine and 100 hours of community service wasn't nearly enough punishment.

* ''The Singles Ward'' has the hero racing from Provo to Salt Lake City International (in twenty minutes!) to intercept the girl he loves before she boards a plane for her mission. She shoots him down... and marries him when she gets back. Mormon girls everywhere sighed in romantic contentment.

* Used in ''TheGraduate'' when Ben's car runs out of gas on his way to [[SpeakNowOrForeverHoldYourPeace stop Elaine's wedding.]] He is forced to sprint the rest of the way. At least he gets to make use of his [[ChekhovsSkill career as a track star.]]

Alice and Chuck have become involved. There's chemistry. Sparks. But, for whatever reason, Alice has turned her back on this budding romance. Sometimes it's because she's convinced "we're too different" or "we come from different worlds" or some other rationalization that it'll never work out. Sometimes there's another person in the picture, and Alice feels honor bound to go through with the lesser romance.

Chuck, also being honorable, straightens his shoulders and prepares to deal with losing Alice to the circumstances or bad luck leading to this situation. But because it's too painful for one or both of them for him to stay around and remind them both of what might have been, he must leave. Fortunately, there's usually some job opportunity in another city, or he was only visiting this one temporarily anyway.

Then Alice suddenly has an epiphany: she really does love Chuck too much to not be with him! She loves him more than Bob, who she was going to marry instead. She loves him more than her job, or whatever other situation had cropped up that made her think she had to choose it over Chuck. But ...he's about to leave because she shot him down! If she doesn't turn around and get back to him ''right this minute'' he'll be gone, she'll have missed her chance, and she'll have what might have been haunting her forever.

So, newly inspired, Alice hops into a cab or some other mode of transportation to get her back to Chuck's arms as quickly as possible.

Alice, in this situation is almost AlwaysFemale, but occasionally you find the roles switched and Chuck is the one doing the running.

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* In ''PeachGirl'', Kairi was supposed to meet Momo at the train station if he truly loved her, and if he didn't show, then she would assume that he didn't. Since [[spoiler:his brother got attacked and hospitalized]], Kairi was too late, and because of the horrible weather, he had to run the rest of the way to the beach where they were going to stay for the weekend... only to find that [[spoiler:Momo had gone with Toji instead]].

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* At the end of ''The Mammoth Hunters'' Ayla realizes that she wants to go with Jondalar and runs to tell him, just as he is leaving.

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** Lampshaded later when Jack is about to do this, but finds his girlfriend still waiting at the bus stop.

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** And turns it into the absolute {{crowning moment of awesome}} for Nabi, if not the entire series.

* Parodied in a promotional sketch for ''HesJustNotThatIntoYou'', which outlined the top 10 romantic comedy cliches not present in the plot of ''He's Just Not That Into You''. One of them is "Chasing down a person you love through an airport to stop them from doing something".

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[[ScottPilgrim http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/148_3295.jpg]]
[[caption-width:269:[[ToTheBatnoun To the Scott-mobile]]!]]

->''"Well, if Hollywood movies have taught us anything, it's that troubled relationships can be completely patched up by a mad dash to the airport!"''

* Hilariously sent up in the epilogue to the semifamous ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'' {{Hentai}} {{Doujinshi}} ''[[Fanfic/{{Re-Take}} Re-Take]]''. Being Eva, it's probably no surprise that it's painfully [[DeusAngstMachina and pointlessly]] subverted or that the genders are flipped. Its NotWhatItLooksLike...seriously, there's [[strike:no porn]] not as much porn in that chapter.

* The last episode of {{Karin}} has Kenta and Winner racing to catch up to Karin and have Kenta confess his feelings.
* Do you know how many fanfics are built around this one? RanmaOneHalf, UruseiYatsura...in fact, ''anything'' with a Tsundere or by RumikoTakahashi (her fondness for SlapSlapKiss relationships may be to blame).

* Appropriately, ''{{The Flash}}'': Wally West didn't realize how he felt about Linda Park until she was about to leave for a job in another city, and this trope then ensued. Due to a super-villain and a malfunctioning watch he didn't actually make it in time, but seeing as he's a super-speedster he just caught up to her train, and they had their dramatic reunion there.

* ''CrocodileDundee'': Sue is about to marry the [[strike:jerk]] guy her dad approves of, who will make her wealthier than she is already. But she has realized she loves Mick. She is too late to catch him at the hotel; the doorman has told her Mick's going Walkabout, which means if she doesn't catch him, she'll never see him again. She hails a cab. But New York City traffic is beastly. So she gets out of the cab and runs. And she sheds her high heels and bits of her clothing that are impeding her from making truly impressive speed.

* ''Film/{{Spider-Man}} 2'': MJ leaves John Jameson at the altar and runs across Central Park and what is, [[BigApplesauce presumably several blocks downtown]] [St. Patrick's Cathedral to the Battery is oh, probably 60 blocks, even as the web slings] in her wedding dress to turn up at Peter's door.

* ''[[BridgetJones Bridget Jones's Diary]]'' subverts this twice; he appears not to be interested the first time she shows up, and at the end, he wasn't really leaving.

* KeepingTheFaith, in which Rabbi Jake runs across town, tries to enter his ex-girlfriend's office, gets ejected by security guard, enters a neighbouring office, makes placards to hold up to the windows, and finally is forced to confess his love on speakerphone with the entire office listening in. But since the ex-girlfriend is [[DharmaAndGreg total hottie Jenna Elfman]], you can't blame him for putting in a bit of effort.

* In ''Christmas in the Clouds,'' Ray just barely catches up to Tina before she boards her plane. They passionately embrace as the scene turns into a pastiche of a trashy romance novel cover... [[DaydreamSurprise Then we cut back to Ray, still sitting in his car]] as the narrator cheerfully explains that Tina's plane took off [[RealityEnsues long before he could even find a parking spot.]] At least he remembers that the U.S. Postal Service exists and explains his side of the ThirdActMisunderstanding through a series of letters. It works; Tina comes back to see him again next Christmas.

* Tanya Huff's ''The Second Summoning'' has a slightly diluted version of this trope. [[spoiler:Claire the Keeper spurns puppy-eyed Dean in a deluded attempt to protect him from her profession. After enough secondary characters convince them they're both being idiotic, Dean drives all the way from the east coast to Kingston, Ontario in record time - ''in a van'' - to reunite with her.]] Subverted in that the race happens almost at the beginning of the book rather than the end.

* [[DawsonsCreek Dawson's Creek]] has many of them, usually Joey chasing after Dawson or vice versa. One notable exception is Joey chasing after Pacey at the very end of the third season, trying to catch him before he leaves with his boat for the entire summer.
* Used in an episode of Masterpiece Theatre's {{Bramwell}}, which finds the title character racing to the train station--in the rain, no less--to assure her fiance that she stills loves him and still wants to marry him, despite the huge argument they had several days prior.
* Seen in the "Union Station" episode of {{ER}}, which featured Mark Green racing to the train station to catch Susan before she leaves. He declares his love for her. . .and the trope is then shocking averted when she gently rebuffs him and leaves anyway.

* In ''TheLegendOfZelda: Majora's Mask'', Kafei races across Termina to reunite with Anju after retrieving his mask. Depending on how much of the sidequest you completed, [[TearJerker she might not be there]].

* SomethingHappens [[http://www.somethinghappens.net/d/20070822.html subverted this]].

* In Step 5 of ''ThereSheIs''! Nabi makes the mad dash for Doki in an unusual boy racing for the girl role-reversal.

* Parodied in a promotional sketch for ''He's Just Not That Into You'', which outlined the top 10 romantic comedy cliches not present in the plot of ''He's Just Not That Into You''. One of them is "Chasing down a person you love through an airport to stop them from doing something".

* Parodied in the DrawnTogether episode ''The Other Cousin''.
* The page quote comes from the [[TheSimpsons Simpsons]] episode "Mommie Beerest". It's Homer making the drive, but it's not really an example since he had just convinced himself that Marge liked Moe better when, naturally, she didn't.
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A low-impact way to EarnYourHappyEnding. If the race is really lost, may result in AirVoyance.

* In ''Christmas in the Clouds,'' Ray just barely catches up to Tina before she boards her plane. They passionately embrace as the scene turns into a pastiche of a trashy romance novel cover... [[DaydreamSurprise Then we cut back to Ray, still sitting in his car]] as the narrator cheerfully explains that [[SubvertedTrope Tina's plane took off]] long before he could even find a parking spot. At least he remembers that the U.S. Postal Service exists and explains his side of the wacky misunderstandings through a series of letters. It works; Tina flies back to see him again next Christmas.
* Used in ''DefendingYourLife'' with the variant that he joins her on the bus [[spoiler: to the next life]]

* Subverted in ''Loveless In Los Angeles.'' The main character decides to make a mad dash to the airport to stop his love interest from leaving forever. His friends cheer him on, they figure out how to get there quickly, he opens the door...and the love interest is standing there.

->"Well, if Hollywood movies have taught us anything, it's that troubled relationships can be completely patched up by a mad dash to the airport!"
-->-- '''[[TheSimpsons Lisa Simpson]]'''

* An interesting version occurs at the very end of ''SchoolRumble'': [[spoiler [[TheDitz Tenma]]]] makes a mad dash to the airport where [[spoiler Karasuma]] is about to fly to America. What makes this example unique is that Tenma only gets to the airport on time courtesy of [[spoiler: Harima, who is [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy in love with Tenma]].]]

* A rare platonic example in the last episode of {{Spaced}}: Daisy is leaving London and taking a train to get a job at a local paper, and Tim, not having any other means of transport, rides to the station on the back of his RobotWars robot. (It is, we are told, "slightly quicker than walking".)

Occasionally there's a twist where she gets there, all out of breath and ready to confess how she feels -- but he's already gone, his plane already taken off. Or is he? He's standing right behind her, because he couldn't leave. Or because he hoped or knew she'd come around.

* At the end of "The Mammoth Hunters" Ayla realizes that she wants to go with Jondalar and runs to tell him, just as he is leaving.

* Hilariously sent up in the epilogue to the semifamous ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'' {{Hentai}} {{Doujinshi}} Re-Take. Being Eva, it's probably no surprise that it's painfully [[DeusAngstMachina and pointlessly]] subverted or that the genders are flipped. Its NotWhatItLooksLike...seriously, there's [[strike:no porn]] not as much porn in that chapter.