While junior Maria Dunn was scrolling through her Pinterest feed, looking at food that is almost too appetizing, beautiful far away places and DIYs galore, she came upon an advertisement for the Win 4 KC triathlon. Her older sister, seeing this ad, too, and having previously participated in a triathlon before, looked at Maria and said “Let’s try this.”
Dunn, skeptical at first, clicked on the link and signed up with her sister.
The Win 4 KC triathlon is an all-women’s race that is dedicated to female empowerment, and is very well known in Kansas City and around the US. Other East students such as freshman Bria Foley have also participated in this race.
According to Dunn, Win 4 KC is not as competitive as other races due to the variety of athletes participating and all skill levels can sign up.
“Everyone in the race was super friendly, and during the race everyone was cheering each other on, which was fantastic,” Dunn said. “I just did the first one for fun and absolutely loved it, then I immediately signed up for a second one.”
After running alongside her sister in Win 4 KC, Maria recruited her friend, junior Millie Dinkel. Dinkel had come to support her at the Win 4 KC, and expressed some interest. Dinkel, like Dunn, was very skeptical of the physically demanding race at first. Despite her initial uncertainty, Dinkel eventually became Dunn’s new training buddy.
“I cheered on Maria the first time she did a triathlon,” Dinkel said, “and it inspired me to do the next one with her.”
Dunn says it’s always better to train with someone else rather than having to go swim and bike by herself for the training season. To Dunn, a training buddy is a companion to strictly train with. During the race, the two split up and go at their own pace and then “party at the finish line”.
The duo trained for the Apple Triathlon in Manhattan, KS, then ran it together. This triathlon wasn’t for a particular cause, like female empowerment, but more just a physical race. Dunn says it was a lot different than the previous Win 4 KC triathlon because it was a lot more competitive and the racers were more serious.
When Dunn and Dinkel arrived, they bounced around, excited for the race at the starting line, looked to their competitors and tried to make conversation.
“I tried to wish people good luck before the race and was mostly ignored,” said Dunn.
Dunn could tell that most of the athletes had trained extremely hard for this race. However, she has her own way of preparing for them. Since Dunn is an avid runner, she doesn’t specifically “train” for the running segment of the race; instead she focuses all her training time to the other two thirds: swimming and biking.
For the swimming portion, she swims almost every night, except Saturdays and Sundays. On Saturdays she practices for the biking portion. She takes a 10-mile bike ride around Leawood Park and on the trails behind it.
“I had to get a triathlon special bike, which makes me hunch over when I ride it, but I’ve gotten used to it,” says Dunn.
It’s not the type of bike that kids ride over to their neighbor’s house. The handlebars and the seat are level while the tires are skinny. Dunn complains that when she goes over a bump, she feels like the tires are going to break.
Although she is a runner, the running portion of the triathlon is not her favorite. She likes the biking.
“The roads are very level and it’s effortless,” Dunn said. “And since you just swam you just get to cool off,” she added. “Since the biking portion of the race could be anywhere from 10 to 15 miles, you’re alone most of the time and it’s very serene.”
The serene feeling compensates for the swimming portion where she says she frequently inhales lake water.
Even though the training is difficult, Dunn loves the adrenaline of the race and the accomplished feeling she has when she crosses the finish line.
She reminds herself of this accomplished feeling and keeps track of the triathlons she has run by saving her participation numbers — which are usually pinned to the athletes’ backs in the race — in a stack in her scrapbook.
On the back of her numbers she jots down her time, who she ran the race with, and the date of the event. She also will add a little note like “First Triathlon!”.
Triathlon season is in the spring, so Dunn hasn’t gotten another chance to do another triathlon since she participated in the Apple triathlon with Dinkel.
She is planning on adding four more participation numbers to the collection in her scrap book this season. Her first one is the Win 4 KC in late June, and plans to sign up for three others between July, August and September. Until then, she will look at her numbers and remember that great, accomplished feeling to motivate her through her training.
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