Today we’d like to introduce you to Dawn Grunnagle.
Dawn, before we jump into specific questions about the company, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin. I was recruited to run track and cross country at Texas Tech University on a full athletic scholarship. When I graduated from college, I started my elementary school teaching career, which I did for ten years as a 3rd and 4th-grade teacher here in the Dallas area. I taught seven years in Richardson ISD and three years at Good Shepherd Episcopal. I stopped competing after college and found the love for it again about eight years later. When a coach approached me about running competitively back. I started to train again seriously and was having a hard time balancing my teaching schedule demands with an elite level training program. Traveling to races was the most difficult part because I would have to miss a Friday or a Monday to race. During the week, I was getting up at 3:30 am to do my workouts, teaching all day, doing my lift or other runs after school, and repeating the cycle.
I decided to stop teaching and focus on competing in 2011 and launched the brand SpeedKIDZ Elite. It was a way for me to blend my love of teaching and to run together but have a flexible schedule. I was already training athletes in many different sports, but now it had an official name. The vision of SpeedKIDZ Elite is about developing the all-around athlete, not just through running but being an all-around person through leadership, teamwork, character building, and giving back to your community. Our athletes not only train together, but we serve in our community. Some of the projects we have done are letters to the Veterans, Deployed Troops, Wounded Warriors, painting graffiti in Dallas, raising over $8,000 for The Cure Starts Now Foundation which does research specifically for pediatric cancer, creating activity books for the Children’s Hospital for the kids that have dialysis and chemo treatments, and Hope Boxes which are hygiene boxes for the homeless children in the Dallas area and many other projects the athletes of SpeedKIDZ take part in. We recently expanded our program in June to our high school elite program we named APEX TC. I am a three time Olympic Trials Qualifier, a two time World Masters Athletics Gold Medalist, and have competed in the elite field 5 out of 6 marathon majors.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I am the only person in my family to go to college. Getting a scholarship to run in my mind was the only way I was going to get a college education. Combining teaching and running and starting your own small business definitely has its challenges. I had no idea what I was doing, but I learned along the way and put my heart and mind into every decision I made. I made mistakes, but I learned from them. I work on trying to improve the SpeedKIDZ/APEX programs any way that I can. In the running, I struggled in the marathon for two years. I was throwing up and in the porta potty during each race because I couldn’t keep any fuel down. Once I figured out how to fuel properly with UCAN, I was able to transfer my training into racing. I went from a 2:52 marathoner to a 2:33 A Standard Olympic Trials Qualifier.
We’d love to hear more about your company.
SpeedKIDZ is about bringing out the best in each athlete and using the SpeedKIDZ philosophy of proper running form and technique. The vision of SpeedKIDZ Elite is to develop the all-around athlete through hard work, dedication, patience, commitment to goals, leadership, and giving back to the community through service projects. The developmental platform that has been created for these young athletes will offer them the opportunity to achieve anything they set their minds to. Not only will each athlete develop specific athletic skills to their sport, but the intangible values such as teamwork, discipline and confidence-building in sports are just some of the valued traits learned while training with SpeedKIDZ.
Through her SpeedKIDZ program, Dawn makes it a priority each month to organize service projects which directly affect improving the Dallas community and focus on helping kids who are underprivileged athletes to be able to run, play and participate in other sports. Projects have included raising over $5,000 for A Cure Starts Now Foundation, which does specific research for pediatric cancer. SpeedKIDZ Elite team created over 200 personalized activity books for the children at Children’s Hospital receiving treatments such as dialysis and chemotherapy. Her team organized and assembled 300 mini First-Aid Kits for the Salvation Army. Other service projects Dawn has organized with her SpeedKIDZ Elite team are painting over graffiti in Dallas, TX, delivering meals to people in need, organizing and cleaning food pantries, handing out medals and water at local races, clean up Katy Trail and Norbuck Park, and writing letters to the Veterans, Deployed Troops, New Recruits and Wounded Warriors are some of the ways her team gets involved with the Dallas community.
I am most proud of this company because we are developing not just runners but all-around athletes. It is great if the athletes can run fast, but being a good person who contributes to their community is our priority.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We just launched our APEX TC high school team, which is continuing to grow. My dream would be to build a track facility someday to host meets and to have a home base to train athletes.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.speedkidz.com
- Phone: 214-697-5387
- Email: speedkidz1@gmail.com apextcdallas@gmail.com
- Instagram: @speedkidzelite @apextcdallas
- Facebook: SpeedKIDZ
- Twitter: @speedkidz
Image Credit:
James Walker
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