Senior Zack Dunn wasn’t always a runner when he was younger. He played different sports, and through these other sports, he discovered his success in running.

“I’ve always played sports like baseball and wrestling, and we would run for a long time, so I always used running to get better at wrestling and baseball,” Dunn said.  “I was better at running than those sports, so I just knew I could probably be a little more successful in running.”

Dunn feels a sense of accomplishment when he runs. 

“Let’s say I set a goal and I accomplish it,” he said. “I feel like I achieved a sense of being a better version of myself … I sort of know that I am getting better at something.

“Say I have a really hard run, a 12-mile run. It sucks during it, but towards the end it I feel like I’ve accomplished something.”

Unfortunately, Dunn missed part of his Cross-Country season this year due to illness. Despite this setback, he made a strong comeback in the postseason to make a return to the State meet, where he finished 42nd.

“The way the coach trained me to come back is each week I would go up 5-10%,” he said. “So my first week back I trained at 70 percent everything and I actually went by my heart rate… 

“I’m still a little nervous, not going to lie, but it’s a process. Me and my coach communicate. If I’m feeling like crap I tell him… and he says, ‘You don’t need to do it.’ It is better to be safe than sorry.”

When Dunn runs, he may feel anxious, but he still has fun and feels exhilarated.

“I am pretty anxious, but more so excited, because I feel like I trained hard to get to that point,” he said. “I also race with a lot of my friends, so I think there is also an aspect of it being fun like having a competition with your friends.

“I think at the point where I am running, I really care about just having fun. I realized that, if I have fun and am not stressing about it, I am actually going to do better.”

Dunn follows the same routine every time before he competes making sure he has the carbs he needs for his upcoming meet.

“After school I go home and eat dinner, which most of the time is pasta just because I’ve always eaten pasta before a race, drink a lot of water and in, all honesty, I try not to think about the race,” he said.

“I train for my race, [and] I am pretty confident that my training is going to pay off. I’m not nervous about racing anymore. I found that if I think about it too much I am going to stress and not do as well.” 

Next fall, Dunn plans on majoring in personal training and either minoring or double majoring in automotive engineering at Lewis University. He also plans on running and reaching his goal to become one of the elite by running a 4-minute or better mile.

“I feel like there are levels to running,” he said. “Once you run under 4 minutes in a mile, you are at the elite level.”

Dunn has some advice to anyone wanting to join track or cross country.

“One, listen to Coach [Hoffman]. He knows what he is doing, but above all else is have fun. There were times where I felt there was a lot of pressure on me and I found running not fun and people automatically think because I’m good I like it. And that’s not true,” Dunn said.

“Just have fun with it because if you’re not having fun you’re not going to want to do it and you won’t perform as you should. If you have teammates you are having fun with, then that’s going to make the running go by easier.”

As Dunn worked to get back to full strength, he tried to eliminate the stress and just go back to what he always does and have fun. 

“It was a lot of pressure to be a top runner. And now I kind of realize that I shouldn’t have pressure on me because I just need to do what I’ve always done, run.”