Name: Dawn Konopka
Age: 38
Hometown: Rocky Point
Current town: Ridge
Marital Status: Married to Les
Pets: Bruiser (Chiweenie) & Felix (Pit) plus millions of fish (cause we have our very own aquarium in our home)
Occupation: Sales Rep for Verizon
Let’s see where to start….. Let me go back to the beginning a bit when I was supposed to be an active child running around and playing with my friends outside enjoying the nice weather. Being a normal healthy kid. I was riding my bicycle one day with my friends when my shoe lace got stuck in the pedal and I couldn’t stop when my friend started screaming “watch out”. The next thing I remember was being on the ground in a lot of pain and my friends mother telling me not to move. The sirens were getting louder and louder and then I remember seeing my grandma and thinking oh boy I’m in trouble. The ambulance rushed me to the hospital where my mom and dad met us and I found out I broke my left arm and left leg but was lucky to be alive cause the girl was speeding over the hill and didn’t see me. Well I thought I was the winner here because now I was gonna be out of school right! WRONG! While everyone was outside playing running around having fun my teacher was home schooling me. So I just sat and watched everyone from the window and started packing on the pounds leading me to my chunky childhood.
Fast forward a few years when I moved up to junior high and started playing sports I’m a very competitive person but hated running so I tried to get out of it as much as possible. I looked for sports with little running I was the goalie on the soccer team, played volleyball, but I did love basketball and that had alot of running especially for me I was point. So enough with the past you ask me how I got here. Well let me tell you.
I married my husband in 2005 and was happy and in love so much in love I packed on 50lbs bring myself to the 200lb mark. Yikes! They. Say once you are happy and comfortable you let yourself go and I did just that. So I decided to join a gym with my sister it was a kickboxing weight loss program for 12 weeks. The person who lost the most weight would get the next 12 weeks for free. So I was on board and ready to take home the win. The first week in my sister told me she was pregnant and dropping out I was ready to kill her but still determined to take home the win. Did I win you ask? Yup I did and went on to win the next 12 weeks as well. I loved it so much that I was asked to become a trainer. So I went on to get certified and was able to help others change their lives like I changed mine. But I hit the wall in my transformation I needed more. So I started running but remember this is the girl who hated running. In June 2010 I signed up for my 1st 5k and had that rush being around everyone and figured ok I got this. So then July I signed up for another 5k and did better then the last. So I figured let’s kick it up August I did my first 10k and didn’t die so I figured running wasn’t that bad. October I signed up for my 1st half and yup you guessed it I was done. I said I was never running again. Here I am today still running. To think if I would have given up I would never have met so many awesome people I know from the hills. My first time running the hills was the “run for the hill of it” in 2015 and I thought to myself these people are crazy these hills are trying to kill me. But I came back for more and have even done 3 of the courses. Well I think I’ve bored you enough today thank you lou for picking me this week.