Diagnosed with autism at age 4 and labeled developmentally delayed, Adrienne Bunn later in childhood started running as a way to address her hyperactivity and anxiety.
“Running calmed me a lot,” says the 17-year-old Adrienne, who lives with her parents in Ocala, Florida. “It makes me feel calm. It makes me feel very good about myself.”
She so took to the athletic activity that she went on to compete in numerous events, including several hosted by Special Olympics.
And on July 23, she’ll take part in the I
RONMAN 70.3 Ohio, competing in the Sandusky event’s physically challenged/intellectual disability open division. Furthermore, she’ll turn 18 while visiting the North Coast, and with that being the age floor for entrants, is set to be the youngest female athlete in the race.
Adrienne is being coached by Dan Grieb, who, after losing significant weight and competing in 10 IRONMAN triathlons to finish his weight-loss journey, began working with Chris Nikic, who has Down Syndrome. Together, they finished the 2022 IRONMAN World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, with Nikic becoming the first competitor with Down Syndrome to finish the demanding event.
Along with helping her train for events including the IRONMAN 70.3 Ohio – which consists of a 1.2-mile swim in Lake Erie, a 56-mile bike ride along rural roads and a 13.1-mile run through the city – he works with her during a recent joint video interview.
“When you’re running,” he says, having turned toward her, “your disability is completely a non-issue.”
“Correct,” she says.
“You’re just like everybody else.”
“Correct.”
“And you’re included. AND you’re really good at it.”
“Correct.”
Part of what has driven Grieb is what he says was an abusive childhood.
“I was told when I was a young person that I wouldn’t amount to much, and folks like Adrienne and Chris have been told their whole lives they wouldn’t amount to much,” he says. “And after I lost all this weight in my 40s and started learning about people like Adrienne and Chris, I said, ‘These are my people, and I want to use this new body I have to help people like Adrienne and Chris accomplish their goals. And I’m not going to put limits on them, and I’m going going to advocate for them.’”
![]()
Adrienne and Dan celebrate after the Disney Half Marathon. (Photo/Courtesy of Dan Grieb)You don’t exactly have to twist his arm to get him to talk up his current protege.
“She’s just a beautiful soul – a beautiful human being,” Grieb says. “She makes me better just by being around her. She reminds me of who I could be if I stop judging people, if I got my ego out of the way, if I just saw the goodness of people.”
Furthermore, he says, her autism could be looked at as a “gift from God” in that she doesn’t hold a judge and doesn’t really understand why anyone would ever be dishonest.
“She's very cut-and-dry. It’s either right or wrong. It’s either yes or no. And it’s quite refreshing to be around somebody like that.”
Asked if he ever has to get on Adrienne to work harder, he assures that he does not.
“Her unique ability is her disability,” he says. “One of the things that autism brings out in her is a desire to please.
“She really cares about you, and she’s doing it with you. She wants to do it at a level that’s even higher than her own desire. It’s quite amazing. I’ve never had to tell her to give me more, to try harder. Matter of fact, I’ve had to tell her to slow down and take it easy.”
Still, he says she doesn’t beat herself up if she doesn’t perform as well as she’d hoped.
“I know I try hard,” she says, before getting a little more of that coaching and continuing. “I want to do the best that I can and prove to myself that I can do it, but I don’t really think about getting (a specific) time or anything.”
The Saturday before this conversation, Adrienne biked 61 miles and ran another seven. When Grieb tries to confirm that she took Sunday off, she said she did 2.5 hours of bike training. Some weekends, she says, she’s biking 200 miles, and she’s running 20 to 25 miles in a week.
“She’s training much more than I am,” Grieb says. “She’s in much better shape than I am right now. I was in retirement two months ago. I wasn’t going to do this again, but how can I say ‘no’ to this smile?”
Asked how she likes the non-running components of the race, Adrienne says, “I do not like the swimming, but I love the biking.”
It’s largely that the swimming is done in a lake that’s giving her pause.
“I”m used to seeing the bottom of the pool,” she says. “I’m not used to not seeing the bottom of something.”
She’s also not wild about the flare gun.
“It shocks me when something goes off and then we all have to run into the water,” Adrienne says. “That will give me very much anxiety also because I don’t like it.”
“Her disability is a sensory disability,” Grieb notes. “Loud noises, lights – things like that. All that extra processing generates an anxiety.”
Beyond the Sandusky competition lies October’s IRONMAN Championship in Kona, Hawaii, which totals twice the overall miles.
“She’s going from what we would call the equivalent of high school football to play in the Super Bowl all in a year,” Grieb says. “The IRONMAN Championship in Kona, Hawaii, is by far one of the most grueling and difficult races that you’re going to see. That will be her very first (full) IRONMAN.
“This is a real challenge for anyone to do, and that course breaks people.”
Folks can help with the financial burden of the family
by donating to an online fund. It’s a one-income family, with Dad working for the state of Florida and Mom focusing on caring for Adrienne’s grandmother.
“God has provided, and the community has shown up,” Grieb says, referring to the Ocala area. “But we need them to continue to do that.”
Adrienne says she also enjoys coloring and horseback riding.
As for competing athletically, along with what it has done for her physically and mentally, she also appreciates all the great people she’s met at events.
Grieb says he appreciates the faith her parents have placed in him as they run, bike and swim more than many of us would ever want to do.
“We will bring her to the brinks of human exhaustion – not autism exhaustion, which is some lower level – the brinks of human exhaustion,” he says. “And her parents are going to say, ‘Dan, I trust that when it’s enough, you’ll say it’s enough. That’s a beautiful blessing to receive and an incredible burden.”