Slow to some was a triumphing speed to the athletes competing in the Special Olympics Race Walk on Thursday.

Among the athletes were Brenda Walkner and Kimberly Peterson. Each woman’s past is colored with the determination to win this event.

Just like other athletes, they train. Just like other athletes, they win and lose. They keep coming back, year after year, and with their families’ support they continue on.

The Race Walk event is just that. Contestants can’t run; they must walk as fast as they can.

The gunshot start of the 2K race rippled through the air with a bang loud enough to startle anyone in the crowd.

Seven athletes competed in the race, but Walkner was only competing against two other women in her division. Her parents waited for her at the finish line. After the first lap, her dad, Mike Walkner, shouted “don’t give up.”

Walkner was in third place, but first in her division.

Walkner, of Cedar Rapids, has trained for this race since March. The recreational center in her hometown has helped her faithfully train. She has competed in the same race for years.

Before the race, Walkner said she was excited.

The athletes had to finish five laps around the 400-meter track to complete the full two kilometers. Walkner crossed the line, first in her division, not realizing she had won the race.

She was ready to go another lap and was determined to keep going, until a volunteer chased her down to let her know she had already crossed the finish line.

Walkner looked up at her parents and smiled, giving them a thumbs-up as she walked off the track and received the gold medal for the second year in a row.

While Walkner made her way to claim her first-place prize at the awards podium, Tom and Wanda Tompkins lingered at the finish line, wondering when the 400-meter race was going to start.

The Tompkins’ niece, Kimberly Peterson, was competing in the 400-meter race.

Peterson is from the Cirsi group home in Marshalltown. The Tompkins live in Arizona for 8 months out of the year, but come back to Iowa during the summer to farm and to see Peterson compete.

“It’s one of the reasons to come to Iowa,” Tom Tompkins said.

The couple didn’t make it back to Iowa last year in time to see Peterson compete, so they were grateful for this year. Both Tom and Wanda said they appreciated everything the Cirsi home was for Peterson.

Wanda Tompkins said it was good for Peterson to be there and that, since living there, Peterson has been happy and her communication has improved. She said Peterson used to just repeat everything someone said to her. Now she is making sentences and expressing ideas of her own.

Tom Tompkins said Peterson has a “stubborn streak” and is very determined at times, a quality which helped her through six months of training and a third place finish in her event.