Federal Way resident Gail Kuhnly is a woman who’s driven by the “firsts” in life — it only makes sense she spends a lot of time running track.

As a competitor in the National Senior Games, Kuhnly is the owner of several national records in the 50-55 year-old age division. In her first meet in the Senior Games, she broke a 15-year-old meet record as she dominated the 50-meter, 100-meter, 200-meter and 400-meter dashes.

“I was the fastest woman on the track that day,” Kuhnly said. “The meet director came over to me and [jokingly] said, ‘You know, we’re going to have to drug test you.'”

Her drive has earned Kuhnly the honor of being a Humana Game Changer for her success on the track and for her efforts in serving as a role model for healthy living. The award is given annually by Humana, a sponsor for the National Senior Games, and Kuhnly felt honored to be held in such high esteem by her peers.

“Being distinguished as an athlete that’s worthy of recognition is exciting,” Kuhnly said.

Her excitement is matched by an exciting life worthy of Humana’s recognition. Born in Michigan, Kuhnly moved to California at the age of 5 and ended up going to four different high schools. She primarily focused on basketball in those years and earned a scholarship to play at Pepperdine University. Her athleticism didn’t go unnoticed by track coaches, who told her she didn’t have to practice but they wanted her to compete in meets. She dominated those as she does now, and was named most valuable track athlete.

After a year playing basketball at Pepperdine, Kuhnly went to Biola University and played for Athletes in Action, a Christianity-focused traveling basketball team. She then moved on to the University of California-Davis, where she played one year before deciding to hang up her sneakers. She stopped because she felt herself becoming more focused on her schoolwork — Kuhnly managed to find a way to be first in academics, too.

“My claim to fame was I was the first African-American woman to get a degree in the genetics department at UC Davis. That was a big deal to me,” Kuhnly said.

Kuhnly wasn’t done with school, earning her doctorate from Stanford University after six more years in the classroom. With degrees in hand, Kuhnly went to work as a laboratory scientist and worked at gene splicing, genetic manipulation and being the first to make many new discoveries. The work was just as fulfilling for Kuhnly as life on the basketball court was.

“I love being the first — I love having my name on patents, being the first to discover something… being a part of drugs that made it to the market, that made people [feel] better as opposed to sick; that was amazing,” Kuhnly said.

Genetics could only keep her so long, with her next chapter of life involving home-schooling her three children after moving to Federal Way with her husband and their church. Kuhnly said all three of her daughters keep her motivated because they’re all so different, and she enjoys knowing exactly what is being taught to them.

It was with her eldest daughter, who received a full-ride academic scholarship to the University of Washington, where she found another passion — the track.

Nothing in life is unreachable to Kuhnly, and seeing her eyes light up with passion talking about the littlest details of track — for example, how jumping rope leads to better technique and faster times — dares you not to believe her.

“I love the running and the technique because there’s still more mastery to come,” Kuhnly said. “There’s records that aren’t broken; there’s times I haven’t run that I can run [and] that I want to run.”

Kuhnly is “an inspired performer,” as her grandmother would say, and that has trickled into her coaching life. Kuhnly has coached at Pacific Lutheran University, Green River Community College and Federal Way High School, the latter of which saw her win a state championship.

She admits she prefers running and is excited to break new records in the 55-60 year-old division, but Kuhnly still loves coaching — it’s basically a mixture of the work she does teaching her daughters and her love for track. Her love has taken her toward becoming a level three-certified coach, the highest level possible attained in track. It’s a level of coaching that allows recipients to coach anyone in any location around the world.

When she’s done, it will (of course) come with another first.

“I realized that there are no female sprints, hurdles and relay coaches [with level-three status] in the state of Washington, period. I will be the first.”