'World's Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji': Iron Cowboy's Sonja battled suicidal thoughts before expedition
'World's Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji' premiered last week on Amazon Prime Video. The adventure racing competitive series saw 66 teams from over 30 countries participate and push forward 24x7 over a span of 11 days. Also competing in this "expedition with a stopwatch" was Team Iron Cowboy from the USA and in an exclusive chat, team captain Sonja Wieck tells MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) about all the hustling that was required to be a part of this grueling event.
Sonja had been running and championing the Ironman triathlon for years and when she heard about "the race that eats Ironman for breakfast", she knew she had to join in. Talking about her experience regarding the challenge, she says, "Eco-Challenge was inspiring and heartwarming, and also challenging, gutting, exhausting, and hard." This was also her very first adventure race and while she had an idea of what she and her team were in for, she says, "experience is the best teacher".
In one of the episodes on the show, Sonja spoke about how she went through a dark phase a couple of years ago, suffering panic attacks and reaching a point where she wanted to end her life. We asked her if she was comfortable speaking about that time and she says, "I am. It was a really hard time in my life where I was trying to build a triathlon business from the ground up. I had been coaching for years, but I was trying to build a business with more coaches underneath me and many more athletes to make the model work, scaling essentially. The competing opinions and expectations of everyone inside my business weighed heavily on me and I started having panic attacks over negative feedback that I received."
"Stress and overwhelm were increasing along with the frequency of attacks and on one rough day, I couldn’t get my panic attack under control. I passed out in an auto body parking lot and went to the ER. The next day I was shattered. I couldn’t pick any of the pieces up and I went into a deep depression. My husband closed the business and I spiraled downhill for some time after that. The feelings of failure and sadness went through depression and into suicidal thoughts," she continues.
On how she got out of that phase and went on to compete in one of the biggest and toughest adventure races, she says, "I knew I had a loving husband and daughter but my mind would have these thoughts that I could not control. The best thing I did was tell my husband honestly what was going on. We got me help through therapy and put safeguards in place for several months. Eventually, the therapy started to work and the path to healing began. It was a long road, but worth it."
In the whole 671 km race track, the participating teams had to walk, raft, mountain bike, swim and paddle along the way at various points. Speaking about the moment where she felt absolutely triumphant, she says, "There is a section in the race where we are swimming and I figured out how to turn my pack around backward and strap it to my waist and it became a floatie. I was so impressed with myself for having ingenuity on the course and I helped my teammates turn their packs around to float as well. That got us moving quicker through really cold water and I was proud of thinking on my feet."
'Eco-Challenge Fiji' was the "hardest physical challenge" of her life. On what made it more demanding, she says, "I took on more responsibility being the solo navigator that I may have been emotionally ready for, but in retrospect, I’m proud of myself for pushing my limits in this direction. It’s the only way to grow." Detailing her training routine to prepare for this experience, she says, "The training for a race like this is pretty straight forward… do as much training as you possibly can without injuring yourself or burning out your motivation. I ran 4X a week, mountain biked 3X a week, outrigger canoed 3X a week, SUPed 1X a week, and lifted in the gym 4X a week. The variety of sports keeps it fresh."
Whether she'd return for the next eco-challenge, she says, "Absolutely! If EcoChallenge does not select the team I apply with then I will make myself available as a volunteer. One way or another I will be in Patagonia at the next Eco-Challenge, I am a fan for life."
'World's Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji' is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.