An Interview with Ryan & Bronsen from ‘Race to Survive: New Zealand’

RACE TO SURVIVE: New Zealand -- "Grit Trumps Calories" Episode 203 -- Pictured: (l-r) Bronsen Iverson, Ryan Stewart -- (Photo by: Brian Finestone/USA Network)

Last night’s episode of Race to Survive: New Zealand, saw not one, but two teams head home for varying reasons. Corry and Oliver left due to disqualification, while Ryan and Bronsen tapped out for health reasons and we here at NTG were fortunate enough to sit down with Ryan and Bronsen as well, to discuss their experiences during the race and their tough call.
 
John Betancourt: First and foremost, Ryan, how are you feeling? 
 
Ryan: Feeling good. It's kind of… knowing this episode's going to air tonight. It's kind of one of those give you a little kind of gut punch, you know. It just sucks having to watch yourself. We wanted to go at least to the end, you know. So, yeah, it kind of hurt a little bit, you know, all the episodes were fun, except for this one. 
 
John Betancourt: So, this will be a bit of a two-part question, the first is for Ryan. I’d love to know how hard it was to push through those injuries. Because I’m a guy with a bad knee, I felt for you, and I don’t know how you did it. 
 
Ryan: I mean, yeah, it happened early on in the second race. I fell and hurt, but then I fell into a really good tumble, and I don't think it ever was ever shown, but that's when I stood up and you could feel, that's when I first started feeling like more of a burning sensation, I guess it would have been. And so, I mean, all I could do is push through it. You know what? Even the doctor said, it probably started out as a small tear and worked its way to a larger tear. And so, I tried to focus on other things than the knee. And it was kind of funny, it would only hurt generally if weight was on my back, because the LCL acts as, I guess, is a weight bearing ligament, and so it's when that weight was on and going downhill or side hill or, you know, it just, I mean, it was I wanted to push through to, you know, to get the money for Bronsen, you know, and for myself, and just to finish it. So, it really stuck in that last leg. It just we, we got out of these rafts and got down the river, and it just didn't want to go. And it just kept locking up. It was weird. It would lock up. Then I’d go for like, 10 feet, and then it would lock up again. I’d go 10 feet, lock up. It just… it was bad.
 
John Betancourt: Now the second part, is for Bronsen. How hard was it to watch him go through that? 
 
Bronsen: Yeah, I know Ryan's a tough guy. Um, it was, I mean, not necessarily, like, way hard for me. I felt really bad for him, because I know he wanted to just keep pushing and keep going. But like, it got to the point to where, like, he literally couldn't or, I mean, we were walking five steps, and then we'd have a little five-minute break, and then five more steps, another five-minute break. I wouldn’t say I was bummed or anything, just had to support him.
 
John Betancourt: Now, obviously this was a decision that you guys didn't come to very quickly. You took a little time to get there. How hard was it to come to the decision to tap out?
 
Ryan: It was hard. It was really hard. Yeah, it was very, very, very difficult. But we just kind of had to think about, you know, we didn't know what was going on with the knee at the time, you know, at all. And, I mean, I still kind of go against it, but the doctor even said, if you kept pushing it, you probably would have eventually ripped all the way through, you know, and it would have been a, it would have been a complete tear where you would have had to have surgery, it would have been that, but I don't know, in my mind, I kind of feel like I should have just kept… maybe I should have made crutches. Or, you know what I mean, you kind of look back on it now, but at the same time, this is 10 months ago, so it's really hard to really understand the pain. You know what I mean? So, it's really hard. I put myself now, like, I should have done this, I should have done that, a lot of shoulders, but in the moment, you're thinking of like, I gotta go back home and work, you know what I mean, I gotta go back home and get back to regular life where I, you know, I make money and stuff and so, having that, ligament… it was 90% torn. Yeah, I don't know if I could have made it the 10% I, I feel like I could've now, (Laughs) but I don't know. I mean, it would have been pretty brutal. I don't know if we could, the last race would have been probably really, really hard to have probably done. 
 
So that was kind of our decision is like, is it worth the injury, the risk? Because I have a landscaping business as well as the guiding. So… how far do you permanently damage this thing? You know what I mean? That’s kind of where Bronson started talking sense into me on some of this stuff, because I did, I wanted to keep going. And he did. He's like, “Dude, you gotta, when you get home, you still gotta have a living,” you know what I mean. And it all kind of made sense. And so, I think we just kind of thought, well, you know, we had a good time there. We saved the leg enough that I hope, I hope we get to do something else, cool again. I mean, you know, I really do, my leg feels a lot better. I'll bet it's about 90%-95% and I'll just do, I think I do a lot more stretching next time. You know, as you get older, you don't stretch that body. Yeah, I think it would have prevented the injury, to be honest, I really do. I just, I work out and stuff. I don't do enough stretching. 
 
John Betancourt: Bronsen, anything to add?
 
Bronsen: Like Ryan said, it came down, like he just wanted to keep going, pushing through and like he said, I'm like, kind of talking sense into him, like, “Dude, life doesn't work for when you get back, you're just going to be a bum on the couch.”
 
Ryan: Yeah, yeah, it sucked I think the hardest part is, as well as kind of pride myself, I wanted to get all the way, and the next thing was letting Bronson down. You know, you kind of feel like you're letting him down. And I still have a hard time with it. I really do. I feel like I let us get down when we should have went, at least there to the end. But, I mean, life is life, you know, sucks. 
 
John Betancourt: Now that you’ve had time to reflect on the journey, what are you each going to miss about being out there?
 
Ryan: I loved all the challenges. I loved the simple life. To be honest. I love having no phones, no connection, being very isolated, um, kind of one with nature. Just kind of, it was simple. It showed you so much, I guess, in life, of how you don't need the materialistic things. Because all we cared about was food, water and shelter, and that was it. And we were happy. There was nothing to, you know, look at somebody else and say, “Oh, they have this. I have this.” You know, nowhere to be like that. So, I'll miss that. I even… coming back. I had a hard time with that. Of just engaging back into the real life, you know, the phone going, and then the messages and the stress of real life coming on to you. It was so simple out there. I really miss the simplicity of how life was out there.
 
Bronsen: I really just missed, like, the adventures and stuff we did, looking back, like in the moment, like you didn't notice because you're hungry, or whatever you like, thought it sucked, but watching the episodes, it's actually really cool. We did a lot of cool things, and we were in a really cool place, so I'll miss that. And also, like Ryan said, and I'm sure everybody else felt out there, just how much like, yeah, just how simple life needs to be like, you don't need to always be like, wanting the next big thing, I guess, like Ryan said, it's shelter, food, water and family. Miss family a lot out there. 
 
John Betancourt: Last question I have for each of you today, what did you learn about yourself that you didn’t know before? 
 
Ryan: I'm getting older. (Laughter from all) Yeah, you know, I didn't realize that, yeah, I just, I'm getting older. I mean, it's a hard thing to know my body's getting older. I guess. You know. I guess it's aging. It's… I’ve come to realize, because, to go against 20-year-olds and 25-year-olds. And, you know, just, I remember just being so prime in those days of just going, going, going, and now I'm 43, I never was sore. Like, that's what it was. I wasn't crazy sore. Wasn't crazy anything. But I just, I don't know, it was just weird, not going, like, I used to go, like, so full throttle, you know what I mean, kind of like the youngins, Corry and Oliver. It was just, it really ticked me off, actually, and it's actually made me want to work harder, physically, like, as far as stretching and getting simpler that way, it's really important, really, you know, because I just didn't realize that, because I played sports my whole life, and I just didn't realize that the body was getting a little old on me. 
 
Bronsen: Just how much family actually meant to me. Probably. Like just, you take a lot of things for granted when you're providing and working. So yeah, just life is simple, and family is everything.
 
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity. 

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