Mindy Zemrak - Mamabear to the Eco Racers

Meet Mindy Zemrak.

She’s the competitive relations director for World's Toughest Race Eco-Challenge: Fiji. In other words, she’s the master communicator.

Her team oversaw everything related to all of the competitors for the race – from newsletters to patches to moving gearboxes, and to our panic attacks – you name it!

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Navigating Mental Health Issues

September is Suicide Awareness Month. And as someone who has experienced suicidal ideation and mental health challenges through the years, I feel this is the best time to have some bold conversations around complex mental health issues.

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World's Toughest Race: Behind-the-Scenes with Chris Ellison

Toughness comes in so many forms. And there were many times in the race when I would see Chris Ellison and I would think to myself, “That's one tough dude!”

Chris Ellison is not a racer, per se, but he’s one of the 13 embedded camera operators of the show. The physical challenges were far from easy, but he managed to finish much of the race with us.

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My Story: The Evolution of a Tough Chick

Growing up in a family that has always loved the outdoors, I have pretty much tried all kinds of tough stuff going from a marathon to a triathlon (think Ironman World Championships), and all the way to this whole new scary yet exciting stuff called adventure racing (watch The World’s Toughest Adventure).


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I'm done hiding...

34 months ago I went into hiding.

It was a Friday in October of 2017 when my life came to a halt.

I experienced an extreme mental health event.

It was unexpected.

It was as if the me I knew to be me was a teapot that got knocked to the floor and shattered.

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Sonja Wieck Comments
The Race that Eats Ironman for Breakfast

In September of 2019 I raced in the Worlds Toughest Race, Eco-Challenge Fiji as a part of Team IronCowboy. I’ve been required to stay mostly silent about this race since the race and we have been in the dark about an airdate until TODAY! On August 14th the show will air on Amazon Prime and we finally get to see the race unfold from the perspective of the production team.

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May 31st - Every Day in May

Wowah, Day 31 brings to a calendar close my Every Day in May adventure. It’s feels like a mini accomplishment to be here writing today staring June in the face a mere 40 minutes from now. Zero seconds have been spent thinking about June, but May 2020 will go down as one of my all time coolest months in my 40 years on Earth.

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May 27th - Every Day in May

I got sucked into the SpaceX launch of Crew Dragon so hard core today! I got nothing productive done for most the day while I watched the internet. I am FASCINATED by SpaceX, and I actually remember them starting work on it at UCSD when I was there in 2001. There was a lab that had a SpaceX logo on the wall and I remember talking to a guy and he was telling me about commercial space travel and I was like “you are bananas!” And then today, one huge step closer! I’ll be watching Saturday and praying for good weather in Florida.

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May 26th - Every Day in May

It was so hot today. Like Hawaii hot! The skies were deep blue and it was still out. Everyone in my house was back to work and school after a three day weekend, so I was back to my normal daily mom antics. My life really is quite simple these days. I’m quite impressed that overwhelm really isn’t something I have to deal with on a daily basis like I used to. Nice awareness on that today.

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May 25th - Every Day in May

Happy Memorial Day! Such an important day of remembrance for our country, for those who made the ultimate sacrifice. I know I am thinking differently about sacrifice these days. Also, happy summer! It’s here! The weather was perfect in Los Osos today to kick off summer, blue skies, warm sun.

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