Race to Survive's Ryan and Bronsen Are Still "In Denial" About Their Early Exit

The teams on Race to Survive: New Zealand continue to drop like flies as the extreme terrain does them in on this 150-mile extreme survival competition. Following in the steps of Mikhail Martin and Steffen Jean-Pierre and Jeff” Watterson Jr. and Coree Woltering, the Utah-based in-laws team of Bronsen Iverson and Ryan Stewart were also taken down by a dire physical injury in Episode 8.

Going back to Episode 2 of this season, viewers will remember when Ryan twisted his knee — and it just got worse with every single race leg. The final straw was the grueling three-mile beach hike that destabilized Ryan's knee beyond measure. They made the call to leave the game. 

In a recent Zoom with the pair, Bronsen and Ryan revealed to USA Insider when they knew it was getting too dangerous to keep going, what they appreciated most after the competition, and Ryan's greatest regret.

Ryan's Fatal Foe: The Sands of New Zealand

At the start of Episode 7, the race course creators threw a huge surprise at the dwindling teams: a 20-hour, 25-mile, no-mandatory-night-stop leg of the race. Starting and ending with sand, Ryan said he knew he was doomed. 

"I remember looking at Bronsen and saying, 'This is not going to be good on the leg,'" Ryan said. "I usually could go, say, a half a race through the day before the knee would really start bothering me. At the five-hour mark, or the end of the day, it would start bothering me. What bothered me is knowing that this was a whole sand race, and that this was going to tear the knee up. And it did."

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While they maintained a reasonable pace, Ryan said when Creighton and Paulina zoomed past them, they knew they were cooked. "We were always so, so far ahead of them, like hours and hours and hours; if not days," Ryan explained. "It was so sickening to have Bronsen look back say, 'Dude, they're right on us. They're gonna pass us.' It just sucked."

Ryan said he was also nursing a swollen arm after he pulled two muscles. "My biggest worry was getting hurt when everyone started getting hurt. And there I go," he said, sighing. "I'd never even barely been hurt my entire life."

Ryan and Bronsen: Making In-Law Bonding Look Easy

Bronsen Iverson and Ryan Stewart during a competition on Race To Survive New Zealand. Photo: Daniel Allen/USA Network

To make it as far as they did into Episode 8, Bronsen said they did a lot of positive talking: "We just both kept pushing each other. We talked about family stuff and just keep going while we're talking about that."

But Ryan said the injury definitely got into his head, especially when someone would ask about his shoulder or knee. "Sometimes I'm like, 'Oh my gosh, it wasn't hurting until you asked me!'" he said with a laugh. "But you'd get into camp where you look at the people and you can see their feet were swollen too.

"It was just a matter of time," he said of the knee getting too bad to continue. "To push yourself like that and not to have the appropriate things to heal it or even knee braces. But that's part of [the race]."

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Ryan also appreciated Bronsen's offers to take more weight from his 50-pound pack. "I might hand him an extra pound or two, but I had my pride. So I tried to breathe a lot and do breathwork. I always tried to do something different to keep my mind off it," he explained.

A small perk came when they eventually called the producers to take them out of the game. When taken back to the production base camp, the pair were fed the best candy bars, sandwiches, and pizzas of their lives. (Even better than the much-appreciated eel gifted by Creighton.)

Bronsen's Memories and Ryan's Regrets

Bronsen Iverson and Ryan Stewart during a competition on Race To Survive New Zealand. Photo: Daniel Allen/USA Network

The pair are both back to work in Utah, with Ryan as a field guide and Bronsen as a professional farrier. They're both healed and reflecting now about their experience. 

"I thought it was a really cool place," Bronsen said. "It helps a lot watching all the episodes now, being like, 'Holy cow. We were there. That's really cool!' I love watching the episodes because I guess in the moment, you're just focusing on getting to the end crate. And when you're surviving, you're focusing on surviving."

"As you get weeks and weeks into the [race], you look back and you do kind of think we should have stopped maybe and looked around a little bit," Ryan said of the race's crazy pace. "But I would say on that last race, I think we did look ... around a little bit more and see the terrain and how pretty it was. How cool of an experience it really was and the cool things we got to do and how awesome it even was in the time we got to spend together and just enjoying life. We did live it up a lot more."

While getting to reunite with the rest of his family refueled Ryan, he admitted that the distance from the race and the intense pain does sometimes make him regret bowing out early.

"I didn't want to go out that way," he shared. "I personally have a hard time with it. I still think, 'I should have done this and this,' and all the alternatives. I'm still in denial. But then I went to the hospital and they looked at it. [The doctor] said, 'Your LCL is torn. It probably started tearing and it got worse and worse and worse. If you would have kept going, it probably would have ripped all the way through.'"

Post-race, the pair said they still have tight friendships with several of their fellow teams. "I see Creighton still. I've seen him quite a few times," Ryan said. "He goes down to Hurricane and sees [my daughter] Brinn and Bronsen. We've seen Paulina. We text Oliver and Corry quite often. They want to do some river rafting. And then Tyrie and Ethan."

Looking back at their 100 miles in the race, Bronsen said, "Being out there, it was hard, physically. The whole time I was out there, I wished I was at home with my family and doing my job shoeing horses. But I do have a good appreciation for work and how lucky we are."

"I would love to do it again," Ryan offered. "I would do a lot more yoga. I'd be a little bit more limber for that situation."

Keep watching new episodes of Race to Survive: New Zealand every Monday on USA Network at 11 p.m. ET/PT!