Ottawa runner Coree Woltering-Aussem hopes to inspire on World's Toughest Race

When people see Coree Aussem-Woltering on "World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji," he hopes to do more than simply entertain.

Aussem-Woltering was a member of Team Oynx, the first all-Black team to appear on the show, which first aired from 1995 to 2002 and is back with a 10-episode season that debuted Friday on Amazon Prime Video.

“I think it’s extremely important for that to be shown,” the Ottawa native said. “In all the previous Eco Challenges, other than [teammate] Cliff [Lyles], I don’t think there’s been another African American to do it."

Aussem-Woltering said he didn't know he wanted to participate in an Eco Challenge until the opportunity presented itself.

"By us doing this, we’re hoping we maybe inspired people to do something like this. Maybe it’s a dream they didn’t know they had or maybe it’s on a smaller scale. We want more people to be active and go explore the outdoors. We hope people explore their local hiking trails, go for bike rides, stand-up paddleboard. Do something out of the norm.

“Especially in the African American community, that’s an important issue with high blood pressure and obesity. You need to be out and be active.”

As a gay man, Aussem-Woltering also hopes to knock down stereotypes of the LGBTQ+ community.

“The thing I wanted to show is I’m not sitting home baking cupcakes all day,” Aussem-Woltering said. “If you’re a baker, that’s awesome. Be the best baker you can be, but I want to be outside, I want to get dirty, I want to be out there and have to suffer in nature. I enjoy doing that. I want to break down stereotypes of 'we can’t do that' or 'we’re fragile,' because we’re absolutely not.”

Lyles recruited Aussem-Woltering, a professional ultra marathoner for The North Face, to join Team Onyx by reaching out to him through Instagram.

“He was looking for Black people who like to be outdoors and explore,” Aussem-Woltering said. “He reached out to me. I was like, ‘I don’t know you, I haven’t really even thought about racing an Eco Challenge, but here we go, let’s do it.’ ”

Aussem-Woltering was contacted in January 2019; the team found out it had a spot in February, and the show was filmed in September.

With Aussem-Woltering’s busy race schedule that included traveling internationally every three weeks or so through the first six months of 2019, he didn’t really start focusing on training for the Eco Challenge until the middle of June.

“Once the middle of June came, I started focusing on other sports because there are so many disciplines [such as paddling, climbing, etc.] in Eco that are not running,” Aussem-Woltering said. “The good news is if you have cardio fitness and overall strength, you can pick up some other sports quickly.”

No one on team Onyx knew each other before the challenge, and the teammates plus crew member were only together for a three-day weekend in July before meeting again in Fiji.

Aussem-Woltering said the group sat down beforehand to go over how teammates could pick up needed food or water or when to push a teammate and when to ease up.

But he added it’s one thing to discuss and another to notice those things when everyone is exhausted in a grueling race that covered 416 miles in 11 days.

“I believe we had maybe four hours of sleep in the first three days. It’s actually really hard to describe, because it’s a lot of constant motion for hours at a time. A lot of people think of Fiji as being beautiful beaches, beautiful ocean water and a relaxing vacation. We were in the part of Fiji where everything was trying to kill you. There aren’t any poisonous snakes or insects, but the terrain is so tough and demanding that it just breaks you down,” said Aussem-Woltering, who did add the mountains were amazing and the ocean was the bluest he’s ever seen.

He said the key is to simply keep looking ahead.

“Basically, you have to forget what you did five minutes ago, as crazy as that sounds,” Aussem-Woltering said. “It hurt five minutes ago, but that was five minutes ago. You have to deal with what you’re doing now. You have to focus on the task at hand and get through it. It’s not easy to do, especially when you’re out of food or water and you’re trying to get to the next camp so you can get some food and water. You have to honestly be willing to push yourself that far, and if something goes wrong, hope your teammates know how to take care of you.”

After filming Eco Challenge in September and breaking the record on the near 1,200-mile Ice Age Trail in June, among other things, Aussem-Woltering is now taking it easy for a bit back in Ottawa.

“I don’t have any big races at this point,” he said. “I haven’t been running a lot after the Ice Age Trail. I’ve been enjoying my summer. I’ve been swimming almost every day. It’s been pretty fun because normally I’d be training for the Chicago marathon or other big races in the fall. I wouldn’t actually be able to swim when I want or hang out and sit on the front porch and drink a beer.”

While he’s enjoying relaxing for now, Aussem-Woltering said he’d be down to compete in the next season of Eco Challenge, which will be filmed in Patagonia.

“I will hopefully be racing that if we get selected for the race again."