As I write this, Sonja is running a marathon – a generally crazy way to cap a 118km week of racing.
But she knows exactly what she’s in to, after all, she finished ENDURrun with her husband Kela, way back in 2008. Since then, Sonja Bissegger has kept ENDURrun in the back of her mind as she has grown her family, finished multiple Ironman triathlons, and finished her PhD. So when the opportunity came up to return in 2017 – with an 11 month old – she jumped at the chance. In her first year with her daughter Maëlle, she finds running easier than either swimming or running, so she signed up in January to return to a community that she remembers fondly.
Sonja, a Kitchener native, is the type of runner that truly loves training, even more than the race goals. She uses races as motivation for the training, and especially for ENDURrun, likes how the week is essentially a training week. This won’t be an annual tradition for the family, but Sonja expects to return the event in a few years, and possibly even another Ultimate with Kela once their daughter is older! Sonja and Kela currently live in Kingston, where she works for a cutting edge biomedical startup which builds a bioreactor device that allows doctors graft healthy knee tissue from an unhealthy sample.
We look forward to hosting your family again in a future year!
We’re running out of time on these mini-profiles. Our goal was to share as many stories as possible, and this mission will continue beyond ENDURrun week as best as we can.