Fighting their way through a non-elimination leg last week, the Amazing Race headed back into Botswana and gave the teams a chance to brave crocodiles, goats, horses and donkeys. When faced with a pack of stubborn donkeys at the Detour, Pamela Chien and Winnie Sung attempted to complete the other Detour (a memory challenge on horseback), which caused them to fall further behind the pack and ultimately the last to reach the Pit Stop. The Yak recently had a chance to meet with the best friends from Southern California and discuss their time on the race.
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The Yak: That was a rough elimination to watch. It must be difficult to get that many legs into the race and have a Detour take you out like it did. Pam:I know, right? Winnie:Word!
The Yak: With that Detour, at first you had difficulty with the donkeys, so you decided to switch tasks and then ultimately ended up going back. How long did you spend with the horses before going back to the donkeys? Pam:Toward the end of the horse detour, we realized so much time was passing that we knew we must be in a bad place at that point. Especially after getting it wrong. Winnie: We started to realize this might be it, so even though we didn’t know how long the donkeys were taking at that point, it just felt really long being on the horses.
The Yak: Did you attempt the memory (horse) task just the two times or were there additional times that we didn’t get to see? Winnie: Yeah, we did it twice. It was more like getting Triple U-Turned! (laughs) We did 3 detours with the donkey one twice and the horse one once, so in total it was probably close to two and a half hours.
The Yak: Once you got back to the donkeys the second time, it seemed to work out much better for you. Was it really as quick as it looked? Pam: No, whenwe went back, it took us another 30 minutes or so to get them moving again. Winnie: And then, they would stop along the course, as well, so we would have to get them moving again every time they stopped. Pam: To be honest with you, I think the donkeys took us just as long the second time around as the horses. Winnie: But, I think for teams where the donkeys moved, it went much faster.
Winnie & Pam Give a Goat a Boat Tour
The Yak: That had to be frustrating to know at that point, it’s really up to the feelings of the animal to decide if they’re going to help you out or not. Pam: It seriously was.
The Yak: When you found out you had been cast this season, did you do anything special to prepare for the race? Winnie: Yeah, we spent a lot of time preparing for the race. On top of working out, we did situations that we thought we’d encounter, like ice skating and kayaking. We even did tasks where we knew we’d have to work together, so we tried to prepare as much as we could.
The Yak: What was your favorite part of the race? Pam: The whole race aspect, like doing the challenges, running from country to country. It was a lot of fun. In particular, going to Africa because of working with the bushmen and being with goats, but then we ran into donkey and … then it wasn’t fun anymore. (laughs) They’re such assholes.
The Yak: Did you get close with any of the other teams? Have you kept in touch since the race ended? Pam: We’re definitely friends with everyone. It’s definitely an experience that bonds you, regardless of the stuff that happens on the race. We’ve kept in touch with everyone.
The Yak: What was the toughest challenge for you? Obviously, the donkey challenge wasn’t a favorite of yours, but beyond that, what really challenged you? Pam: For me, it was the stilts. It was awful and it was just a bad day. We had trouble in the water, so I don’t know why I thought I could do stilts after taking Dramamine. We also realized it was tough to do when you’re shorter because there’s so much more of the stick going over your head, so it was probably a bad idea to have the shortest person in the race do that. (laughs)
The Yak: What surprised you the most about the race? Pam: The most interesting part was getting so immersed in the local culture. It’s something that’s really priceless. You would never be able to hang out with bushmen and drive them around in your car, so that was the most fun part of the race.
Pamela & Winnie Look for Animals in Botswana
The Yak: What’s next for the both of you? Winnie: Survivor! Pam: Judge Judy! Winnie: Yeah, we’re going to small claims court. Pam:We’re going to hit all the reality shows. (Pam and Winnie laughs) Winnie:We’re actually just back to our normal lives, and we’re enjoying watching the show every Sunday.
The Yak: You definitely had fans pulling for you, so if given the chance, would you race again? Winnie: Absolutely. In a heartbeat!
The Yak: Thanks for your time! It’s been a pleasure speaking with you! Pam: Thank you! Winnie: Thanks so much!
After last week’s history-making elimination of John and Jessica, who were holding the Express Pass when reaching the Pit Stop, the latest episode of The Amazing Race brought the teams to Vietnam for chess playing, communist partying, and bamboo dancing. With the team of David and Connor O’Leary (@Coleary00) making their way through the last few legs with an injured Achilles tendon, they were required to leave the game due to a doctor’s request as soon as they landed in Vietnam. The father/son duo took time today to sit down with the Yak and reflect on their amazing trip around the world and their emotional elimination.
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The Yak: Thanks for chatting with us! It was a really emotional and tough elimination to watch last night. Connor: Thanks for having us. David: It was really tough for us, too.
The Yak:Our members wanted to pass along their condolences in regards to being eliminated for something that was out of your control, but that they were impressed for you pushing along this far into the race with your injury. With that being said, how is your leg doing now? David: It’s in process. I came home and immediately had surgery. They pulled the Achilles back together and they couldn’t do much with the calf muscle, but hopefully, it’ll heal over time. I am back on a bike, though, and I should be running again in the next 60 days, so I don’t see any reason why I can’t make a complete recovery.
The Yak: So, does it go without saying that if the show asked you to come back, you’d do it all over again? Connor: In a heartbeat. David:We’d be there next season, if we could.
The Yak: Looking back at the race, what was your favorite location that you visited? Connor:I would say Indonesia. Bali is a pretty spectacular place, and it’s such an amazing culture. David:Every place we went was so incredible. Vietnam was great, but I’ll have to agree with Connor, Indonesia was spectacular. Definitely, we’ll go back.
The Yak: What was your best memory from the race? David: It was having the chance to go see these incredible places, and I got to do a few incredible things. I also got to watch Connor do some incredible things, and to be able to do that with your son, who’s also your best friend, makes all of it full of good memories. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and despite my injury, I don’t have any regrets about doing this race at all. Like I said, I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Connor: It was fun, especially getting to do that racing element with your dad. We’ve done things together, but nothing that involves a competition element. It was fun to work with my dad as a team and see all the stuff we could do. It was a pretty amazing experience. David:Connor was really glad that he got to jump out of the helicopter instead of building sandcastles. The Yak: Seems like that was a decent trade off. David and Connor:(laughs)
Connor and David Boat in Bora Bora
The Yak:When you learned that you had been cast for this season, did you do anything special to prepare for the race? David:We did a lot to prepare. We spent a lot of time running, cycling, we went hiking with backpacks, we swam, and we really tried to be physically in a position that kept us fit. Personally, I wanted to make sure I could keep up with Connor. We also watched hours and hours and hours of The Amazing Race while making spreadsheets and analyzing challenges. We even decided who would be the best one to do each challenge. We were just trying to prepare to be in the heat of the moment, but then you get put into that moment and you forget everything you studied. It’s like everything just goes out the window and you’re left on your own.
The Yak: It appeared like you managed to handle most of the challenges without any problems, including your unexpected injury. You mentioned during the show that your doctor said you needed surgery within the next 7 days, but if he hadn’t made that suggestion, would you have been able to continue on? David:I think we could have. Who knows how long we would have been able to do it, considering that Connor only had so many challenges he was allowed to do according to the rules, so at some point, I was going to have to do things and would have loved to been able to do more. We probably would have completed the leg in Vietnam, and then ultimately, we would have been eliminated, but that goes with the territory. Once we got the word that there was a window within which I had to have the surgery, I just made the decision that it was time to go out.
The Yak: Did you get a chance to get close with any of the other teams, and have you kept in touch since the race ended? Connor:Everybody was great on the show. They were all super cool with us. We spent a few flights next to the Derby Moms [Mona and Beth] and the Country Girls [Caroline and Jen]. Whenever we had a down time at the airport, we got along with everybody.
The Yak: What was the toughest part of the race that you weren’t expecting? David:Everything happened so fast. It was really intense. When you’re watching it on television, it’s really easy to armchair quarterback and say, “Oh, how could they make that stupid decision?”, but when you’re there, it’s all moving so fast, so when you get up and get a clue that says “boat” and “bag”, you just automatically just skip the rest of it and head to your boat. You make stupid mistakes.
The Yak: Speaking of just getting up and going, during the non-elimination leg, how long were you racing without a break? Connor:We were racing for over 4 days. They said that it was the longest leg in race history. It was definitely a long race and I’m sure by that point I just smelled terrible. David: (laughs)I can confirm that he really did. Connor: You’re so out of your element, and you’re not on a regular sleep schedule and not able to eat at a regular time, so it kind of messes with you a little bit, but it was still a blast.
Connor and David Race to the Pit Stop
The Yak: Watching you was very inspirational, since you both not only overcame cancer in your lives, but also had the additional challenge of the injury, so being able to come in first at all was quite impressive. David: Thank you!
The Yak: What’s next for the both of you? Connor: I take off in about a week for Europe for a few months for racing. School and racing is pretty much what I have going on. David:I’m back to work, and whenever we can follow Connor racing, we do so. If there are races in Europe that we think would be really great to see, we try to do that. He’s got some big races in the US this summer, so we’ll be tagging along on those as well.
The Yak: Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us, and we wish the both of you the best! Connor, good luck with your upcoming races, and let us know how it turns out! We hope to see you back on The Amazing Race in the future! David:We hope so, too! That’d be great! Connor:Thanks so much!
Season 22 of The Amazing Race kicked off last week with an Amazing Race first, travel to Bora Bora, and saw the demise of one of three teams that opted to take the penalty on a Road Block over completing the task. The Firefighters, Matt & Daniel, were the last in a foot race to the Pit Stop at the end of the first leg. The second leg continued in the beautiful locale of Bora Bora, where the remaining 11 teams battled it out in the topical heat and crystal blue waters. Their fear of water ultimately landed twin brothers, Jamil Abdur-Rahman and Idries Abdur-Rahman, at the back of the pack and eliminated at the Pit Stop. The Yak took time to sit down with the OB/GYN Physicians to discuss their stint on the race.
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The Yak: When you applied to be on The Amazing Race, did you think your fear of water might have been a challenge somewhere along the race? Did you have any discussions on how to deal with it when it did come up? Idries: I think we both knew. There were two things coming into the race that we were hoping to minimize: Water and Pork, because we can’t eat pork. We knew that the water was definitely going to come into play. Both of us can swim, but we’re just not super comfortable in the water and we’re not super comfortable with open water. So, our hope was that if we did have to be in water, it would be more like a contained setting, like a pool. We did prepare, though. We did swimming classes and training in the pool. (laughs) We did know that it was going to be an Achilles Heel if it came up. Definitely.
The Yak:You definitely gained some respect from some of our members for not giving up on the task, unlike some of the teams in the previous leg. What made you decide to stick with the Detour rather than take the penalty for not completing it? Jamil: I think it was a couple of things. For one, just being on the race. It was something that we had wanted to do for so long, and you can’t get on the race and then just give up. You just can’t do that. It was more about having respect for the entire process. You know, it was tough getting on the race and then once you get there, you can’t give up because it gets tough. The second reason was because we knew our friends would see it, our family would see it, along with our children, and our patients, so we didn’t want to be portrayed like that. Then, third, like we said on the race and not to be corny, but it really was true – we had a lot of people early on in our lives who didn’t give up on us. Just out of respect to them, we couldn’t really give up. Even when you know you’re dead, and we knew we were dead, but we couldn’t give up. (laughs) You gotta go full force. Idries:I agree with that. Also, my wife and I home-school my kids, and we tell them you can’t give up, you gotta keep going. So we couldn’t just go on national TV and give up. That wasn’t going to happen.
Jamil Powers Through the Road Block
The Yak: What is the best memory that you’ll take away from the entire experience? Idries: The entire experiences itself is just awesome and amazing. I’m going to look at this whole thing and just treasure the memory. It’s so hard to pinpoint one thing that was better than the other. The whole experience was amazing. I know it sounds corny, but it was just amazing! The whole thing was cool. Jamil:The one experience I’ll take from it more than anything else was the last task we were doing. When people were watching the show last night, they were asking, “Why were you crying? Were you crying because you were done?” Even though we knew we were done, I told them it wasn’t that. When I was on the last task, I pretty much knew we were finished. I was exhausted. My feet had been in the water for so long that once I got on those stilts, I started getting blisters. It was a bad experience, and I just wanted to be done, so I sat down for a minute and closed my eyes. I started talking to my Grandparents, and I said, “Please help me.” Right at that moment, it was the strangest thing – there was this cloud cover, so it wasn’t so hot anymore and there was this breeze, so I knew I was going to do it. So, I got on the stilts and I did it. That was actually what made me kind of emotional because I kind of felt like that was them saying to me, “We’re still here. We’re still pushing you.” That was the best experience I take from it.
The Yak: Did you do anything special to prepare for the race after you had learned you’d been cast this season? Idries: We were both already pretty fit from going to the gym every day and running. I actually had run a 15K just 4 days before we left for the race. So, we stayed physically fit. We stepped it up a bit. We were putting weighted backpacks on our backs to simulate running the race with our actual backpacks. I had started training for my black belt before we left, so I kept doing that, and we started playing mental games as well. We’re use to working and having to be sharp with no sleep, but we started trying to step it up a bit. I would wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and I would play Sudoku, just to see how mentally sharp I could be with very little sleep. Jamil: I think the swimming lessons and that training made us more proficient, as well.
The Yak: Did you get a chance to get close with any of the other teams, and have you kept in touch with them since the race ended? Jamil: Yeah, we all keep in touch. We have a little group on Facebook, and we all chit chat with each other. We’re planning on doing a little reunion at the end. I think we actually got close with all the teams. Idries: Everybody was awesome. I told everyone – not trying to be diplomatic – but everyone was really awesome. I felt pretty close to all of them to be honest with you.
Idries and Jamil At the Road Block
The Yak:What’s next for the two of you? Jamil: We’re just continuing to do what we were doing before. We’re working, and we’re enjoying that. The only other thing I want to take from this whole experience is it showed me how lucky we are, not only to do what we do on a daily basis, but to have opportunities like that. I do want to give back in some way, and we’re thinking of getting involved in some charitable activities. Other than that, we’re just living our lives and taking it one day at a time.
The Yak: Thanks for your time. We wish you both the best of luck! Idries: Thank you! Jamil:Thank you very much!
Season 22 of The Amazing Race concluded on Sunday night with an epic finale that kept the viewers on the edge of their seat for the entire 2 hour ride. After racing more than 25,000 miles across three continents, nine countries, and 20 cities, the Final 3 teams fought their way toward the $1 million prize. The most unlikely team in the Final 3, the Fabulous Beekman Boys (@Beekman1802Boys), pulled out the win in a nail-biting finish that still has fans talking about their amazing come-from-behind journey. The Yak took an afternoon recently to chat with life partners Josh Kilmer-Purcell (@joshkp) and Brent Ridge to discuss their time on the race, the memories they made, and how they’ll spend their prize money.
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The Yak: Congratulations on your win! It was an amazing episode, and a lot of viewers were pulling for you to take home the prize! Josh: Thank you! Brent: Thank you very much!
The Yak: It seemed like the first half of the race was much harder for the two of you. What was the difference or the turning point in your minds? Brent: Well, actually, we were doing pretty well for the first few legs. We were solidly in the middle of the pack, and then we had a major setback with the missed flight connection. It’s tough to make up a 14 and a half hour lag. Maybe people didn’t really notice, but by the time we got to Spain, we were only 3 hours behind the next team, and that’s a pretty major accomplishment over two legs. We were as far back as any team could possibly be and still be in the same game, but we just kept going.
The Yak: OK, so I have to know. Did you fake the ankle injury? Josh: No, it was actually funny watching the show because like any sprain, after I was on a plane for a few hours and had it elevated, it felt like brand new, but then I started running and ended up twisting it again. I can see how [The Twinnies] thought it might have been some evil scheme or strategy. Brent: They were just grasping for anything at that point.
The Yak: It appeared that the rilvary with The Twinnies lit a fire under you. Is that how it happened on the race? Josh: Absolutely! Up to that point in the race, we had been very cordial, as we always are in our everyday lives, with all the teams, but once we found out that there was an alliance that was more “us versus them”, that was our first kick in the butt. Then, once the twins, who are just wonderfully competitive people, realized we were their biggest threat, they really helped fire us up. We were firing each other up, and making us the best competitors that we both could have been. That’s what sportsmanship is, it’s making your competitor the best competitor that they can be.
The Yak: How were you able to make up so much time over a couple of legs? I’m not sure that any other team has been able to accomplish that during the race. Brent: Thank you so much for pointing that out! Josh: Nobody gives us credit for that! Brent: The thing is that we did very well was at the tasks, when we were able to get to them. Part of our strategy for racing with Ryan and Abbie was that we knew that whichever one of our teams was going to survive, they would only survive to the final leg if we could eat into that lag time as much as possible, so by working together, we were able to blow through the tasks in Russia.
Josh and Brent prepare the dog food during the last leg of the race
The Yak: From another teams perspective, what was it like to be racing against Abbie and Ryan, knowing they were up for $2 million as the prize? Brent: That had no bearing on us, and I think some of the other teams felt that Abbie and Ryan would be racing harder, but we know Ryan and Abbie and they were going to be racing hard even if it was for $1. The only time that the $2 million really came into play is in terms of the pressure that was put on the other teams was during that first leg of the race. Everybody was really gunning for it, but then after that, people were just running the race.
The Yak: Was working with Abbie and Ryan as helpful as it seemed? It appeared to be during the show, but we don’t get a sense of what it was like actually on the race. Was it that helpful? Brent: Yes! It was entirely strategic! I know people think it was touchy-feely, like we were in last place and we wanted to hug it out, but Abbie and Ryan are very strong and very strategic, as are we, so we knew that only one of us was going to continue in the race, and the only chance was to make up that time. So, it was not selfless, it was selfish on both of our parts.
The Yak: Do you think it was better to be the underdogs rather than the ones to beat? Josh: I definitely think it was better for us to be the underdogs. Only because we knew going into the race that every team has their own specific set of strengths and weaknesses, so we knew from the moment we were on the starting line that we weren’t going to beat half of these teams in a physical challenge. We had to rely on some of our life experiences, like having lost our jobs and picking ourselves up by the boot-straps and starting over. The “go with the flow” mentality that it taught us was one of our strengths. I think when you’re in the back of the pack, that strength is really, really valuable. By the time that we got to the finish line, all the other teams who approached the race with an “I have to win and come in first as many times as possible” mentality were mentally and physically more exhausted than we were. Brent: And you can see that on the final two legs. The top three teams were starting to get frazzled.
The Yak: Taking a look at the final Road Block, how much pressure did you feel when you’re there with the other two teams, trying to get this finished? Josh: There was a moment, and we all experienced it, when you had three right that we thought we knew, but you realized that there were thousands of combinations that we were going to have to try and that was the only way we were going to finish. It was a really bleak moment, and I think you saw it on Lexi’s face, as she had a hard time dealing with that. I knew that the only way to get past that place mentally was to try every combination of flags, so I had no choice. It was either step down and wait for somebody else to do it or get going on the flags.
The Yak: Did you do anything special to prepare for the race after you found out that you had been cast? Brent: We trained and trained. We’re also long-time fans of the show, but we watched every season we could get our hands on and rewatched it. Josh went to the gym a couple of times. [Josh and Brent laugh] No, we trained, physically, as much as we could. We quizzed ourselves with world maps. Most importantly, what we talked about in the last few weeks leading up to the race was how we were going to communicate with one another on the race. Having watched 20 seasons of the race, we knew that generally it wasn’t one team beating another team, it was a team defeating itself, and a lot of that comes down to how you support one another and how you communicate with one another on the race. So, we really worked amongst ourselves to say, “Hey, in this scenario, how do you want me to talk to you? If it happens, what do you want me to say?” That was really what we spent most of our time focused on.
The Yak: You can tell from watching the season that the two of you got pretty close with some of the other teams, but have you kept in touch with any of them since the race has ended? Brent: Absolutely! We’ve kept in touch with all of them. We text with them frequently, and we actually watched the finale with half of the teams on Sunday night.
Josh and Brent celebrate their $1 million win
The Yak: So, what are your plans for the $1 million dollars? Josh: We have three things planned. First, we’re going to pay off the mortgage on our farm, so that I can finally move up and be with Brent full time again after 5 years apart. Second, we’re hoping to buy a building in our village to become the headquarters for our business, so we can reinvest the money back into the town. Third, we want to start a line of food products for other small businesses so they can pay off their mortgages.
The Yak: What’s next for Josh and Brent? Brent: Well, Josh will move to the farm full-time in January. That’s our next big step in the evolution of our business and our farm and our relationship. Josh: We’re also working on a new cookbook, so we can put back some of the pounds that we lost on the race. We’re also going to be working with our village. Hopefully, being on The Amazing Race has made people aware of our village in upstate New York, and people will come to visit and help out the entire economy.
The Yak: Thanks so much for your time, and, again, congratulations on your win! Brent: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us!
Proving that there’s more to the Chippendales team than just a couple of pretty faces, Jaymes Vaughan (@JaymesV) and James Davis (@James_MNE) showed fans of The Amazing Race their competitive drive, their incredible stamina, and their ability to don the infamous cuffs and bow ties when the situation called for it. Fighting their way into the Final 3 teams racing for the one million dollar prize, Jaymes and James escaped straight jackets, delivered pizzas to hungry New Yorkers, and raced their way into a second place finish at the last leg. The Yak recently had a chance to chat with the dynamic duo from Las Vegas about their drive for the grand prize, their supportive families back home, and what the next step is for this pair of pals.
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The Yak: Congratulations on making it to the Final 3 during the race. It was great watching you both, and we were all pulling for you to bring home the win! We were big fans, and you did a great job at representing yourselves and the Chippendales. James: Thank you! Jaymes: Thank you so much! That means a lot, and I really appreciate that!
The Yak: After watching all the episodes now, what is your overall feeling about the race? Jaymes:We had an amazing time on the race! We met some absolutely amazing teams. They had some inspirational stories. Look at Dan and Amy and everything they accomplished in life. The fact that Amy has become an amazing world-class snowboarder. Trey and Lexi – the love and support that they showed for each other. Josh and Brent were an amazing couple. We really met some amazing people on the race, and I feel like we came back with a family of 22 in our Amazing Race family. We love everybody that was on the race with us. We had a great time with everybody, making wonderful memories.
The Yak: James, have you had a chance to give your new car to your mom? James: You know, I have not. We haven’t received the phone call yet. We’re wondering how it works. Do they mail it out? Do they ship it to us? We haven’t gotten the cars yet, so we’re still waiting to see how the prizes actually happen. I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet that we’ve won these prizes. I’m sure my mom is going to be so happy once she gets her new car, she’ll probably do a back flip! [laughs] Jaymes: We’re pretty dang-gone excited! James: I’m so stoked about giving her this car. Jaymes:I can’t wait to see the look on his mom’s face when she gets the car! We didn’t get the million, but one of our goals was to get his mom a car and we accomplished that. Another thing we can do, I can give my car to my parents to sell, so we can help pay for his expenses. We did win something. We didn’t leave empty handed, so we feel great that we did accomplish something for our families.
Jaymes and James complete a task
The Yak: It was nice to see you both working so hard, not only for yourselves, but for your families as well. Speaking of your families, Jaymes, how is your dad doing? Jaymes: My dad’s a fighter. He’s in a new treatment for his cancer… sorry, it’s hard to talk about this, as I get upset really easily thinking about it… He started a new course of treatment with chemo and radiation, and he’s doing the best that he can to be the first person to take this incurable cancer and say, “Yo, it is curable! Check it out! I beat it!” My dad is a Marine, he’s a fighter, he’s hardcore, and he’s gone through this with an amazing attitude the entire time, and I feel like he might really be the first one to beat this thing! The best we can do, as family and loved ones, is to give him the means to take care of it, and that is by financially telling him to stop working. My dad is still working. It’s ridiculous. He goes to work, leaves and goes to chemo. He goes back to work, leaves and goes to radiation, then goes back to work. You’re not supposed to do that! So, I’m trying to do everything I can to help him. We’ve set up a website for him, www.forgetcancernow.com, and we’re trying to spread the word about it. James: Every little bit helps. People think a dollar doesn’t matter, but the power of one dollar is big. It all adds up and makes a huge difference. Jaymes: I still have faith, you know, that we were put on this show for a reason. I think it was because we were supposed to achieve that goal of me going to my dad at Christmas and saying, “Here you go. Stop working and get better!”
The Yak: What was the hardest challenge you faced during the race? James: Man, I had so many… you saw me struggling with the Bondo, you saw us struggle with the bamboo, you saw us struggle with the abacus lady. For me, mentally, the flag challenge at the end was the most demanding, just because of it’s proximity to the end. You’re at the end, this is the last thing you’ve got to do before you get the million, and the pressure is on. You could have cut the tension with a knife. I have to say that was the toughest challenge of the race. Honestly, we had great notes on all the greeters. Jaymes: We wrote down everything, down to the fingernail paint color they had on. James: We had every other details, except for “Hello” and “Goodbye”, so we knew the flags of the countries… Jaymes: We were even looking at the mat to make sure it was the same mat every time at the Pit Stop. We took notes about everything, and we had a whole notebook full of notes. We knew “Thank you” in every language, but we didn’t know “Hello” and “Goodbye.” James: A tip of the cap to the Amazing Race crew because they slipped that one by not just us, but everybody. Everybody was struggling with that challenge. It was extremely hard, especially when it’s at the end like that and your adrenaline is pumping and you want to get it done as quickly as possible, yet it’s something you just could not get done in 10 minutes. Jaymes: I just want to brag about my best friend here for a second. You know how much taxi trouble we had in New York, it really got us behind, and we got to that flag challenge pretty late. James was actually able to complete that flag challenge faster than anyone else. We just got there so far behind. Leave it to a Chippendale to figure out, if we don’t know these “Hello” and “Goodbyes”, then lets make some algebra out of it. X and Y are going to equal Z, so he just went through and did it like a mathematical equation. He figured it out, so I just wanted to brag about him and say how proud I am of him that he did accomplish that. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t get anywhere fast enough. James: Honestly, it was mere minutes. It was an epic finish to an epic race, I feel.
Jaymes and James dance their way through a Detour
The Yak:It was a great season! It was a nail-biter right down to the very end. James: We were biting our nails, too! Jaymes: That guy in Indonesia [at the Pit Stop] was probably biting all of his long nails off!
The Yak: Did you get close to any of the other teams and have you kept in touch since the end of the race? Jaymes: Oh yeah, we’ve got an entire Amazing Race family! We are forever part of the Amazing Race Season 21 family. Nobody will understand this experience like they will. Are you kidding me? We all keep in touch. James: You really get to see who people really are in these crazy situations, and we met some real genuinely great people to the core. We’re very fortunate and blessed with the teams that we had. Jaymes: Absolutely! I can’t wait for that Beekman Boy wedding, and we’ll get to get back together and go congratulate them. I’m so excited for them!
The Yak: Did you do anything special when you found out that you had been cast for the race? James: No, but we were very hesitant at first. We actually had decided not to do it. We were just a little concerned with reality TV, and we thought people would see us as just “those Chippendales.” We thought they might wanted to portray us negatively, and we have families that watch television, with nieces and nephews that look up to us, so we didn’t want to put ourselves in a situation where there could reflect negatively on them. We should have paid attention to the fact that Amazing Race has won all these Emmys for a reason because it’s true to life. If you did it on The Amazing Race, you really did it in real life. Jaymes:We were just a little hesitant of that, but you know, then my dad got sick and there was no more hesitation. We thought, “We’ve got to go win this million dollars. Whatever it takes. Let’s go do it!” We went and did it, and thank God, the Amazing Race won all the Emmys that it does because it’s true to life. If it happened on camera, it happened for real.
The Yak: What’s next for Jaymes and James? Jaymes: The main focus right now is helping my dad. Also, James has got his band, My Name Engraved. They just had a new EP that came out, and they have more stuff in the works coming. My new single, called “Tonight”, will be out at the end of the year, but right now, it’s about taking care of my dad. Everything else can wait. We have our whole lives to work and make money. Right now, it’s about my dad.
The Yak: Thanks so much for your time, you guys. We wish you all the best! Jaymes: Thank you so much! Have a wonderful day! We appreciate it!
As one of the Final 3 teams racing for the one million dollar prize, Trey Wier and Lexi Beerman represented their home state of Texas during a leg that whirled them around the Big Apple – New York City! After fighting their way to the final leg of The Amazing Race, Trey and Lexi (@LexiBeerman) powered their way through Coney Island, became the first team to reach the Houdini escape Road Block, and burned up the streets of New York by delivering pizzas. Even after leading the pack for most of the leg, the final Road Block tripped up Lexi as she attempted to match the greetings and salutations to the corresponding countries they visited. The Yak got a chance to sit down recently with the Texans and discussed their involvement with the Rockers found money, the toughest challenges, and what the future holds for the dating couple.
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The Yak:It was awesome watching you two on the race, and you had a lot of fans pulling for you to win the million dollar prize! Lexi: Thank you. That’s very sweet of you!
The Yak:Let’s jump right into it – the situation with the found money and the Twinnies. How did that come up between your two teams? Was there any discussion of giving it back to James and Abba? Lexi:When we watched the show, it was edited in a way where was was shown wasn’t exactly what happened. We found the money on the ground, we weren’t even 100% sure it was Abba and James’ money at the time, and Natalie and Nadiya found the money on the ground. When the CBS promo put “stealing” into the viewers minds, it came across even worse then it should have been. If anyone knows the rules of the race, even touching someone’s bag is illegal in the Amazing Race rules. So, we got permission that it was okay that we found the money, and we really didn’t think too much of it after that. Not knowing that it was going to be a big scandal on the race.
The Yak: With the race, what was the hardest challenge that the two of you faced? Lexi: Physically, the hardest challenge was in Bangladesh where we moved the bamboo. It was 120 degrees, and because we were in a primarily Muslim country, all the girls had to wear long sleeves and long pants. So, we’re moving heavy bamboo and it was just an exhausting day. Physically, for me, that was the most challenging. Then, mentally, obviously, the last challenge of The Amazing Race – translating “Hello” and “Goodbye”. It’s so simple when you really think about it, but it was hard for me because I felt like every single challenge that we did, we had control over the outcome. We couldn’t move the bamboo fast enough. I couldn’t figure out the time zone challenge in Russia. It was all on me, and I felt like with the “Hello/Goodbye” challenge, I just lacked the control over the situation and it really just came down to a tricky math problem. That was the most challenging challenge of all.
Trey and Lexi catch a ride in Bangladesh
Trey: The physical challenges when we were in Indonesia and Bangladesh really took a toll on all of us. The first real time I ever got stumped was having to complete the bus challenge. The whole time, I was trying to stay positive, yet all I could think of was how I was doing terrible at it. I was looking over at Rob and he was killing it when he was puttying the bus. He does that for a living with his monster trucks, and I’ve never done anything like that before, so I was thinking that I was letting the team down. It was so physically demanding, and then it became emotionally demanding when I realized I was one of the last two teams standing there. So, that was really rough. Then, we had the bamboo challenge, where we knew if we screwed up on counting the bamboo, we had to go back, so those were some tough legs. Once we got through that, it seemed like we really picked up momentum and speed and we stayed in the top after those legs, so we struggled in the beginning, but it seemed like we kept getting stronger and stronger after every leg.
The Yak: What was your favorite part of the race? Lexi: Hmmm… I think there were two things that were my most favorite part. Number one: Trey and I have never traveled outside of the country before, and we got to go to nine different countries together. It was just insane. One of the camera guys said that we looked like wide-eyed puppies the whole time because we were just taking everything in for what it was. It was incredible. Opening our eyes to countries like Bangladesh and countries that nobody every goes to for a vacation was really, really special. Even though I was kind of scared being in those countries, I’m so grateful that we had the opportunity to go. I think that’s a really cool part about the Amazing Race – it’s that they open the eyes of the viewers to countries that don’t get a lot of attention in the media or toursim in general. That was incredible, and number two, spending 30 days with Trey. The year leading up to going on the race, Trey was finishing up his final year at college and playing football, and I was working 60 hours a week for my mom’s tee-shirt company. It was a hard year, and we only got to see each other once a week, so having 30 quality days, traveling the country and being competitive, which is something that is instilled in both of us, it was absolutely incredible and definitely a dream come true.
The Yak: When you found out that you had been cast for the race, did you do anything special to prepare? Trey:I don’t know if we really did anything special. We watched the episodes over and over again, trying to catch on to certain things or anything we needed to train for. We tried to get in as best shape as possible. I tried to teach Lexi how to drive a standard transmission. Lexi: [laughs] Trey: You know, in case we ever got into a pickle. Just things like that. Lexi: It’s hard to study for something like going into the race because you’re like, “Where do we start? We have the whole world to study!” Having gone nowhere and knowing nothing about anything outside of the US, it was quite a challenge and a little overwhelming when you though about it, so we concentrated on just being in the best physical shape that we could be. We did a bunch of random things, like going bowling and doing random tasks that you don’t do on a normal basis. Anything to just put us ahead.
Lexi and Trey search through a Russian library card catalog
The Yak: What does the future hold for Trey and Lexi? Lexi: [long pause and then laughs] Trey:We don’t really have anything planned out as far as our relationship. Lexi and I have wanted to get married for the past couple of year, but we’ve been in school and I haven’t really had time to work because of football. Now, I have a good paying job, and I want to be able to give her the ring she deserves and support her, so the future for us – maybe marriage soon. Who knows? As for now, we’re just going to enjoy being together. Lexi: We’re excited for the holidays. We love Christmas!
The Yak: We wish the two of you the best of luck, both in your relationship and in your lives. Thanks for taking the time to talk with us! Trey: Absolutely! Lexi: Thank you so much!
As we neared the end of Season 21 of The Amazing Race, one team has stood out above all the others for their loud voices, big egos and even bigger personalities. Yep, I’m talking about the Sri Lankan twin sisters – otherwise known by their catchphrase, “Twinnie!” – Natalie Anderson (@NatalieeAnd) and Nadiya Anderson (@NadiyaaAnd). With this leg of the race taking the teams through Barcelona, Spain, the final four teams duked it out for a spot in the Final 3 in the race for $1 million. Between the Speed Bump (lacing a corset), the Detour (Chow or Plow) and the Road Block (picking mushrooms), the Twinnies found themselves at the bottom of the pack and the last team to reach the Pit Stop. The Yak got a chance to chat with Natalie and Nadiya to discuss their roles as the most nerve-grating team, the story behind the stolen money, and their thoughts on remaining friends with the other teams.
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The Yak: As fans of the show, you must have been heartbroken to make it that close to the end and get eliminated right before the Final Leg. Natalie: It was tough.
The Yak: After speaking with the Texans (Trey and Lexi) regarding the stolen money from the Rockers (James and Abba), there was talk about speaking with the Production Team and you had received the okay to keep the money and share it amongst yourselves. Were you surprised at all with how it was portrayed on the show? Natalie:Yes. Me and Nadie were completely caught off guard with the advertisements. What was bad was the reactions of people who were taking the event as it was shown. For us, we would go back and do the same exact thing we did the first time. I have no regrets keeping the money. It was completely within the rules. It’s not a real-life situation, it’s a fucking race, and me and Nadiya have no regrets. You know, me and Nadie have thicker skin then Lexi and Trey and we did feel partially responsible, so I feel bad for them, but they had a great attitude about it and we realized that you can’t please everybody, so what can you do?
The Yak: In speaking with some of the other teams, there has been talk that you two had such fun-loving spirits and were so easy going during the non-race moments. We had hoped to see more of that during the race. You did have some great moments, but it seemed like it was edited to make you look like you were the nastiest of the teams. Nadiya: You know, the way that me and Natalie are, we have so much personality and what you see is what you get. We don’t fake it. We can’t fake it, so I think we gave the show a lot of stuff to work with, and it’s easy to portray us in a certain light, but at the end of the day, we have no regrets and we can’t go back and say, “We wish we had done certain things in a certain way.” However, with the racers and the people that know who we are in real life, they know who we are as people and that’s what matters to us. Natalie: Also, there are a lot of teams that are so cute and so nice and so everything else, me and Nadiya had those moments, but what’s more interesting to watch: 11 teams competing nicely together or… every team needs an asshole team, and we happened to be it. We were assholes, and we just own it.
Nadiya chows down on Hasma, a traditional Chinese dessert made of the fallopian tubes of frogs, while Natalie cheers her on
The Yak: What was the hardest challenge for you on the race? Natalie: For me, the hardest challenge was the windmill challenge. You know, Nadiya and I got there at the same time as the Beeks. When we got to our blades, we didn’t realize they were numbered, so we had to take them off and put them back. They also didn’t show it, but the windmill guy was really cute and I was getting distracted. Me and Nadie were joking around the whole time, and we weren’t paying attention, so we messed up. Nadiya: You know, it’s a testament to how we are because the windmill challenge was the only challenge we struggled with during the entire race. It wasn’t a difficult challenge, it was just a matter of me and Natalie focusing and getting the job done, which we didn’t execute the task, so it was really up to us to have done a better job. It wasn’t the challenge that was a problem, we were the problem.
The Yak: What was your favorite part of the race? Nadiya: My favorite part of the race was racing with Natie and having a great time, winning or losing. Just having an awesome time and that was the best part. Having fun at every moment, winning or losing. Natalie: For me, it was also just meeting everybody. Watching the finale with Josh and Brent and being able to enjoy with them and congratulate them, but still walk away with friends. I like our relationships, so that was pretty cool.
The Yak: Speaking of the relationships, since the race has ended, have you kept in touch with any of the other teams beyond the Beekman Boys? Natalie: Yeah, we’ve kept in touch with almost everybody, except for the Freakazoids – the Monster Truckers (Rob and Kelley), we don’t talk with them, but who cares? With everybody else, for me and Nadiya, the people we can see being friends with in the long run, we’ve been in touch with Abbie and Ryan, Lexi and Trey, who will always be our “best friends from the race”. We’ll always be friends with them. Also, the Beeks, Jaymes and James, who will always be close to our hearts. Brittany and Caitlin. We love them all.
The Yak: After you had found out that you had been picked for The Amazing Race, did you do anything special to prepare? Natalie: Nadiya and I did the more physical training. We did some kind of country memorization, but no extreme mental preparation. We started Cross Fit, and we cross fitted hardcore – 5 days a week. We focused on upper body strength because we knew we were going to go against tough guys. Cross Fit was our number one prep we did for the race. As a testament, we were running around with our backpacks, and our backpacks weighed 45 pounds each, but it never slowed us down.
Natalie and Nadiya sort fish in a Detour task
The Yak: So, what’s next for the two of you? Natalie: We get so much feedback and so many responses from people, and I feel like people are not ready to say goodbye to us. All our Twinnie Fans are completely amazing. They’ve stuck with us through all the drama this season, and we’ll see what’s in the works, but our fans are just the most amazing people. They’ve been so supportive.
The Yak: We appreciate you taking the time to talk with us! Natalie and Nadiya: Thank you so much!
After an emotional leg that saw the elimination of James and Abba, The Amazing Race continued the water works in Amsterdam, where the remaining 5 teams had to grind, vault and eat their way to the Final Four. The double U-Turn became an obstacle for Abbie Ginsberg (@abbieginsberg) and Ryan Danz (@ryandanz) that proved to be the topper to their Cake of Misfortune. The latest eliminated team sat down with Yakkity Yaks to discuss their string of bad luck, the friendships they made on the race, and if they thought the $2 million prize placed a bigger target on their chances of winning.
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The Yak: First off, I have to send my deep, deep love from our members who were touched by your decision to wait for Josh and Brent during the last leg. You’ve endeared yourself to a lot of viewers by doing that. Abbie: Awe! That’s very nice to hear! Ryan:I think in hindsight, honestly, getting first place and winning two million dollars would have been a dream come true on a lot of levels, but we never, ever thought that getting a relationship that we got not only with each other, but with the Beekmans that I know will be life long – It’s really hard to say that it’s not more important. What you see on TV is very authentic – the way that we treat them, the way that we wait with them – and even when they decided to move on from the U-Turn and let us go do the side of the U-Turn, there was no hard feelings. We hugged, and we were sort of preparing for that, days earlier, to happen. So, it’s very real. We’ll see them in a week or so in New York, and we’ll spend time with them, so we’re very blessed to have had that silver lining in what, otherwise, could have been a black cloud for us that day in Amsterdam.
The Yak: So, do you regret teaming up with them at all? Abbie: Not at all. Ryan: No, not at all. This experience for us was about so much more than just the race, whether winning the money or the travel component. We didn’t know what to expect. We were hoping to gain clarity with ourselves and our relationship, so that in and of itself was a major blessing. We got to do something that so few people ever will experience, and we developed a much deeper relationship with each other through it. Then, an off-label reward, was this relationship that we got out of it with Josh and Brent that will pay off dividends well beyond any prize money we would have won, so there’s absolutely no regrets whatsoever.
The Yak: Taking a look at the U-Turn on this leg, how do you now feel about the Chippendales and their choice to use the U-Turn on the two of you? Abbie: You know, we look at it as two separate things. We knew there was a great likelihood we’d be U-Turned, so to be bitter about a U-Turn in general, we’re not at all. It’s part of the game. Our strategy was not to use the U-Turn early in the game because we didn’t need to. Had we been racing for last place, there’s a potential we would have used it on another team. We were shocked that it was them out of the people that were left. We knew that Twinnies [Natalie and Nadiya] and Texans [Trey and Lexi] would do it in a heartbeat, but for it to come from them, we were shocked. What you didn’t see was the relationship that we had built with Jaymes and James, pretty much from day one, when we were talking back at LAX. We had said we wanted to align with a dominate male-male team, and they had come up to us and said, “You guys are strong, so what do you say about helping each other to the Final Three? Then, all bets are off and may the best person win.” So, we did a lot of helping each other out along the way. Ryan: Yeah, we got pretty far behind leaving Turkey. There were some flight issues that you saw, and some flight issues that you didn’t see, so we didn’t see them for a couple of days. They didn’t know what had happened. So, we finally run into each other at some point, and Blonde James comes up to us and literally says, “Oh, my god! Thank god! You’re here! I can breathe again!” I’m only bringing this up to show that either he was the best actor of all time or he genuinely cared about us and vice versa. We had some conversation, and we told them there was some concern because we were so far behind and that there’s a U-Turn coming up, and he said, “Don’t worry about it. I know that Texas and the Twinnies are plotting, but we have your back. We’re gonna make sure that everything is okay. We’ll take care of it. We all want to race together. We want to race with the strongest teams, and really take pride with beating them fair and square.” So, had he not said that, it would have been cool. It’s definitely a mechanism in the game. Go for it. Use it. We talked in Indonesia, during the first U-Turn, that we just don’t believe in them as race fans, but these guys were recruited for the show, whereas Abbie and I applied as fans, so they had other interests. One of the first things that Jaymes told us was this was an opportunity for him to get his own TV show. So, that’s fine if that’s what it is, but we just kind of felt betrayed and here we were sticking to our words with everyone that we were talking to and holding our end of the bargin up.
The Yak: Looking back, how would you have played it with Josh and Brent if you hadn’t been U-Turned? Ryan: If the U-Turn didn’t happen, we basically would have gone to the ditch together. I think it was caught on TV that they were sort of resigned to the fact that they went as far as they could go and got as much out of the experience as they wanted to at that point, so we were under the impression that if you step on the mat at the same time, there are some rules that we were aware of that indicated which team would prevail. We were fine in knowing that if we were tied, we would have been moving on.
Abbie and Ryan get U-Turned in Amsterdam
The Yak: What about your relationship with the Twinnies? Abbie and Ryan: [imitating Natalie and Nadiya] “Twinnie! Twinnie!” [laughs] Abbie: What would you like to know? The Yak: Where did that relationship break down? It never seemed like you had a real strong connection with them from the beginning, but where did it really start to turn? Abbie: It’s funny because looking back, a lot of people like our friends and families said, “What the heck did you guys do to have this hatred for one another?” and I think if you back up, they’re competitive and we’re competitive and sometimes you just don’t like people you compete against. I think with a lot of these shows, there were little snippets. There weren’t many times when we were arguing and being horrible to each other, and I think a lot of of Twinnie stuff is humor driven. Ryan: I would just add that the few things you saw each of us saying was probably the only things that were actually said, but since the show only gives you 40 minutes of air time, you tend to get a lot of weight on something when it comes up. So, while it looked like we said things all day long, there was really only a few comments. We were really only concerned with one thing and that was how we performed on the race course. Aside from the U-Turns, there’s really nothing that another team can do to you to slow you down and impact your race, and I think when you did see us interacting, it was sort of in a sibling-rilvary sort of place. Abbie: It was playful! Ryan: Yeah, I genuinely happy with the way that they talked, and I was blown away by the things that they said. I thought it was funny. I have a similar sense of humor, so for the most part, I just found them to be entertaining. I didn’t have this issues, like, “Oh, my god! I can’t run this race with them still here!” Abbie: Like little pests. There was the one task where I asked them if they had built a scale in their backyard, it was like, “No shit!” It was sarcasm. It wasn’t as if I was actually asking them if they built scales in their backyards for fun. So, come on, really? It was all for fun, and people might be surprised by this, but we’ve actually developed a good relationship with them after the show. Between them and the Beekmans, we talk to them via text nearly every day. I think, they’re young and we both didn’t know each other that well during the show. You don’t have a lot of time to really get to know people. You’re racing on your own quite a bit, but they’re funny.
The Yak: Obviously, everyone’s curious about the U-Turns, the Chippendales, and the Twinnies, but aside from all of that, what do you think was the hardest part of the race for each of you? Abbie: Booking flights. [laughs] The most stressful part, honestly, was booking flights. The whole thing was a welcome challenge, though, for Ryan and I. Being very competitive people, we liked being put to the test and we like those moments of struggle. Personally, nothing stands out more than Dhaka. The heat and the culture change and the tasks that day – that was probably one of the toughest physical parts of the race. Also, the demise of Abbie and Ryan was emotionally tough to deal with. Amsterdam was brutal on our spirits. It would have been one thing if we had been sucking at the course itself and making dumb mistakes, but this plane trouble stuff – for that to be an incessant problem – it just drained us by the time we got to Amsterdam. Ryan: Abbie’s right. Along the way, we really were getting stronger as a couple. The race itself was becoming more manageable physically. The hardest part, though, was coming to grips with the notion that we were the strongest team, just based on the average finish – especially before we left for Russia, we averaged a second place on every leg, even though we had two firsts. So, we were just crushing the course in every leg, we were getting stronger as a team, stronger as a couple, and then, all of a sudden, all this bad luck happened with the flight situations and we just couldn’t get over it. That was a very hard thing to comprehend when you’re doing so well that the “race behind the race” with all this logistical stuff leaves you feeling very helpless. If we had failed on the race course, we could say, “Look, we did our best, but we’re just not the best team,” but we don’t think either of us felt that way. Abbie: Yet, for the same reason, we love this race! We’re fans of it because the luck part is part of it. It gives anybody a shot, not just the most physical and smartest team. It really can go any way. Ryan:The Blondes [Caitlin and Brittany] with the taxi that caused a problem. Then, Amy and Daniel with the taxi in Indonesia. Plus, us with the flights. If you said, “Would you do it all over again and take that stuff out of the equation?” I would say, “Absolutely not!” I think traveling and racing around the world was as much a part of the race as the Detours and the Road Blocks, and it’s a fun part of the race. The first day we left China, we got to the airport first and Abbie didn’t see anybody, so she was concerned we had to book our own flights and we were going to screw it up. She got sort of emotionally freaked out. Abbie:I got freaked out! Ryan:When, looking back, that was exciting! That was really cool. We were able to get around the world and figure it out on our own, having never really traveled together before.
The Yak: It seems to be a theme with a lot of the racers this season: everyone was really excited about the race, but they’ve all got their own personal issues behind the race itself, whether it be the taxis or the flights. It’s definitely something to consider when discussing the race that most racers never think about before hand. Ryan: Yeah, when we were traveling between Detours and Route Markers and Pit Stops, we were doing things to get better each leg when it came to those kinds of travel, especially when it was travel by taxi. We were always trying to pay our drivers ahead of time, so that we wouldn’t have to haggle at the end, and we always had backup measures in place to make sure our driver knew where he was going. So, we were not just getting better at performing the tasks, but actually how to move around in each country. It’s too bad that we didn’t get a chance to go to the end and see how it would have shaken out. If you looked at our record up until after Turkey and before the flight troubles all started, when we were all racing on the same even playing field, we beat the Chippendales 5 out of 6 times, and we beat the Twinnies [Natalie and Nadiya] 5 out of 6 times, and we beat Lexi and Trey 4 out of 6 times, so it’s not a guarantee that we would have won, but I certainly liked our odds better than anyone else’s.
Abbie and Ryan trek through Bangladesh
The Yak: After that first leg, what was it like knowing that you were racing for two million dollars? Did it seem to be a big deal to the other teams? Ryan: Ultimately, the game decision to U-Turn us and everything else that came along with it had nothing to do with the two million dollar prize. It had everything to do with how we were winning each leg or coming in the top until we had our flight issues. Until that point, every decision that was made against us was made just because we were a strong team. We could have been racing for one dollar and the teams would have made the same decision because we were going to impact their ability to win their own one million dollar prize.
The Yak: Did you do anything special after you found out you had been selected to be on the race? Abbie: Oh, gosh! That day was so exciting. I remember that day: it was pouring down rain, and we immediately went to get our backpacks and started shopping for all of our items. We didn’t even celebrate that night. We were on a very strict, healthy regimin before we left. We had just spent the day together, prepping, and then we started mentally and physically prepping a little bit before, just in case, since we didn’t want to wait 3 or 4 weeks before the race to do all that, so we upped our prep time. We pretty much lived and breathed prepping for the race before we took off. Ryan: The one thing that I think was the biggest preparation tool for us was teaching Abbie how to drive a stick shift. It didn’t happen over night, and it didn’t happen over two or three nights – it took about three weeks, and it was the bain of our existence in that time. Then, in the meantime, we were doing pilates together and doing brain games and going to different workouts and rock climbing and kayaking, but that stick shift driving really got us over the hump of communications that we didn’t have before. We had never really been in a position like that before where we were relying on each other in a different sense of the relationship. Unlike the Twinnies, who had a lifetime of being sisters, we’ve only been dating for a year and a half, so the benefit of that time together learning the stick shift was the best preparation on how to communicate during the race because it was so contentious. For a while, she was getting frustrated, and I was getting frustrated, but it really was the best thing we could have done.
The Yak: It definitely showed in the way you ran the race. You seemed to have a good chemistry together, and you didn’t appear to fight like we’ve seen so many teams do in past seasons. Abbie: Yeah, we’re happy that we were portrayed that way. There really wasn’t much they could have used to make us venomous towards one another, and that was really important going into the race because Ryan and I are both Type-A and competitive, we both had a goal, which was to win and do our best, but you have to put the relationship and the cattiness and the nit-picking aside. We had the same goal, and that’s why I think we meshed really well when it came to the task at hand. Yes, there were moments in the hotel room when we had to work out some stuff and maybe there was a little bit of bickering and quarreling then, but the majority of our success was because we were able to just contain that side of the relationship. Ironically, with that, we were working on our relationship, but we weren’t putting focus directly on it. Ryan: We were even being told by Phil at each Pit Stop, “Gosh, I can’t believe you guys are getting stronger as a couple. Certainly as a team, but also as a couple. That’s never really happened.” Some teams, even Ralph and Vanessa from last season, broke up on their flight out of Hawaii. The relationship takes such a toll, especially as a dating couple. You’re not really invested in the relationship the same way you are as a parent-child or sibling or some other familial relationship, so we sort of had the deck stacked against us, but the thing that I’m most proud about is not how well we did and not that we’re one of the strongest teams of all time, but it’s really how we treated each other. We watched this back with our families and our friends, but at the end of the day, we made each other feel good and respected and accomplished. Plus, I’m just so proud of Abbie with how she treated herself. She has 800 students at her dance school that are between the ages of 5 and 18, so every Monday, they’d come in and say, “Oh, Miss Abbie! We saw you on the race!” It was their world, so in keeping that in the back of her mind, these kids are so proud of her and, hopefully, me through the way I treated her, it’s a really special part of the experience for us that we’ve never had that breakdown between us.
The Yak: So, what’s next for Abbie and Ryan? Abbie: Well, work today. [laughs] No, you know, I think we’re open to whatever comes our way. We’re excited for new things. Maybe the race again? I’ll have to twist Ryan’s arm on that one, if it was ever an option. [laughs] Ryan: We’re blessed that we’ve gotten some opportunities that have come, just because of this race. There’s been an endorsement deal that we’ve been able to line up, and I’ve been approached about doing a book, plus, there was a proposal that was accepted – just from being on the race and having unique backgrounds, whether jujitsu or law or entrepreneurialism. We just got back from a lakeside cabin in Tahoe, where we spent a week there with our dogs and hiked and got to be alone. We’ll just keep doing things like that and sort of living our own Amazing Race every day.
The Yak: Thank you so much for your time, and we were sorry to see you go, but we wish you all the best! Ryan: Thank you! Go Yakkity Yaks!!! Abbie: Yeah, Yakkity Yaks!!!
Leg Seven of The Amazing Race brought many surprises to not only the viewers, but to the racers, as well. We saw the six remaining teams make their way through Moscow, Russia, while learning that you don’t leave your personal belongings unattended in strange men’s vehicles. Unfortunately for James LoMenzo and Mark “Abba” Abbattista, they found out this lesson this hard way, when they were ultimately forced out of the race for not having passports to continue their journey. The Yak recently sat down with the two rockers to discuss their thoughts about traveling around the world, losing their personal items, and, of course, Team Twinnie.
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The Yak: What’s tougher – the music industry or The Amazing Race? Abba: It depends on your point of view because you get robbed in both of them. [laughs] James: Well, you deal with a bunch of rats in both of them. [laughs]
The Yak: So, I have to know. Did you ever get to recover your bags and how long did it take you to get a replacement passport? Abba:We’re still in Russia. [laughs] James: They have a great TiVo system, so we get to watch the show only in small increments. Abba: No, we never got the bags back. The taxi driver took off with them – stole them – and despite our efforts to try and track this person down in a city of 10-12 million people, we never did get them back. We exhausted all the remedies that we could. As far as the passport situation, this happened on a Friday and a Saturday, then Tuesday was the Independence Day for Russia, so all the government offices were closed down for the whole week. That made the whole matter even worse for us, but it didn’t stop us from trying. We were able to get a passport through the US Embassy, but then you also need a Russian Visa and that one was much more difficult to get because the culture of the Russian bureaucracy is not very flexible. We wound up getting stranded there for 6 more days after this happened.
The Yak: Well, you had a little down time to do some sightseeing then, right? Abba: Well, yeah, if you consider seeing the inside of the embassies sightseeing, then, hey, yeah, we had a great trip! [laughs] We did the best that we could under the circumstances we had, and I had said to James at one point, “If we’d have won the leg, we would have won a trip, so let’s look at this as our six day, all-expense-paid trip to Russia together!” You gotta laugh to some extent. You can’t cry all day long, and we had a nice time and met some wonderful local people that were there with us. You know, you want to cry, but let’s go out and make the most of it.
The Yak: How do you feel now about the situation regarding the Sri Lankan twins taking your money and splitting it with Trey and Lexi? James: I think it was an unfortunate thing. Personally, it’s disappointing to think that this is what happened. We had had nice relationships with [Natalie and Nadiya] all throughout the race, as well as Trey and Lexi, which were a little bit more shocking for me. You know, you kind of hope for the best and when you see something that isn’t that, especially after the fact, since we didn’t learn about it until it was on TV. At that point, you don’t move forward by looking in the rear-view mirror. Abba: It was a great experience for us anyway, since we had to overcome the adversity of having no money and meeting all those really wonderful people in Bangladesh, who were more than willing to help us out by feeding us. We had a great experience because of it, so it was a negative turned into a super positive and one of the most memorable days of my life.
The Yak: Since you weren’t aware of Natalie and Nadiya and Trey and Lexi sharing your lost money, have you talked to them at all since the episode aired? James: Oh, they’re dead. [laughs] Abba: You won’t be hearing anything out of them anymore. [laughs] I’m just kidding! James: I had a brief communication with Lexi and Natalie. They sort of explained their side of it, and I listened. It doesn’t change what happened, at least in my mind. I don’t condone it. I think they made a poor decision, and I expressed that to them. So, onward we move. Abba: Well, we were convinced that we had dropped it in the van we were taking, so that was what we were trying to figure out. It’s kind of a weird relief to know we didn’t lose the money, but that someone had stolen it. [laughs]
The Yak: I think a lot of fans feel the same way you do about the two teams involved with the missing money. Abba: You know, look, if you take the high road, there’s a lot less traffic. Also, the public outcry that has happened to them because of this is punishment enough. Those are their actions, and the result of their actions. The result of our actions was that we got an opportunity to meet a whole lot of unbelievable people in Bangladesh, and the generosity of those strangers that saved us that day is one of the golden moments of the whole race for both of us. I’m not just trying to blow sunshine up my own butt here, but it’s one of those things where it was something positive. It didn’t really affect anything anyway since we ended up beating the twins that day, so if there was some sort of “Ha-ha!” kind of justice internally with us, it was that we ended up beating them anyway. It had no impact on us because we chose not to let this impact us. Not that we knew that it happened, but we had a problem, we maintained our level-headedness about it, and ended up showing our grace and dignity throughout the whole race.
James and Abba search through the streets of Moscow, Russia
The Yak: After you were given some time to rectify the passport situation, were you hopeful that your time on the race might not be over? Abba: We were holding on to hope the whole way. We kind of realized that it was the longest shot on Earth, but it’s kind of like when someone gives you a lottery ticket for your birthday. They’re really giving you nothing, but at the same time, you hope that you might win the lottery, so that was kind of where we were at. We were a little bolstered by the other adversity that we had overcome throughout the race, including getting through losing the money, so we thought, “It’s a long shot from hell, but we’ll take it, as usual!” What else could you do? It was an interesting experience. We got to see things that we probably never would have seen in Russia, and we’d already been there three or four times prior – mostly in jail. [laughs] James: We were inside Russian jails. I got to spend several hours inside Interpol. I don’t know anybody else that’s ever done that. At that point, we knew it was pretty dim, but at the same time, it wasn’t over yet. We weren’t dead, so while we still had some breath, we were going to keep kicking with it and take everything in at the same time.
The Yak: Abba, given how bad your knee was, do you still think you could have continued the entire race? Abba: Well, here’s what happened with my knee; I’m going to give you an exclusive. Are you ready for it? The Yak: Sure! Abba: Turns out, it wasn’t my knee. We thought that it was potentially the meniscus, and when I came home, I ended up having MRI’s and it turned out that I had fractured both tibias. So, I ran the race with two broken legs. Could I have done that Russian dancing thing? You know, I probably should not have been running or anything, and even now, I’m sitting while I’m speaking to you with these magnetic bone probe stimulators on. I’m still in a doctor’s care, and I’m still healing from this several months later. So, could I have done the Russian dancing? I wasn’t going to quit. I wasn’t there to quit, so it might not have been pretty, but I would have powered through it like I powered through everything else. I’d like to think that toughness isn’t the question that’s on everyone’s mind when it comes to me, but it wouldn’t have stopped me at all. We were running on cobblestones and on broken streets. It was awful from a pain point of view, but at the same time, Amy was there with no legs, so until they cut mine off, I thought that her story was more important than mine.
The Yak: Beyond the missing money, the stolen passports and your knees giving you trouble, what do you think was the hardest part of whole race was for you? Abba:We haven’t been asked that one yet. James: Yeah, that’s an interesting question. For me, going into this, my biggest fear was that I’d have to do some kind of orchestrated dance. I didn’t realize it would involve trying not to drown at the same time. [both laugh] So, that was probably the hardest moment for me. Abba: I think answering this question might have been the hardest part of the whole thing. [laughs] No, I think it was dealing with the non-elimination from a personal point of view. I know it’s not kind of a sexy answer, but it’s sort of facing the humbling reality in front of 10 million people. I think being in a speedo in front of 10 million people with that silly cap on our heads – not that it was physically hard, but it kind of puts your life into a little weird perspective when you’re forced to surrender to something. It’s like you’re thinking, “I know I look ridiculous!” I know this probably looks somewhat foolish to people, but when you move ahead in life despite that fear or the fear that you’re going to look silly, that’s probably the hardest thing. Also, I think it was great being on camera. I think everybody should live a couple of days of their life on camera. Just to see what you really look like, and what you really sound like and how you behave. Plus, the facial expressions that you make. You’d be surprised. It may not be what you think you look like. I don’t think I really had a bad experience, you know, outside of the not winning, but I also learned, too, that not winning doesn’t mean losing. The first episode in Shanghai where Phil kind of gave us a bit of heat on the mat, it really changed me a bit along the way. That’s probably the competitive nature that I kind of had going into this, and realizing, we didn’t lose a million dollars that we didn’t have. We gained a trip around the world, which validated everything that we already felt towards each other, towards the world, and having a bunch of wonderful experiences added to the book of our life.
The Yak: Did you two do anything special to prepare for the race after you found out you had been selected? James: We got right on training and watching the show. That’s pretty much what I would recommend everybody does. Abba: Don’t suggest that! James: Well, we want good competitors! Abba: What if we ever come back, dude? Then, everybody will know what they’re doing! James: Here’s what you need to do: get a box of Twinkies before they all go away because you’re going to miss those. Abba: You never know – there could be a Twinkie-eating challenge. James: That’s right, it could happen! [both laugh] I mean, we did the normal stuff: we got our cardio up, made sure that we were strong enough to carry your own weight around, maybe hanging from something or standing on something. I think it’s kind of obvious. It really is a grueling trek. Most important, though, is you’ve got to get your attitude adjusted perfectly because there’s a lot of exhaustion involved. The biggest part is making sure you have a mental reserve. That’s not something everybody can do. Abba: I think a lot of preparation was involved because we both have families. We had to leave our children and wives at home. There was a lot of preparation that involved talking with my kids and my family, who were used to us being away because we tour a lot, but there’s no contact with them [while you’re on the race], so this whole time after they dropped us off at the airport, nobody knew where we were or what we were doing. For me, it was important that my family kind of had that. I missed my daughter’s eighth grade graduation. James missed his daughter’s high school graduation. You know, how do you prepare for that? We have well-balanced families that went through a lot, so that we could go forward and do this. That’s something that’s really special, and I think that they’ve come out of this just as balanced now that they see Dad on TV. Even last night, my son was crying because he didn’t want to know anything that happened, and he was sort of disappointed. You know, if I had something bad about the race, maybe it was that. Seeing my kid crying over this game. I didn’t really want that to happen. It really affects a lot of people beyond just the two people that you see on the show.
The Yak: Did you get a chance to get close to the other teams, and have you kept in touch with them since the race ended? James: Yeah, I think we got close to pretty much all of them, with the exception of one that we made a choice about. The thing is that you’re not really with each other. When we won the two challenges in a row, we didn’t see anybody for three or four days because we won and we’re back in the hotel before some of the other teams even started. I think there was probably only two challenges that we actually did with anybody else in the room with us, which was the balloons and the ping pong. So, we had a tendency not to be with people. We didn’t have that sort of social element. I don’t think we had a social need, where it was kind of a sorority party where everybody got together and huddled around and braided each other’s hair. I’ve kept in touch with pretty much everybody. We’re part of this strange, little fraternity here. We went through a very life-altering experience and we only have each other to kind of relate that to. There was definitely camaraderie that’s out of that and some nice friendships with some of the people. Some of the people I went through my whole life not knowing them in the first place, and I’ll go through the rest of it not caring that I don’t know them in the second place. Abba: I keep waiting for one of them to call me up, but they keep getting the time zones wrong. [James and Abba both laugh]
The Yak: What’s next for the two of you? Abba: I’m probably going to have a sandwich. [laughs] James: I’m working on an album of music right now and a couple of other projects. I have my production company, where we do videos for music manufacturing, so I’ve got my hands pretty much full. Abba: My business will continue to go on. I’m not quite sure. Every morning, I wake up and I’m not sure what’s coming. Then, every night I go to bed and I’m not sure what just happened, so this kind of situation isn’t much different for me. James:You gotta get a job one of these days! You can’t keep living like this, man! Abba: We’ll keep traveling around. I’ve got some tours set up for the beginning of next year, so I do a lot of traveling. This next week, I’ll be spending with my family because now that I’m not on the show, it’s quiet time. I’ll have a nice Thanksgiving and spend it with my whole family. I’ll just continue to decompress from this whole crazy experience we just went through. Who knows? There’s opportunity around every corner, so we’ll see what happens.
The Yak: We definitely appreciate you taking the time to talk with us. Best of luck to the both of you, and a very happy Thanksgiving to you and your families! James: Thank you so much! You, too! Abba: Thanks!
With last week’s Amazing Race giving us (and The Fabulous Beekman Boys) a non-elimination leg reprieve, the sixth leg pushed things into overdrive with a race from Dhaka, Bangladesh to Istanbul (not Constantinople!), Turkey. Although the leg was rife with drama (lost money! shared guilt! still not Constantinople!), the Monster Truckers, Rob French and Kelley Carrington-French, found themselves as the last team to the Pit Stop and out of the race for the one million dollar prize. The team recently sat down with Yakkity Yaks to discuss their thoughts on their travels, the sights and the shady ladies known as the Sri Lankan twins.
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The Yak: Throughout the race, it really seemed like your travel choices were affecting your ability to move toward the front of the pack. What drove your decision to make the choices you did, such as the longer layover in Hong Kong and the metro line in Istanbul? Kelley: We’re not followers. We don’t like to follow what the other people do. We definitely like to make our own choices and decisions. The first choice, when we decided to take the plane to Hong Kong, was we were just thinking that Hong Kong has such a huge airport that surely there’d be a lot more choices once we got there, so we could get there, do some research and find other choices. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way. For the metro, we had asked around while we were on the airplane and then once we got in the airport what would be the best way for transportation. The people that lived there said the city streets were so busy and so clogged in the morning that the metro would be the best choice. Unfortunately, that day, the city was not very busy.
The Yak: Along the same lines regarding your choices, it’s been talked about that you were well known for your decision to ditch the backpacks and go with a rolling bag. What was the reason behind that? Did you find that it helped or hindered your race at all? Kelley: It definitely didn’t hinder us at all. You can only go so fast. You all have to go through the airports, and there’s only so much time to get from point A to point B, then you all have to wait in line once you get there. You’re going down a city street or you’re doing a task, so you’re not carrying it. It definitely didn’t hurt us at all. They could go just as fast as we could go. They also were backpacks that could hang on our backs. The advantage was not having to carry that stuff around 24/7. When you’re in the airport and hanging around there for 10 hours, you don’t have to carry 40 or 50 pounds around with you. We just rolled them around, so they didn’t hurt us at all.
The Yak: Let’s get candid for a moment – which of the teams did you find the most annoying to compete against? Rob: (in a high-pitched voice) “Twinney! Twinney!” Kelley: (laughs) Well, they were loud and they just talked constantly. Rob: Also, Ryan and Abbie! Kelley: Yeah, Ryan was a bit on the hyper side. Everybody else was pretty much laid back.
The Yak: Who did you get along with the best out of all the teams? Kelley: We got along with the Beekman Boys really well. We got along with James and Abba. We really didn’t have any conflicts with anybody. When we had down time, it didn’t matter who we were with, if we were at the airport or wherever we were waiting, we got along with everybody.
The Yak: Unlike most of the couples on the race, both during this season and in previous seasons, you did seem to bicker at all. How were you able to communicate so well during the very stressful moments of the race? Kelley:We work together every day and our jobs are very stressful, so we’re use to working together under stress. We kind of know each other’s personalities, and we know when to shut up or when to say something, so for me, it was just a regular day at work. It was easy to get along and go through the motion of getting the job done. Rob: I felt that the race wasn’t nearly as stressful as our everyday life with our businesses. We own multiple businesses, and me and Kelley are together 24/7, so it was just another day at the office without all the stress.
The Yak: Since the race wasn’t as difficult as your work lives, what did you find was the hardest challenge that you faced? Kelley: For me, the physically hardest challenge was building that scale. The heat of the day was tremendous and I had a long-sleeved, thermal shirt on, so I was sweating twice as much. We didn’t have any fluids at first to drink, and everything was tall, so I had to keep moving 50 pounds of stuff, stacking them one on top of the other to get to the top of my scale. It just took a toll on me. Rob: I didn’t have any hard challenges. My only challenge that was hard was standing there having to watch Kelley work so hard and not being able to help her.
Rob & Kelley in Dhaka
The Yak: What was your favorite part of the race? Rob: I think carrying the bamboo was my most favorite part. Other than every time I went to the mat, I would be so excited that Phil would back up about 3 feet because he was afraid I was going to eat him. Kelley: I enjoyed pretty much the whole thing. The exciting part was stepping off the bridge [during the first task of the race in Pasadena, California]. It was something I had never done in my life, and it definitely would have been something I never would have chose to do, saying, “Oh, let’s go rappel off a bridge!” That was really fun and exciting!
The Yak: Did you do anything special to prepare for the race after you found out you had been selected? Kelley: Not really. We were still living our lives. Rob was doing the monster truck shows and I was still rodeoing, so we just kind of pulled it together the last week, packed our stuff, and went to California.
The Yak: Have you kept in touch with any of the other teams since the race ended? Rob: I just spoke with Josh this morning. I talk to Abba at least once a week. We talk to Will from “David and Goliath.” Those were the teams that we really communicated with. Abbie – she sends me Facebook messages all the time, but with Ryan, we don’t really communicate with him because he’s a different kind of guy. Kelley: Plus, the others are pretty much in a whole another generation. Rob: With the twins [Natalie and Nadiya] and the Texans [Trey and Lexi], now that I saw the last show, I don’t care to ever communicate with them. Kelley: Yeah, it was a bit of a shocker.
The Yak: It seemed to have really polarized people one way or the other about those two teams. Rob: The bottom line is that there is no place in my life for thieves. I just felt like that was the wrong move.
The Yak: Looking at your own moves, would you have changed anything about the way you ran the race? Rob: I would have changed anything. Kelley: Not really. Perhaps, the hindsight of seeing that there was such a delay in our arrival at the last place from taking the metro. Aside from that, I would play the game the same. We depend on each other to make our own decisions. We thought we did great on every task that we had to accomplish, so we wouldn’t change things.
The Yak: Speaking of the tasks, in looking at the detours from the last leg, what made you decide to go with the delivery task versus the bath? Rob: We didn’t have any money. Kelley:Well, our money supply was low because the taxi charged us so much money in the last country, and then in this country, he said it was going to be “x” amount of dollars to take us where we had to go and then he charged us double. So, when we got there and read the clue, we saw you had to buy your own bath supplies or you could go deliver the bread. We figured if we buy the bath supplies, we don’t know how much they are and if we have to take another taxi or train, we won’t have the money, so we went ahead with the manual labor.
The Yak: What’s next for Rob and Kelley? Kelley: We’re just living life. Rob just went to Guatemala and Nicaragua with the monster truck. We’re getting ready to go to Argentina in December with the monster truck. I just got back from our PRCA circuit final rodeo down in Davie, Florida, this past weekend, and I’m off to another rodeo in Texas this weekend. Rob: Hopefully, Hollywood calls us and we become big superstars. (laughs) Kelley: No, not me! (laughs)
The Yak: We’ll make sure to pass your name around to our big-shot friends in Hollywood! Rob: Thanks, buddy!
The Yak: Thank you so much for your time! We really enjoyed watching you on the show, and we were sorry to see you go. Kelley: Thank you! Rob: Thank you so much!
