The Amazing Race: The Yak Chats with Caitlin and Brittany

Indonesia was once again the locale for Leg 3 of The Amazing Race this week, and with over 17,000 islands making up this country, I’m sure the teams felt like they were traipsing through every single one of them to reach the Pit Stop. This leg was full of lion heads, egg heads and hot heads, and while Abbie and Ryan reclaimed their top spot by reaching the mat first again, Caitlin King (@CaitKing7) and Brittany Fletcher (@BrittanyFletch) became the latest causalities of The Amazing Race. The best friends sat down today with Yakkity Yaks to discuss their time on the race.

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The Yak: Hi, ladies! Thanks for sitting down with us today! We were sorry to see you eliminated last night. It looked like a tough loss.
Brittany:: Thank you!

The Yak: How tough was it to accept going out like you did?
Brittany:: It’s obviously hard. That’s something you never want to see, especially with as competitive as Caitlin and I are. The most frustrating thing was that we had already been taken to the Pit Stop when we left the Detour. We were 6th when we left the Detour. We had the becak make an error and take us down a different path, so it ended up costing us everything. We ended up with the one that went left at the fork in the road, but it was somebody that we kind of relied on and had taken us to the Pit Stop about 45 minutes prior, so that was obviously frustrating.

The Yak: Did you both have a feeling that you could have beat Will and Gary to the mat?
Caitlin:: Yes, absolutely.

The Yak: What was the hardest challenge on the race?
Caitlin:: The hardest challenge for me was the balloon challenge. It was so hot, and we had to wear long sleeves because of their religious reasons, so I was on fire trying to do that task. The bike was too small for me, so my knees kept hitting the front of the Merry Go Round. In general, the hardest for us was that it was mentally draining throughout the whole race. You don’t realize that until you are actually racing. Also, having to experience the language barriers. It’s something you know you’re going to come in contact with, but we didn’t realize it was going to be as challenging as it ended up being.

The Yak: What was your favorite part of the race?
Brittany:: I would say being able to experience all the different cultures. It makes you appreciate and know how blessed we really are to do even the small things, like taking a shower. Just being able to experience the different cultures and travel the world on a competition, plus being able to meet the types of people that we did meet and create friends for life. It was definitely one of those experiences that we’re always going to look back and be so appreciative to have been a part of.

The Yak: Speaking of the other teams, were there any in particular that you got close with and have you stayed in touch since the race ended?
Caitlin:: We’ve become friends with a ton of the teams – Amy and Daniel; we were always really close with them. We became really close with the Sri Lankan twins, the Chippendales. Honestly, all of us are really, really close, but it was obviously easier for us to connect with the younger teams. We definitely plan on keeping in touch and meeting up at some point in the future.
Brittany: Yeah, we still talk with them, and we’re ready to cheer them all on.

The Yak: When you were arguing about the cost of the rickshaw ride, did you ever find out exactly how much you should have been charged?
Brittany:: The thing was that they had only showed a part of it. We had actually been standing there for about 15 minutes trying to pay the becak driver. It was one of those things where he wasn’t giving us any feedback. He was just staring at us, so we had people all around, like the locals, trying to tell us how much it was. He was asking different people, and it was one of those things that Gary and Will had already caught up with us and had started the challenge while we were still standing there trying to pay the driver. They were doing hand gestures, and when you’re in the heat of the moment, you’ve got to go because it’s only you and three other teams. We had to keep going because of the race, so it was one of those things where I came across as trying to hop out of the becak and yelling at the driver, but we had been standing there for 15 minutes trying to ask in a really respectful and nice way. When you have to get things done, it causes you to get frustrated, so we were like, “Listen, I’ve got stuff to do. How much is it?!?” You kind of put your foot down. I don’t think it was me trying to come across as arrogant when we were trying to pay. We just had no feedback, so that was what was frustrating.

The Yak: After you found out you were selected, did you do anything special to prepare for the race?
Caitlyn:: We’re both really competitive and into sports, so we knew that we could count on each other to stay in shape and be ready physically. That was the one thing we felt like we had control over, so we would always constantly be on each other’s work out plans. Also, Brittany is really good at coming up with different strategies, so she actually came up with a good idea to practice team-building skills by putting together a Lego truck, which was really hard because one of us would be at the other end of the room and had to talk the other one through the directions. We prepared as much as we could, but you really can’t prepare for the things that you do on the race.

The Yak: If you could, would you have changed anything that you did on the race?
Brittany:: Caitlin and I did the best we could at every challenge, so even with the third leg, I knew that in order for us to stay in the competition, I had to step up and represent Caitlin and I on that road block. I did it in five minutes, and it kind of worked out where we got to the train station at 7:54 and the first one left at 7:45, so we were right with the Sri Lankans. [CBS] kind of made it look different, but we were neck and neck with them at the train station. It’s just one of those things where we did what we could control. I definitely wouldn’t do anything differently, but at the same time, it just happened to come down to the becak driver. It was one of those things where I wish we could have communicated better. There’s nothing I would have changed, but I wish that America could have seen how we were so respectful of the culture and country we were in. It just came down to the way they edited it. They just saw the heat of the moment and coming down to the wire, which caused us to get competitive and determined to not get eliminated. They just showed a different side of us because we were there to win and to compete. We weren’t there to sit around and twiddle our fingers while riding a becak.

The Yak: So, what’s next for Caitlin and Brittany?
Caitlin:: I just moved from St. Louis to Atlanta, so it’s kind of exciting to start a new chapter in my life. It’s nice to be back in the South, since we both went to Auburn and I have a bunch of friends here, so it’s exciting.
Brittany:: I’m still in Chicago. I actually just took a job with a pharmaceutical company, so I’ve been busy with that and moving into a new place. I’m just trying to get settled, and looking forward to watching the rest of the race. We hate that we were out so early when we knew that we were a strong team.

The Yak: We were sorry to see you go, too! Thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate it!
Caitlin:: Thank you!
Brittany:: Thank you so much!