The Amazing Race > The Racers
Lorena Segura and Jason Widener - TAR12
puddin:
Amazing Race Castoffs Give Advice to Future Competitors
by Rochell D. Thomas
In the fourth leg of The Amazing Race 12 (Sundays, 8 pm/ET, CBS), the powers-that-be replaced the dreaded Yield with a new surprise — the U-Turn, a tool that allows one team to send a trailing team back to do the other half of the detour they intentionally chose not to do. It's evil. And when the Blondes used it, actors Lorena Segura and Jason Widener became its first victims even though they technically did nothing wrong. Talk about bad luck.
TVGuide.com: What did you think when you saw last night's episode and realized that the Blondes had a case of mistaken identity when they activated your U-Turn?
Jason: It was just bad luck. [Laughs] They saw T.K. and Rachel but they thought it was Lorena and I. If they'd have known that was T.K. and Rachel…
Lorena: … they wouldn't have used it.
TVGuide.com: Still, you took it well. You even seemed hopeful for a while. At what point did you realize you wouldn't be able to make up the lost time?
Jason: When we were in that car ride back and we hadn't seen any other teams. We figured no one really made any mistakes on this leg.
TVGuide.com: How far behind first-place finishers Azaria and Hendekea were you?
Jason: Only an hour and a half. That means we did both detours [and the roadblock] and we still shaved off 30 minutes. We killed it! I mean, we had one of the best legs ever, and it was just sad to see us go like that.
TVGuide.com: At least you got to race for a week and a half. How long were you actually in Burkina Faso?
Lorena: Three days.
Jason: Yeah. We flew in, spent the night literally on concrete with the mosquito nets, slept maybe four hours, took the train ride, had the whole camel extravaganza, and then that night we slept out in these little cots.
TVGuide.com: What would be your advice for future racers?
Jason: Do some yoga. Be in top health. Just go in there healthy so you can retain information, because you know you'll lose the sleep.
Lorena: And figure out how you're going to run it without stressing out. Really practice getting yourself into situations that you haven't been in before and getting through it as calmly as possible.
TVGuide.com: Speaking of calm, some people — meaning, my boyfriend — nicknamed you Mrs. Meltdown because your camel incident got so much play. Do you think you deserved that nickname and that portrayal?
Lorena: No, I wasn't that outrageous all the time. I mean, obviously it is a show and they use the best moments. That was hard to watch and hard to deal with.
Jason: Let me give you a breakdown real quick. Lorena and I are both actors. Lorena did a guest star on Moonlight and on CSI: Miami, I played the young Jed Bartlet on The West Wing. So the thing is, we're emotional people. We live life and death when we're doing scenes. So I think when she was out there with those camels and it wasn't working out, something clicked in her brain and she was so pissed off that she let it out through that kind of emotion.
TVGuide.com: Last week one of the sisters, Julia, said that she'd also been freaking out during that challenge, but they didn't really show her as much as they did you.
Lorena: Yeah. We were both feeling that same pressure and really nervous about the monsoon that came through and there were a lot of elements around it.
Jason: Yeah, they didn't show it, but that monsoon was intense. They wouldn't let me give her a jacket.
TVGuide.com: How did you stay warm during the storm? Did you hunker down with your cameraman?
Lorena: No, I was just out there. [The camels] started running away and I was like, "Oh my gosh, what do I do now?"
Jason: They didn't show this in the race, but she actually killed three camels.
TVGuide.com: Speaking of animals, you had to carry that darn chicken around for the entire fourth leg of the race. Did you name it?
Jason: I didn't name the chicken but Phil said, "Your chicken looks the best."
TVGuide.com: And then there was the goat you had to cart, along with a bunch of other stuff during the roadblock.
Lorena: That broke my heart.
Jason: My goat… he was all tied up and when I dropped him off, I was like, "What are you guys gonna do with them?" They kind of smiled at me like, "What are you, an idiot? We're gonna eat them." Bye, goat.
TVGuide.com: Now, random question: What will people be surprised to know that you carried in your pack?
Lorena: Two [pairs of] underwear. They were a reversible, quick-dry, quick-cleaning underwear.
TVGuide.com: During your week and a half in the race, how many showers did you take?
Jason: A couple.
Lorena: No, three. Remember that one in Africa with all the bugs on the floor? We took a shower together.
TVGuide.com: Wait. Tell me more about that.
Lorena: That was the pit stop after the third leg in Bingo. And we stayed in these cots in a retreat.
Jason: Everything was kind of open. And some of the other racers had already taken a shower and there were bugs everywhere. It didn't bother me much; I'm from Arkansas. But then when we were walking out and we were getting bit and [eating] food that you know you're going to get sick from. Which I think everybody did.
TVGuide.com: Why together — so one could bathe while the other swatted?
Jason: Yeah, sure. [Laughs] Sometimes you need a good woman by your side.
Lorena: Umm, I think that was just more of a comfort shower. Not sexual.
Jason: It was actually funny. When we were No. 1, everybody looked at us and like, "Yeah, I want to be them." And then when we were in last place like we were when we took that shower, everybody was looking at us a little weird, like we just broke our leg or something. I think that was when the race really began
http://www.tvguide.com/News/amazing-race-12/071129-02
georgiapeach:
Do we think they were really only an hour and a half behind A/H--or behind TK/Rachel? ???
Pedaler:
--- Quote ---really only an hour and a half behind A/H--or behind TK/Rachel?
--- End quote ---
I think Jason was understating the time differences but A/H did lose time throughout the leg.
A/H left the pitstop about 15 minutes before the next two teams but reached the 1st clue box in 3rd place. That was probably due to a slower ride and H's "pit stop". So there's 15 minutes that L&J could have picked up.
A/H had to wait to dance. But they did finish before N/J who had a 10 minute penalty. So there's another 5 to 15 minutes that L&J could have picked up.
Even though A/H got to the roadblock first, A had some difficulties. So Jason could have picked up some unknown amount of time.
However, even though A/H had difficulties and lost time throughout the leg, since Lorena and Jason still left 2:09 behind and had to complete an additonal detour, I don't think they narrowed the gap to 1:30. Maybe close but not quite.
P.S. I thought I read somewhere where it took L&J 30 or 45 minutes to pan for gold. If that's true, then there's no way they narrowed the gap to 1:30.
georgiapeach:
Thanks Pedaler! I don't think he knows really...
RNO interview:
--- Quote ---we were an hour behind TK & Rachel and Shana & Jen.
RNO: You were an hour behind them when you got to the Pit Stop?
Jason: Yes. We weren’t that far behind.
Lorena: And we had started an hour and a half behind them.
Jason: And we did both Detours.
RNO: With the extra Detour taking about 45 minutes?
Jason: Yeah, so we would have been like 15 minutes behind them. The thing is, you still never know
--- End quote ---
Reality TV:
--- Quote ---But what's funny is, when we finished the whole leg, we were only an hour behind [Shana and Jennifer] and TK and Rachel.
Reality TV World: In reaching the fourth leg's Pit Stop?
Jason: Yeah... AND we did both Detours. We blew through that leg, which sucks because we were just getting our rhythm and I think we would have been a force. We just had a lot of things that stacked up on us and just really took us down.
Reality TV World: About how long did it take you to complete both of the Detour challenges?
Jason: You know, the hard part... It was all in one area, those Detours. If you wanted to do the ["Shake Your Booty" challenge] or the ["Shake Your Pan" challenge], but it was a long like half-mile or mile in-between each one. Plus the U-Turn was at another place, like a triangle. So there's a big triangle. So we had to go from [the "Shake Your Booty" challenge] to the U-Turn, from the U-Turn to [the "Shake Your Pan" challenge] and then back to the U-Turn to get our clue. We did double or triple the amount of running than everybody else -- they didn't show that -- and we still did it faster than everybody. I don't know how we did it so fast. We did really good, and it just sucks. Another contributing factor is nobody really made any really big mistakes. Every other leg, there's at least a couple of people that something goes bad...
--- End quote ---
If all that is true it would mean only 30 minutes between A/H and TK/Rachel which seems awfully close to me...
TARAsia Fan:
And they were in their taxi from the U-Turn to the Goat Market for a seemingly long time. I don't think they were that close to TK/Rachel at the end.
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