The Amazing Race > The Racers
♥TAR13 Mark Yturralde & Bill Kahler *friends*
puddin:
I am soooo going to miss them *sigh*!!! I'm so depressed, so very sad..so teary eyed. But still, they make me smile so ......... :<3.
marigold:
An interview with Mark and Bill:
"Our oxygen-starved brains were just trying to shuffle along."
The Bolivia leg of the race seemed like it could have been fun, if it hadn't taken place 12,000 feet above sea level. How did the altitude affect you?
Mark: I can tell you that it would have been much easier at sea level. The altitude really gave Bill and me some issues. When we look back on it, we realized how stupid we'd been all day. I was bumping into doors. We had trouble getting in and out of cabs. It was just a killer.
Bill: Mark was telling me that he was having trouble tying his shoes at one point. Our oxygen-starved brains were just trying to vaguely shuffle along and keep going.
Is that why you misread the clue and took a taxi when you were supposed to walk?
Bill: A little bit. We went into the race planning to always read the clue more than once. The reason that we didn't do it right there was because we'd just seen Terence and Sarah hop into their cab. It was kind of a lemming thing, where we just kind of went, "Oh, we have to do that," even though we had just read the words "on foot."
Mark: I wanted to take the extra second to read the clue again, but he wouldn't let me.
So, Bill's taking the blame for losing the race?
Bill: I was the person who said to take the taxi. I didn't remember saying it but I guess I did.
Mark: I'll have you know that that's my win from the race. I can give Bill grief about the taxi comment for the rest of his life. I guarantee you that when one of us is on our deathbed, our last word is going to be taxi.
Mark, did you ever think wrestling a woman would be so difficult?
Mark: Well you know I've wrestled a lot of women in my time ... No, when we were going up there, our taxi driver clued us in on what was going on. And I was like oh cholita wresting, I love those little cinnamon pastries. But I was mistaken. That was a churro. And it really wasn't going to be the same thing. But come on, how many people actually get to put on a spandex superhero outfit - which I looked damn good in - jump into the ring and get thrown about? It was awesome.
Bill, your snoring was a bit of a concern heading into the race. Did it ever become an issue?
Bill: I did snore. I don't know that I snored in Bolivia.
Mark: He snored in Bolivia because he couldn't breathe.
Bill: Honestly there were people snoring worse than me.
Mark: If you ever get the chance to talk to Ken and Tina, ask Tina about her snoring.
What's next?
Bill: Back to normal and enjoying spending time with our families and friends. We're just taking things as they come.
Mark: When we got eliminated, I went to talk to Phil and I said one of the reasons we got eliminated was because I wasn't in good enough physical shape. I was sick and tired of being out of shape and I told Phil that it was ending that day. I decided to change my life. Since I've gotten home, I've lost about 40 pounds and have gotten into competitive biking. I don't want to be that guy I saw in the spandex anymore.
Bill: He's doing great.
Link: http://www.intouchweekly.com/categories/tv_scoops/
georgiapeach:
Reality TV world Interview!
Exclusive: Mark Yturralde and Bill Hahler dish about 'The Amazing Race'
By John Bracchitta, 10/13/2008
Mark Yturralde and Bill Hahler began The Amazing Race 13 believing that their mental edge would more than make up for any physical limitations they posessed.
However, following a mental lapse and a slow cab ride, the "Best Friends" team became the third team to be eliminated from the show in last night's broadcast on CBS.
On Monday, Mark and Bill spoke to Reality TV World about what their mindset was going into the race, which team they agreed to a "non-agression pact" with, and why the thin air in the hills of Bolivia made it so difficult to focus.
--- Quote ---Reality TV World: How'd you both end up on the show? Whose idea was it?
Mark: Mine.
Reality TV World: Ok, Was this the first time you have applied for [the show] or had you done it before?
Mark: No We had applied like ten times before. We've been applying pretty much non-stop since Season 3.
Reality TV World: About how long did it take you guys to find that newspaper ad that we saw on last night's leg?
Bill: We had actually paired up with [Terrence Gerchberg] and [Sarah Leshner] for that. You can kind of see that a little bit in the show, we were kind of next to them. And what happened was we divided up the paper into two-halves and we said 'We're gonna do one half and you guys do one half.'
And so we just starting scanning [the newspaper] and looking for English because of the classified [advertisements were in Spanish]. So we found that [advertisement] in, I don't know maybe 25-30 seconds?
Reality TV World: Really? Wow.
Bill: And then we sort of nudged Terrence and said, you know, L4 [the page number] and then we just took off to the hat shop.
Reality TV World: So you said it really only took you 25-30 seconds?
Bill: I mean, it might have been a minute. It definitely wasn't any longer than a minute.
Mark: We had a whole plan where Bill and I... Bill would start in the front and I started in the back. We were doing the even-numbered pages on the left and Terrence and Sarah were doing the odd-numbered pages. So we cut the [newspaper] into four pieces real quick and then the four of us just went 'Flip, flip, flip, flip, flip"
Reality TV World: In retrospect, do you wish that you had used a U-Turn option on someone?
Mark: Yes.
Bill: Yeah we definitely did. The problem was that we were.... because we had taken the taxi we had gotten pretty far out in front and we didn't know that though. All we knew was that we didn't see anybody. And we knew that Terrence and Sarah had gotten into a cab before we did so we didn't know if they had just taken the other Detour or... We didn't know what was going on.
So, we didn't want to use a U-Turn without knowing where everybody was.
Mark: And I'll tell you, when we walked up to the thing, the first words out of my mouth were "I want to U-Turn [Brooke Jackson] and [Marisa Axelrod]..."
Bill: (interrupting) It's true. He did say that.
Mark: ...and Bill talked me out of it. Ask Brooke and Marisa about that sometime when you have a chance. (both laugh)
Reality TV World: Okay I will, going on to another team... a lot of the teams seemed to be having issues with [Nick Spangler] and [Starr Spangler]. What was your opinion of them?
Mark: Well we knew that Nick was lying to us pretty much from the first second we met him. We said "Hi" and we asked what he did for a living and he told us. Then I went over and borrowed someone's computer and looked him up and found out what he really did.
So that kind of put us a little at guard and because, it's like, the very first thing out of his mouth was "Hi, I do this" and we were like "Oh, well you really jerked us around on that, ok."
But we had a little impromptu arrangement with them, which was pretty much "You don't mess with us, and we won't mess with you" and we'll do this for two legs and then we'll revisit it. They honored that with us. I mean, Nick and Starr never did anything mean to us. I will go so far as to say that Nick and Starr were never anything but nice to us!
I don't personally ave a problem with either one of them so I got a lot of mileage and I really enjoyed giving Nick grief for lying about what he did for a living, because I love a running joke.
Reality TV World: Do you think the show's portrayal of them has been accurate?
Bill: I think one of the things about Nick and Starr is that... One of the things about Mark and I, when Mark and I were discussing out strategies for The Amazing Race, one of the things we decided was that if it comes time to maybe screw over another team if it's really going to put us ahead or keep us from getting eliminated we'll do it. But we're not just going to be evil for the purpose of being evil, and if there's something that's mean or sneaky that doesn't get you anywhere, don't do it.
I think one of the problems that Nick and Starr may have is that I think they're a little too ready to take the sneaky option. And I think it's going to make it difficult for them with their relationships with other teams.
Mark: Yeah, we decided early on that we weren't going to be mean unless it moved us forward. Otherwise it really was pointless. And I think that [Nick and Starr] are definitely enjoying the role that they're playing. I mean you can see the glint in Nick's eye. He's having a good time in his own way.
Reality TV World: Was that cab ride to the Pit Stop really the first time you guys noticed you were supposed to have walked to the Detour?
Mark and Bill: Yes
Reality TV World: Ok. Was there anything in particular that led to you misreading the directions or you just not take the time to read it completely?
Mark: I'll let Bill talk about the major thing but I'm gonna say that one of the major [reasons] was just lack of oxygen. That altitude was messing with us big time, it was really making us stupid. I remember having a real difficulty at one point tying my shoes! I couldn't tie a knot! It just really lobotomized me.
Bill: And another thing that happened was [that] a little earlier we had seen Terrence and Sarah hop into that cab, so we were kind of in that mode of "Ok, read the clue and get going" so we did what we had seen them do. I think that's one of the reasons we messed it up is because we just got into that lemming mentality of "Just follow the crowd." They realized their mistake, but we didn't.
Reality TV World: And I guess because you said the lack of oxygen was affecting you, do you regret that you didn't hail a cab to the hat shop?
Bill: No. I don't think that made much of a difference. It made some... I mean I was pretty winded when we got to the top. When you're following around two people who are in as good of shape as Sarah -- and especially as good of shape as Terrence is -- it's hard for guys like us to keep up with them. So they were chugging up the hill and we were huffing and puffing up the hill. I think it made a difference but I don't know if it would have stopped us from making the mistake or not.
In that sense I kind of regret it because it might have been better but we had thought that it was close enough that we'd get there faster because there was a lot of traffic.
Reality TV World: About how much actual time do you think you guys saved by taking the taxi?
Bill: Well it's hard to know, but I think Mark has a thought on that.
Mark: Yeah I think it was pretty close to 30 minutes. I think if [we would have had to] walk up that hill --- which was pretty major -- I don't think it made the difference.
I think the taxi driver that we had to-and-from the [Los Titanes del Ring] was much more of a factor in our elimination than the 30 minute penalty because I think it would have taken us 30 minutes to walk up that hill and get ready no problem. And we'd have to find the place with the big hill to get there? I think it would have taken us more than 30 minutes.
I actually, upon retrospect, think that the 30 minute penalty for taking the taxi ride to the top there was pretty fair.
Reality TV World: Mark, how big a role did your lightheadedness and lack of oxygen play in your struggles to complete the wrestling routine?
Mark: It was huge! I mean you see me say in the show that the second time I lift myself up and I'm practicing and then I get in the ring and I very nearly pass out. I was out there running around the ring, being physical, and it was really just beating me up. It felt like I had just run a marathon or something and could barely think. It was rough. It was really, really rough.
Reality TV World: Did anyone else have trouble breathing during the wrestling Roadblock challenge?
Mark: I don't want to name names or anything but I can tell you that there were a lot of other people who had some pretty serious difficulties and other people took advantage of their oxygen masks and had to stop to catch their breathes once or twice.
But at the same time there were some people that it just didn't effect in the slightest. There were some people who were just like "I'm fine" and went on their merry way.
Reality TV World: Did you see when Terrence got mad at Sarah during the first week for talking to other teams? Were you involved in that?
Bill: We did talk to them a little bit, but we didn't really... We got to know them more during the Pit Stop for the second week I would say. Or maybe the Pit Stop for the first week. Not so much the camp out but the Pit Stop where she... she had talked to us about this. She and Terrence talked to us and other teams and we had had dinner and that's where we really got to know them a little better. But I think at that point we were just kind of introducing ourselves and getting to know people. We weren't getting into a big heart-to-heart conversations yet.
Reality TV World: And then moving to last night's episode. Did you see any of the argument between Starr, [Kelly Crabb] and [Christy Cook] regarding the sports bra?
Mark: Yeah I mean I was standing right behind them. If you look in the shot you see me standing there wearing my little beanie. I watched and listened to the whole thing.
Reality TV World: Did you see anything when it actually happened? Did you see the incident occur?
Mark: No, we experienced the incident right after it had occurred though.
Bill: Yeah we had the initial report of "Hey this happened" you know? She had not confronted Starr yet but [Christie] had mentioned it to us and some other teams that "Hey, I think Starr took my sports bra."
Reality TV World: From watching on TV, there didn't seem to be as much cooperation or alliances as compared to some of the show's previous seasons. You're kind of saying that you talked with a couple of teams and worked together, do you think that they just haven't been showing [those alliances] as much this season?
Mark: Well I think they've been showing better stuff. There hasn't been anything that has happened where I've been like "Wow that was so incredibly cool. Why didn't they show that?" But I think they've probably shown most of the major alliances that we were aware of.
Reality TV World: So besides [the teams of] Terrence and Sarah and Nick and Starr where there any other alliances that you formed?
Bill: Well we never really allied ourselves with Nick and Starr. Like we kind of just had a non-aggression....
Mark: (interrupting) Yeah, we had a non-aggression pact. "You don't screw us and we won't screw you." There was a handshake and a smile on that and, for the record, they kept their end of the bargain.
Reality TV World: Was there anyone you didn't get along with?
Bill: Eh... the worst thing I can say is that we just hadn't met people. There were a couple teams that we just never got a chance -- during the three legs -- to get to know very well.
We didn't really get to meet [Toni and Dallas Imbimbo] that much during that time. Just a bit but not too much. [Andrew Lappitt] and [Dan Honig] we only got to talk to for a little. And [Anthony Marotta] and [Stephanie Kacandes] during the time that they were on before they got booted.
But I wouldn't say that there was anybody we actively disliked.
Reality TV World: Is there anything you [expected to see] on the show that didn't make it on the air?
(both pause to think)
Mark: It was that time I lifted the dune buggy with my bare hands out of the pot hole and placed it back on the sand! (both laugh) I'm surprised they didn't show that. (laughs again)
Bill: Just give me 10 seconds to think about that. (pause) No I can't think of anything. Nope, not really. I have to say though that a lot of the stuff that we did see they showed on the show.
Mark: There's is one thing, during the elimination there was a point where I said something really, really sweet about my wife and I was hoping they would show that to earn me some major karma points (Bill laughs) but they didn't show that and I wish they had.
Bill: The one thing, I should say, that I wish they could have showed -- but I guess they didn't have time to -- Mark did a very good job of convincing people to help him. There were several points at which Mark was able to convince people to... well for example there was one point in the airport where he was able to get some people to rip some pages out of their guidebooks.
Mark: Yeah that was awesome. They should've shown that. They [also] didn't show the really nice lady in the plaza who gave us $300 dollars. (laughs)
Bill: Well not $300, 300 "bolivianos"
Mark: (to Bill) It was like $300 American!
Bill: (to Mark) Nooo...
Mark: (to Bill) Yeah it was!
Bill: It was a lot though wasn't it?
Mark: Eh, whatever it was it was a lot of money! (laughs)
Reality TV World: What was your favorite experience on The Amazing Race?
Mark: I would say that my two favorite experiences on the race were the very split second before we left where we are standing in the [Los Angeles Coliseum] and Phil's up there with his hand out and he's got his eyebrow arched and he's like "You're about to go on a race around the world!" And my stomach starts going and I'm getting all excited and like "Oh boy! Here we go!"
That was just freakin' amazing. That was really great.
The second time for me was probably when we shared time with [Ken and Tina Greene] on the [Pit Stop mat for the race's second leg]. That's when we found out about the trouble that they were having with their relationship and, you know, they're great people and I really love them both so much. And just the ability to be there and to find out about that.
That moment was very, very real [and] very, very emotional. That was a pretty touching moment. We had just gotten beaten, but if coming in first and winning a couple of ATVs helps you take a step down the path to repairing your marriage, than screw the ATVs. I mean that. It was a very human moment.
Reality TV World: Did you have any least favorite experience?
Bill: The heat in Brazil was bad. After sweating -- and apparently that's what I do the best based on my viewing of myself on television. I sweat very well apparently -- but after sweating thought that bit in El Salvador and finally getting to the mat, and we got to the Pit Stop [and] there was some pineapple there. And I have never had pineapple that tasted so good than the pineapple right then.
It was so draining just running around, climbing the net and all of that kind of stuff. It was great! But it was just grueling at the same time.
Reality TV World: Is there any particular team you are rooting to win now that you're out?
Mark: Yeah I'm voting for Charla and Mirna!
Bill: I don't think they can pull it off. They're kind of [unavailable].
Mark: Yeah, it's going to be the upset of the century. Seriously.
Reality TV World: Is that code for you're not rooting for anybody?
Bill: We have teams that we like. At the point in time that we were eliminated we were working with Terrence and Sarah and we got along with them really nicely. At that point I think we sort of said to each other that we hoped they could pull it off.
Mark: Yeah, we love Terrence and Sarah.
Reality TV World: I know that when you two entered the race you had extra small backpacks. Did you have any other strategies going in and did you bring anything else unique with you?
Mark: I'm not gonna say just small. I'm going to go on record saying that Bill and I had the smallest bags in [The Amazing Race] history. I doubt anybody... and I [looked this up] I think we have the smallest bags ever, which I'm pretty proud of.
But our main strategies were what Phil said: Play to our strengths. If there's ever a choice between a physical and a mental task, take the mental task because we're just not going to be able to compete physically with some of these people. And don't be mean if we don't have to. And to enjoy it.
We both said just before we left as we were walking out onto the field. We looked at each other and we said "Look, we've been friends for 20+ years and we're gonna be friends after this. So nothing in this race is more important than our friendship and compromising who we are." So we told ourselves we were going to do [this entire race] and be true to ourselves and be who we are. I think we did that
Bill: And another thing we kind of made a point of doing was... One thing I said before we got on [The Amazing Race] was that "The world is full of people who want to help you win the race. All you have to do is respect them and ask them nicely." I think we did that. I thought that every interaction we had with our cab driver were positive.
It didn't work out on the last one, [the cab driver] didn't take us on the best route, but that wasn't because he didn't like us or anything like that. So I think that we really did very well in interacting with the locals in all of the places that we went.
Reality TV World: And actually could you elaborate on that? How much do you think that last cab ride set you back?
Bill: Well, considering that we left before they did, Terrence and Sarah ended up in about third or fourth place and they had left next to last. They were able to make out a lot of time. And if our guy had done what their guy had done then it would have worked out great for us.
But as it stood, he kinda just took his way -- whatever that way was -- and we got there when we did.
Reality TV World: How easy or difficult were those wooden bikes to ride? It looks you two handled them alright but Christie took a pretty nasty spill with hers.
Mark: When we walked up to those rides I looked at them and was like (sings) "Flintstones, meet the Flintstones..."
Bill: We didn't expect them to be from the wood age.
Yeah. (laughs) They were pretty dang hard to ride. [Actually] it wasn't that the riding was so hard, it was just that they were so unstable and [quirky]. They are totally carved out of wood. The only thing that wasn't made of wood was the tires, which are hammered on strips of leather over wood, over wood. So there is no cushioning, no comfiness and you're riding down a cobblestone street.
It's one of those things where whenever you hear anybody talk [on them] they're all going (in a shaky voice) "o-o-o-k, w-e-'-r-e g-o-o-o-i-n-g" (laughs) It was really, really jarring. Everyone said how much their butt hurt after they were riding those bikes.
Mark: I will tell you that another great part of [the race] that they showed. When he hit those bikes and we hit the final tunnel, I looked at Bill and I got this gleam in my eye and said "Time to get some skin in the game" and I picked up my feet totally off of the break [pedal] and went down that hill full-blast. I probably hit about 30 mph going down that tube, that was pretty crazy.
And I remember about halfway through it going like "You know I always wondered how I'd die. Apparently it's on a wooden bike in Bolivia."
--- End quote ---
http://www.realitytvworld.com/news/exclusive-mark-yturralde-and-bill-hahler-dish-about-the-amazing-race-7862.php
marigold:
An interview with Mark and Bill:
I’m Obi-Wan, He’s Anakin: Mark and Bill On Their Surprise Elimination from The Amazing Race
Mark and Bill seem poised to excel on The Amazing Race. The duo more than made up for in brains what they lacked in brawn, as evidenced by their near-perfect second leg of the race. But the high altitude did a number on their analytical abilities and they ended up being eliminated for, of all things, poor reading comprehension. They spoke with fancast about misreading the clue, sports bra-gate, and why they’re proud to be part of the Geek Pride movement.
I have to know. How did the two of you manage to miss the key line, about traveling to the detour on foot, when you read the clue?
Bill: Part of it was that we were really tired from running from the statue to the hat shop. But one of the things that really messed us up is when we went into the hat shop, Terrance and Sarah were leaving. They had gotten into the cab already. We had seen them do that. So our thought was, “Get in the shop, get the hat, let’s get our clue. I was reading it, but not like I should have been. It was a lemming mentality, something we’d sworn we’d do was read every clue more than once and we went back on our promise to ourselves. We kind of paid for it.
Mark: That’s all very true, but I’m blaming oxygen deprivation. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
You could blame Terence. He’s a convenient scapegoat.
Mark: Actually, at that particular point in time the two of us and Terrance and Sarah were kind of helping each other out. He didn’t mean to screw us up, though that’s kind of the way it happened. I’ve been absolutely blaming Bill all day. There was this shot of Bill going, “Let’s take a taxi.” So for the rest of my life I can say it was all his fault.
Why didn’t you U-turn anybody?
Bill: Because we took the taxi, we were way out ahead, but we didn’t know that because we thought everyone was taking a taxi. All we knew was that no one else was around us. So what we hoped that someone else who could see another team behind them would use the U-Turn.
All the other teams seemed to think the same thing. Why is there a reluctance to use the U-turn when it’s such a strategic advantage?
Bill: Everyone wants to save it for later in the game when it’s more important. If we’d seen any teams behind us we’d have used it. But we didn’t want to waste it. We thought we were doing pretty well.
Mark: I did say, though they didn’t show, that I wanted to U-turn Brooke and Marissa but Bill talked me out of it.
What happened during the wrestling task? It looked like it was really challenging because of the high altitude.
Bill: The high altitude was absolutely killing me. It made everything ten times more difficult than it had ever been before. It was really draining. It was like you had no energy, like your hands weighed 500 pounds.
Mark: One thing to bear in minds is that the neighborhood in La Paz that the stadium was in was even higher than downtown La Paz. It’s about two or three thousand feet above where we spent the night.
How did you decide which one of you was going to wrestle?
Bill: After running around and doing the bike challenge, I had started to cough a lot. I was having a hard time doing anything. So we were talking in the cab because our driver had tipped us off that where we were going had to do with wrestling. We decided whoever’s coughing the least should be the one to do it. And that wound up being Mark.
Mark: In retrospect we should probably have had Bill do it because he spoke the language and I didn’t. They were trying to train us and the trainers didn’t speak English. At the end of the day I was the one who had to do it three times to get past it.
What moments of your race do you wish had made it on the show?
Mark: I wish they had shown the very end when I was on the mat I said something to the effect of, “I’m lucky that I get to go home to my beautiful wife and my healthy kid. I have a great job and a good life.” Everybody who goes on the race is humbled by the experience. I wish they’d shown that solely so I could score points with my wife. It probably didn’t fit the image the show was trying to create. On TV people who are computer savvy aren’t allowed to have wives.
Bill: That clip is on the web.
Mark: I’ve got to send my wife that link right now.
Who were you rooting for after you got eliminated?
Bill: Terence and Sarah.
Mark: They were trying to help us out. We were trying to help them out. You saw a tiny clip of that when we found the newspaper clue. We split the paper with them.
Do you think they got a fair edit?
Bill: Terrance is a very intense guy. He’s very, very driven. Some people weren’t getting along with him from the other teams. He’s a good guy but people mistake his passion for him being stuck or not that nice a guy.
Mark: I’ll tell you for the record that’s not true. Terrance is one of the nicest guys and one of the best friends a guy could ever hope to have. People are misinterpreting his competitiveness and his intensity. You don’t get to be Terrance and do things like run the Boston Marathon without having that sort of focus.
Were you aware of Sports Bra-Gate between Nick and Starr and Kelly and Christy?
Bill: Kelly and Christy talked about her sports bra going missing and they thought that Starr was responsible. No one had actual evidence of anything. The first confrontation wasn’t until what aired. We knew about it ahead of time. We were like, “uh-oh, here it comes.”
As a strategy, does dropping someone’s sports brad over a balcony even make sense?
Mark: It seemed unlikely. It just doesn’t seem like it would be worth the risk of being fingered as a sports-bra dropper in order to accomplish not a whole lot. Nick and Starr did seem to have a taste for the sneaky. I think that’s why Kelly and Christy got suspicious of them.
Bill: I wouldn’t say any team was above doing something if they thought it would give them an advantage but I’m not sure what pushing someone’s sports bra over a ledge would get you, but if it were someone’s shoes I might have gone for it.
If you had it to do over again, would you have prepared differently?
Mark: I would have worked out a lot harder. I would have made a much higher intensity commitment to getting into shape.
Bill: I’d go along with that. Otherwise, maybe more time preparing with foreign languages. There are a lot of places on the planet where I don’t speak the language. Even the Portuguese was a problem initially until I nice person decided to give us their Portuguese-English phrasebook.
Kynt and Vyxsin are fancast’s celebrity Amazing Race bloggers. They have this question for you: Regarding your defeat, Yoda cryptically advised, and we quote, "Always two there are, a Master and an Apprentice." Looking back at your Amazing Race adventure, which of you do you consider to be "the Master" and which of you is "the Apprentice"?
Mark: As much as it pains me to say this, if we’re going to work on that simile I am 100% Anakin and Bill is 100% Obi-Wan. I’m the brash reactive one and Bill is always going, “Think for a second. What are you doing?” As much as it rips my still-beating heart from my chest to admit it, I’d have to cop to being the Padewan.
How did going on the race change your lives?
Mark: First of all I met an insanely great group of people. I love every single one of these people like they were family. We bonded on a level that is difficult to describe to people who weren’t there. The second thing is when we were eliminated from the mat I looked at Bill and said, “You know I’m tired of being the fat guy. I’m tired of being the guy who gets out of breath and comes in last.” I’ve lost 40 pounds. I’ve run a 10K. I just did a 102 mile bike race last weekend with 5500 feet of vertical climbing. I’m training for one of the most difficult bike races in the world the Road Master in New Zealand.
Anything else you’d like America to know about the two of you?
Mark: We were absolutely who we were. We didn’t pretend to be someone else. If you got to know us socially, those would be the people that we are. We are geeks. We’re really geeky about a lot of stuff. Until recently “geek” was always a bad word. I’m glad that me and my geek brethren have decided to own the word. People are now like, “Oh those guys are just geeky about that.” It’s socially acceptable now. If we [helped] dispel the myth that geeks live in their parents’ basement, or have no life then that was well worth it.
Link: http://thebiz.fancast.com/2008/10/im_obiwan_hes_anakin_mark_and.html#more
puddin:
Mark & Bill on Bonnie Hunt, by me :wohoo:
http://s18.photobucket.com/albums/b105/rawalsh/?action=view¤t=geeks1.flv
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version