The Amazing Race > The Racers

♥ TAR13 ♥ *WINNERS* Nick Spangler & Starr Spangler!!

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puddin:
thanks to traveler224

Nick/Starr/Phil on Bonnie Hunt

marigold:

Omg that episode had me laughing for an hour after it aired

Speaking of Bonnie:

"Warner Bros.’ Bonnie Hunt climbed 13% from its 0.8 premiere to a 0.9."

I hope these were TAR fans  :cmas27

Link to the article:  http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6621967.html

TARAsia Fan:
Having the TAR interviews has to help somewhat.

georgiapeach:
Posted on Fri, Dec. 12, 2008

Grueling, gross and great: Brother-and-sister 'Amazing Race' winners look back


--- Quote --- When Starr Spangler and her brother Nick auditioned for The Amazing Race, Starr was a Texas Christian University student who had been a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader for three seasons.

Now the California-raised Spanglers live in New York, but their country-crossing in the States has nothing on their recent journey: traveling around the world and visiting countries in five continents on a nearly 40,000-mile trip that ended with them winning the $1 million first prize on the series’ 13th season.

The Spanglers are the youngest team ever to win the race. Nick, an off-Broadway actor, is 22; Starr, who works with autistic children, is 21. The Star-Telegram chatted with the Spanglers by phone this week about their victory:

Starr, did your experience as a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader help you prepare for the race?

Starr: Not only physically, but mentally. The Amazing Race is very challenging in every aspect, and being a cheerleader is extremely challenging in every aspect. The cheerleaders have a reality show [CMT’s Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team], and I did three seasons of it. I knew what to expect. I know what it’s like to have a camera in your face. And Nick being an actor . . . we really knew what to be prepared for.

Nick: Some of the other contestants, that really threw ’em off in the beginning.

The last flight of the race was from Moscow to Portland, Ore. How does the jet lag affect your performance?

Starr: We had a very short pit stop going from Russia to Portland. I think Nick and I had a total of an hour and a half in a hotel room where we could decently shower and lay down for 45 minutes before we had to get up and go to the airport. So it really was exhausting, and by the time we hit the ground, we were tired. But the adrenalin carries you through, and you just go and you don’t feel the exhaustion till you get to the mat.

Nick: It is really disorienting. On one leg, we flew from Bolivia to New Zealand. We crossed the international date line, and we spent like 45 minutes just trying to figure out what day it was. . . . But everybody’s in the same boat, and seeing the other teams and knowing they’re all going to the same place, that’s what keeps you going.

You worked well as a team, but surely you had some sibling rivalry growing up.

Nick: When we were in elementary and high school, we didn’t see eye to eye on a lot of things. We argued a lot, pretty bitterly and rudely. But once we both got into college and we were separated by 3,000 miles, we actually started talking to each other on the phone. We were becoming adults at the same time, and we had somebody to go through it with.

Was there any task that made you say, "I can’t believe I have to do this"?

Starr: The only thing that was really difficult for us was in leg four, when we were in New Zealand, we had to crush kiwis with our feet. And Nick and I physically could not do it. Our feet were cut up, and we weren’t getting a drip compared to other teams.

Nick: What always scared me, honestly, was just being dropped in a foreign country not knowing the language. You are truly alone. Starr and I were a 21- and a 22-year-old, alone, dropped in the middle of India. If we get into a confrontation with a local, our camera crew doesn’t say, "Excuse me, sir, could you calm down." They’re not helping us out.

Racers talk about what a blur the race is, and how you don’t really get to enjoy the countries you visit. Where would you like to return?

Starr: For me, it would be New Zealand. We were there for less than 24 hours, and it was just absolutely gorgeous. It was a really tough leg for Nick, but I remember we were up on Mount Eden, and it was raining and there was a beautiful rainbow, and we were in the middle of racing and Nick said, "Starr, stop. Come look at this rainbow." And at the moment, I was like, "No, no, we’ve gotta go, we’ve gotta keep going." I wish I’d taken that minute to enjoy where we were.

Nick: For me, it’s more Cambodia. We actually did get some time to look around and explore there. But that place is just another world.
--- End quote ---



http://www.star-telegram.com/living/story/1086616.html

georgiapeach:
INTERVIEW FROM MSN:

December 10
Nick and Starr Are Simply 'Amazing'
 
The two siblings had dominated much of the latest edition of "The Amazing Race," so it wasn't super-surprising when they managed to finish the $1 million leg in front of ex-NFL player Ken and his semi-estranged wife Tina and mistake-prone frat boys Dan and Andrew.

I talked to them earlier in the week about their win, the highs and lows of racing and Star's romance with fellow contestant Dallas. Here are the highlights:

MSN: Guys, congratulations on winning "The Amazing Race" yesterday.

Nick & Starr: Thank you so much.

MSN: What was it like? You'd won five or six legs before the final leg?

Nick: Yeah, six legs before the final leg.

MSN: Does that make it easier or harder for you going into the final leg?

Nick: I would say a little bit harder. There's that saying, "The bigger they are, the harder they fall." That's how we saw our success on the Race. Every time we came in first, we were like, "Aw, man! It's going to feel even worse when we do get eliminated." There was that stretch where we came in first four times in a row, and then ... it was like this perfect storm is brewing. Granted, it gave us a little bit of confidence each leg we came in first, but it weighed heavily on my mind.

Starr: Watching the other teams in Russia on the second leg was incredible, because Nick and I -- it was a very challenging leg, a long leg, but Nick and I ran it extremely fluidly. We had no problems. So when Dan and Andrew and Ken and Tina didn't show up until four hours after us, we were just dumbfounded that it had taken everyone so long to get there. And we couldn't believe Dallas and Toni weren't there. But we were in a better place than everyone else starting the next leg, because they were exhausted. We were tired too, but they had had a much more difficult leg in Russia than we did.

Nick: I'd like to revise my answer a little bit. ... After we came in first six times, alright some of that was probably, some of that was most definitely luck on our part. But at a certain point, they can't all be luck. We knew that some of what we were doing was the reason for our success. The final leg, we knew we had what it took.

MSN: What do you think separated you so far from the rest of the contestants on this version of the Race?

Nick: I don't think it was too big a gap. There were incredible competitors on our Race. I still hesitate to call us the best team on our Race, because everybody was great. But one thing we had that most of the other teams didn't have was our team's relationship and that close bond that we share.

Starr: Nick and I know how to deal with each other because we've lived with each other for most of our lives. He knows how to push my buttons and I know how to push his and I know how to calm him down when things are going wrong and he knows how to calm me down. Because we know those things about each other, we're just a great balance and we're able to get through those tough, tough situations where other teams kind of broke down and fell about. You saw Dan and Andrew get upset, Ken and Tina, Sarah and Terence. Toni and Dallas, they're a family team. They're just like us. That really gives you an edge when you're racing.

Nick: There's a subliminal amount of trust that comes with racing with a family member. ... I felt I knew Starr as well as I knew myself. I never had to worry about her.

MSN: One of the things I'd been wondering the entire race is what's up with the camo?

Nick: That's in honor of our brother, Jake.

Starr: Yeah, our brother Jake has been over in Iraq for 18 months, and he actually got home yesterday, which is crazy.

Nick: The day of the finale.

Starr: The day of the finale is the day that he got home. We applied about a year ago and we were e-mailing between our family members and everyone was so involved in it, but it was so difficult because Jake was overseas in a very dangerous place. Our communication with him was spotty. There would be six to eight weeks where we wouldn't hear from him, and you'd think, "Gosh, I hope he's OK." So our camo was in his honor and to have him with us on the Race.

Nick: The best part was we felt like he was racing with us the whole way. The start of the race we wore the camo in honor of him, and then we go to a Brazilian Army camp. And then we go to Moscow and we're marching with the Russian Army in full fatigues. And then we fly to Portland, Oregon and he went to college there.

Starr: It was definitely neat to have him with us. We haven't heard from him yet but we can't wait to talk to him and I'm sure he's going to be so proud of us. It was a shout-out not only to him, but to all the soldiers who are fighting for us and keeping us safe here.

MSN: What was your favorite part of the Race and your least favorite part of the Race, excluding of course your actual winning?

Starr: I think the best part of the Race was just being able to spend time with each other and to see each other in different lights as adults.

Nick: Really it was the stuff we got to do. It was the stuff that makes people want to do the Amazing Race. Starr and I both loved Cambodia like nothing else.

Starr: It was awesome.

Nick: We took that first place after a couple terrible legs on our part, the stuff we did there was the coolest, the locale was the coolest, the people were just awesome.

Starr: It was the first time we looked at each other and just said, "Yeah, this is what 'The Amazing Race' is about." There were boats, and there were trucks and it was just an incredible leg. We were on the other side of the world in a place that people only dream about visiting. ... I would say the best part was getting to see the places we got to visit, which in other terms we never would have seen.

Nick: The toughest stuff was the communication block we had in almost every country. Starr and I really struggled talking to a lot of our cab drivers and the locals. Any time there was a big language barrier, I think we kind of failed. 

MSN: Let's talk about the last leg. I think that final task where you had to put everything in order was one of the hardest things I've seen on the Race.

Nick: It was tough. All those clue boxes were really spread out.

Starr: The running back and forth, you were literally exhausted. It wasn't even the memory game where you could remember where everything was. There were just too many boxes and there was too much distance.

Nick: It was tough to remember what you'd done three weeks prior while you're sprinting amongst all these clue boxes.

MSN: What do you think led to your beating out Ken and Tina on that, because that really seemed to be the turning point?

Nick: I think it was just the running. On their previous leg, it was exhausting for them. It took them over 12 hours to complete the leg. I think they checked into that pit stop four and a half hours behind us. So we had spent that much less time running around Moscow doing stuff and exhausting ourselves. So I think we went into the final leg with a little more vitality.

Starr: Staying back and watching the episodes, I think Ken and Tina were really getting tired. They were a strong team and they played it all the way to the end. But they made a lot of mistakes in India and Kazakhstan, and getting to the second half of the Race, you could tell they were getting tired. I knew once I saw there was so much running that there was no way they could pass us. Nick and I were in better shape than them and we could have run longer than them. When we were going through Portland, it was several blocks between each clue.

Nick: Running to Voodoo Donuts was another long stretch where we knew we could probably gain some time on them.

MSN: What do you guys plan to do with your prizes?

Starr: We plan on saving it and investing it. I know we're looking at real estate. We'd both like to stop paying rent. Nick lives in New York. I'd love to move back to California. Those are two very expensive areas, especially with the tough economy, I think we're going to be smart with our money and hope to  make it into even more money.

MSN: What advice would you have for people who want to be on "The Amazing Race"?

Nick: If you want to be on "The Amazing Race," compete with someone you get along with. That's one of the biggest things working against teams is the fact that they don't see eye-to-eye. It is not a good place to test out your relationship. It is not a good place to bring you together if you're on the outs. I think to be strong competitors, you already have to have an amiable relationship.

Starr: I would say there's a lot of people I've met who said, "I'd love to be on that show, but I don't think they would ever take me," or this or that. Nick and I, we never thought that they'd put us on that show and we'd win that money. But you've got to do it, put your name out there and go for it, because that's the first step. It's really the most incredible experience we've ever had.

Nick: And also just relax. Probably some of the most intense teams make some of the biggest mistakes because they are all go, no quit. But you have to have at least one teammate who can relax and think logically in times of high stress.

MSN: Would you guys go on an All-Star edition if they invited you?

Starr: Absolutely, especially because we did win seven legs, so technically, more than any other racers. I would hope that they would put us on an All-Star team because I'd love to see how we'd do again. When we first got back after we finished racing, we looked at each other and said, "It was the best thing we'll never do again." And then a couple days went by and we said, "Hell yes, we'd do it again!" We had the time of our lives. You're exhausted by the end, but every minute is worth it.

Nick: I want to race with Toni on an All-Star team and have Starr racing with Dallas.

Starr: Yeah, Dallas and I won't get very far.

MSN: Speaking of Dallas, how are things?

Starr: Things are great. We've been together since we've been back from the Race. Our relationship has consisted of skydiving and spelunking. We plan to keep our high adventures going. We plan to go to Africa this summer. We hope to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. It's been great.



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