The Amazing Race > The Racers

♥♥♥ TAR14: Victoria Pfeifer Hunt & Brad Hunt ♥♥♥

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DrRox:
I am sure gonna miss them. I don't think I will ever forget the Phil Moon. That was right there with Oswald chasing Phil off the mat.

puddin:
 :hearts: :hearts: :hearts: :hearts: :hearts: :hearts:  :hearts:  :hearts:

March 02
Brad and Victoria, We Hardly Knew Ye
 
Last night's "Amazing Race" held little suspense for us viewers, as Brad and Victoria missed a key connection getting to Bucharest, stranding them far behind everyone else. I really hate to see a team get booted due to no real fault of their own. Don't you?
 
So even when Victor inexplicably forced Tammy to follow a series of clearly-not-Amazing-Race-colored markers on a long departure from the course, and even when Tammy's repeated attempts to get him to change his mind fell on deaf ears, the result wasn't enough for Brad and Victoria to catch up.
 
I chatted with the two of them a little earlier today, and due to technical difficulties (i.e., my tape recorder is not sentient with legs, and allowed me to leave it at home), I'll sum things up.
 
Both of them told me they thought they still were in it, despite their travel snafu. They'd lost track of the other teams, Brad said, and there was a chance that everyone else had fog problems. "When we got up the next morning, we raced like there was no tomorrow," Victoria said. "We really kicked ass other than that stupid
 
Brad and Victoria said they woke up about 18 hours behind the other teams. But because of their racing, they finished only four to six hours behind the second-to-last place team, Tammy and Victor. "We stayed focused," Brad said. "We didn't make a single mistake." Along the way, he admitted, they caught some lucky breaks. Their taxi drivers knew what they were doing, for instance. And Victoria apparently killed the gymnastics roadblock. She said she remembered how to do some of the moves from her childhood, and she managed to get everything right in one try. "I think I knocked it out in five minutes," Victoria said.
 
Like almost every other pair of Racers I've talked to, both said it was a great experience and allowed them to visit places they probably wouldn't have gotten to on their own. Victoria described the Race as "a mixture of cold, wet, hungry, tired" where you can't communicate with anyone.
 
One of the unexpected benefits Brad found was that a number of old friends saw him on television and were prompted to contact him. He also said that they bonded with the other Racers and were looking forward to meeting the people at TARCon. "The Race itself is over, but all those friendships are starting," Brad said.
 
Brad divulged in a confessional in last night's episode that he had problems with addiction. He said he was glad the editors didn't make it the focus of his editing. While he's been homeless, and in jail and had problems with alcohol, Brad said he doesn't try to hide his past but he doesn't make a big deal about it or define himself because of it either.
 
The two were hoping to be able to retire by winning the Race. Now they're looking forward to doing some traveling. Brad said he wants to go to Eastern Europe, while Victoria said she wants to go to some place sunny, like Spain or Portugal. "We'll hash it out," Brad said.
 
Overall, Brad said, "we're proud we can walk away with our heads held high."
 
Victoria added: "If you have a fancy, go out and tickle it. You may not get there, but trying is what generates the adventure."
 
- posted by Raoul

http://tvfilter.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!DB9D137CC0F754C9!39549.entry

georgiapeach:
Amazing Race's Brad and Victoria Upbeat About Elimination; Ready to Tackle Next Roadblock


Mar 2, 2009 09:16 PM ET by Joyce Eng
 
Brad Hunt and Victoria Hunt
It was gypsies, vamps and a really bad flight on Sunday's Amazing Race 14 that saw married couple Brad and Victoria Hunt eliminated. The duo opted for an earlier flight to Bucharest, Romania with a connection through Amsterdam — which would've worked out well if they hadn't missed the connection. Was the slim, 15-minute advantage they would've gotten worth the risk? They think so. Find out what else the couple had to say about their unlucky fate, why the leg was still the best part of the Race for them and what new challenges they're currently facing.

TVGuide.com: I was so sad to see you two go. I thought you were going to go far.
Victoria: Oh, thank you! We were very sad too. [Laughs]

TVGuide.com: So the big question is: Why did you decide to take that flight?
Brad: It's kind of a long story. In the first leg we had gotten some information about how to get to the Church of San Antonio by talking to some tourists — info that other teams didn't have. As soon as we got off the train, the other teams followed us and from there shouted the name and got there before us. Typically the rationale for not getting on a plane with another team is you've got at least one team you can beat in a foot race to the finish. Once we saw that happen with the church and with Linda and Steve gone, there was no team there that we would want to get in a foot race to the finish. So we knew we needed to a) get away from the group so when we got some info, they couldn't follow us and use our info and b) it was pointless to drag another team along with us because any of them could beat us. Even though it was only a 15-minute advantage, it would've still been enough to get us away from the rest of the group, where we could get info on our own.

The second thing is, until we got to the departure lounge, we weren't sure if there were gonna be other teams sitting there. You try to get the earliest flight you can and we'd feel pretty stupid to decline a flight that would leave 15 minutes earlier. There's no one at the departure lounge, so we thought whatever, we'll work it out. Then they said there was gonna be fog and the gate agent assured us the planes in Amsterdam would be delayed even more so we'd make the connection.
Victoria: They were all very encouraging. If they weren't, we might've made a quick decision that moment to drop that plan and try to get another flight. It's hard to explain to people unless you're right there in the moment making those decisions. It's hard to convey to people how you rationalize each decision along the way. We've heard people's opinions. "Oh, you should've known better! Never get on a plane without another team. Never take a flight with a connection." We know! But until you're there, it's kind of hard.
Brad: Every stupid thing I've done in my life seemed like a good idea at the time.

TVGuide.com: You can blame the gate agent.
Victoria: Exactly right! [Laughs]

TVGuide.com: How delayed were you guys?
Victoria: We think that set us back a whopping 18 hours.
Brad: We missed the plane by a minute. Our plane from Munich landed at the exact same minute as the plane from Amsterdam left. Even when the plane landed, they couldn't tell us absolutely for sure that we had missed it.
Victoria: It was so close! So close! And we didn't know what was going on. We didn't know what the other teams were doing. When we got up the next day, we were like fiends, racing through the challenges. We made good decisions. We were skilled. We got a good cab driver. We really nailed that day. We would've been the team to beat if we had been able to do it 18 hours earlier. [Laughs]

TVGuide.com: What did you do in the airport?
Brad: Oh, they put us up in the nicest Holiday Inn in the world! It was literally the nicest. It was first class. You'd never know it was a Holiday Inn. We made the mistake of wishing we'd be somewhere to see the Election Night returns come in because that was Election Day and we were thinking maybe an airport bar. Little did we know, we got a really nice hotel room. [Laughs]

TVGuide.com: You two finished in the dark. Do you know how far behind Tammy and Victor you were?
Brad: We were told six hours.
Victoria: We could've beaten them.
Brad: We ran the leg fastest out of anyone aside from the plane ride.

TVGuide.com: Did anyone tell you that Tammy and Victor got lost on the Detour and messed up badly when you got there, or did you find out last night?
Brad: We didn't know until the next team arrived at Elimination Station. The first thing they asked was, "What happened to you guys?" They don't tell you what happens to teams behind you; they just disappear. We had heard a little bit about what they had done, but without seeing it, we didn't really realize how badly they screwed up. I think, watching it last night, we were like, "God, they're not invincible! We could've gotten them!" [Laughs]

TVGuide.com: You said on the show you were holding out hope that maybe someone else screwed up worse than you two did. Was it hard to find the positive side, knowing you were so far behind?
Victoria: We were in very high spirits and it was a very fun, playful day. I don't think for even a moment I allowed thought of failure to enter my mind. I supposed, intellectually, I was prepared, but until we actually stepped foot on the mat and Phil told us, we still naively believed that it was possible somebody else might've screwed up as bad as we did or maybe it was a non-elimination leg.
Brad: Victoria and I have faced a lot of challenges in our lives and some challenges together. Whenever you face a challenge, it's not the time to second-guess and get involved with negative thinking. We both kinda agreed the last leg, racing from Amsterdam to Transylvania, was the best part of the Race for us. Everything just clicked and it was bam, bam, bam.

TVGuide.com: We hardly saw you doing anything, though. They showed you for not even10 seconds for the Roadblock and the Detour.
Brad: If we had a big, freak-out meltdown, we would've gotten all kinds of airtime. We were pretty much no drama. But the 10 seconds they showed, we're just kinda smiling. We didn't get a lot of airtime on the show because pretty boring TV is, like, yeah, no drama. [Laughs]
Victoria: I don't think we're boring. I don't think our fans think we're boring. We're fun, happy people and we get along really well, and I think people like to see that once in a while.

TVGuide.com: What are you up to now?
Brad: Well, some things. Victoria hurt her hip on the run down the mountain [in the second episode]. It pretty much crippled her, so she's gonna be faced with some surgery in June. And two weeks before the premiere, I was diagnosed with cancer, so I got a little challenge ahead of me.
Victoria: We came away with some issues. [Laughs]
Brad: We have a few things on our plate before we think about our where our next worldwide travel adventure is going to be.


http://www.tvguide.com/News/Amazing-Race-Interview-1003568.aspx

apskip:
I loved Brad and Victoria as a team and I was very sad to see them eliminated (although I would have been sadder if Tammy and Victor had been eliminated). However, they make a number of statements in their phone interviews that are hyperbole:

1. We were behind by 18 hours - they left 2 hours ahead of several other teams and 2 3/4 hours behind the leaders. By the time they actually departed Amsterdam, they were then a non-comparable 2 3/4 hours behind the teams departing the Bucharest train station and by the time they got to Bucharest and Victoria did the gymnastics and got to the train station it had to be about 3pm, so they were then 8.5 hours behind. They would catch the 330pm train arriving 626pm in Brasov (long after dark). At that point they would be 9 hours behind and they would finish approximately 9 hours behind the leaders and maybe 5 hours behind Tammy/Victor.

2. "We just missed the connection as we landed in AMS only 1 to 2 minutes before the flight to Bucharest departed" - this is not even a true statement(proof can be found on TWOP) and indicates their naivety about how much connection time is needed in major European airports, including Schipol. You need about 30 minutes to make a connection unless you are so fortunate that the departing plane is within a very few gates of the arriving one; that seldom happens. European airlines have delays routinely (just as we do in the U.S.) and they apparently do not hold the last flight for all connections (which does happen in the U.S.).

Depending on whether the weather delay caused their plane to remain at the gate, Brad and Victoria probably could have gotten off it before it left the gate in Munich and gotten onto the Lufthansa flight at 930pm. They should have if they could have.

The most difficult thing for their fans to accept is that they did all of this for a measly 15 minute gain in arrival time (1210am vs. 1225am) in Bucharest. Since it was the middle of the night the chances of some kind of bunching were very high and one did occur at the Bucharest Nord train station. You have to question why they took such a large risk.

puddin:
Hopefully Brad or Victoria could answer your questions apskips someday. You were not there so really calling their statements a bit absurb is a bit rude when you do NOT knowing all the details  :res:



--- Quote ---TVGuide.com: What are you up to now?
Brad: Well, some things. Victoria hurt her hip on the run down the mountain [in the second episode]. It pretty much crippled her, so she's gonna be faced with some surgery in June. And two weeks before the premiere, I was diagnosed with cancer, so I got a little challenge ahead of me.
Victoria: We came away with some issues. [Laughs]
Brad: We have a few things on our plate before we think about our where our next worldwide travel adventure is going to be
--- End quote ---

After all they have been through and now this sad news but.... and in my mind, Victoria and Brad are strong willed and the way they support and love each other they will persevere to rise above any obstacles that get in their way. When the going gets tough the tough get going.  :hrt: :<3 :ghug:

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