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♥♥♥ TAR 14: Linda & Steve Cole - Married

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puddin:
Land of the Lost: "Fatal Error" Did in Amazing Race's Steve and Linda
Feb 23, 2009 09:13 PM ET by Joyce Eng Be the first to leave a comment
 
Steve and Linda, The Amazing Race 14
Linda Cole went off the beaten path down the mountain and found herself and her husband, Steve, off The Amazing Race 14. "It was probably just as painful to watch it as it was when it happened," Steve tells TVGuide.com. Navigating mountain paths wasn't the only thing that cost them a spot in the final nine though. The married couple of 17 years opened up to us to shed more light on how they ended up on that troublesome leg, why they signed up for the Race in the first place and who they're rooting for to win the $1 million.

TVGuide.com: Linda, why did you decide to do the Roadblock?
Linda: When it first came up, it was paragliding, so I thought you pretty much just glide down the mountain. I was like, "Well, I can do this." Well, unfortunately, you can blame it on the wind. [Laughs] I decided not to wait and go down the mountain, and I am not a runner. Unfortunately, I don't run well. I got lost on the mountain. I tried to climb back up, I went down fire trails and by the time I got down the mountain the second time, I didn't know where I was. I mean, it was just a mess.
Steve: If we knew we would end up running that, we never would've let her do that. I would've done that.

TVGuide.com: How far did that set you back?
Linda: Actually, it wasn't as bad as I thought. I was lost in the mountains for four hours with no water or anything. Steve will know the time when the last team came down the mountain, which was Jodi and Christie, who were on the last flight an hour behind us, and I think it was, like, 25 or 30 minutes.

TVGuide.com: How did you get that car ride back up the mountain, Linda?
Linda: I stopped a car to get directions and she offered me a ride. So I figured the worst-case scenario would be I would get a penalty, so it was just a risk I took.

TVGuide.com: It's a moot point because you were eliminated, but would you have gotten a penalty for the car?
Steve: We don't know. We probably would have. We weren't the only team to get lost on the mountain. There were several other teams, and I know there was at least one other team that, I was told, got a car ride, so they would've been penalized.

TVGuide.com: Did you guys get lost after you left the mountain? All of the sudden, the shots were at night and it had been 14 hours since the Pit Start.
Linda: The problem was after we did the pies, you had to get the little sawed-off piece of wood. You had to go around the lake and then back into this little town area. After four hours of running on that mountain, I could hardly walk, so that slowed us up a lot.
Steve: I didn't realize Jodi and Christie had already done their pie-throwing and they were going to the wood-cutter. I think that's when we passed them. But that was a good sign that we saw them because they were still there and there's still a whole lot that can happen. But then we ended up going to the wrong town looking for the wrong castle for the Pit Stop. There was another city that was, like, two letters off. So that threw us off. When we got to the castle, we could not figure out how to get in this thing.

TVGuide.com: Did you try to climb the gate like Mike did?
Steve: If I had seen the gate, I would've kicked it open! [Laughs] You had to park in a specific parking place, but the lots were opposite of where the signs said they were. So we drove all the way to the end and checked every entrance possible. Where Mike was, we were actually right there, but we didn't see Phil there. So we ended up in this long alleyway.

TVGuide.com: How far behind — or maybe even how close — were you to Jodi and Christie?
Linda: They immediately sequester you when you get in there, but we heard it was about 30 minutes.

TVGuide.com: On the first episode, things were a little tense between you guys. On this week's episode, things seemed to have calmed down. But Linda, you said you were afraid Steve would yell at you for getting lost.
Linda: I didn't want to disappoint him. I knew that he was so stressed and I didn't want to let him down. I was upset with myself. I knew I had made a fatal error. Also, what people don't realize is — people always say, "Why would you do that? You're so out of shape!" and this and that. But I lost 35 pounds before we started. I learned how to swim. I started climbing ladders to get rid of my fear of heights. I still wasn't where I needed to be, but I was a lot closer to where I needed to be. I really did try to prepare myself for the race.

TVGuide.com: Why did you decide to do the Race?
Steve: We've been fans from Season 1. We just love the thing. It's one of those things where you watch something like this and you say to yourself, "I would never do that." Like Jodi and Christie carrying the stick: "Why would they do that?!" Actually what they did wasn't stupid at all, it's just the way the clue read.

TVGuide.com: Right. The clue doesn't always tell you everything Phil tells us on TV.
Steve: Exactly! It's a clue and you have to interpret that clue. So you sit at home and say, "I can do that." So I said to Linda, "Let's do this. We can do it. We won't make these stupid mistakes." And I found out later that a lot of mistakes are from people who thought they wouldn't make any! [Laughs]

TVGuide.com: I thought what you did last episode was so brilliant — when you tied the three cheeses and got all of them down the hill in one trip.
Steve: We were really far behind and that's when reality set in at that moment that this was a competition and if we didn't do something right then, we were gonna be out of it. That's when we really kicked it into gear and started competing. The clue said you must use the carriers, but it didn't say how. So between the two of us — I don't remember who — we came to the conclusion that we should make a sled and I'll carry three and you carry one so we make one trip. If we had to make two trips, we never would have made it. That was desperation thinking. [Laughs]

TVGuide.com: Who's your favorite to win now?
Linda: The way I feel about it is this: Everybody on the race is fantastic. I mean, they are competitors. They're tough, they're strong, they're smart. You go through so much emotionally, physically. The ones I want to win are the ones that win because they deserve it.
Steve: The ones that work for it. It's not like we have a favorite team or a team we want to lose. It's just whoever wins it deserves it because they didn't get there by making a lot of mistakes. They got to that point by being good and they deserve to win.
http://www.tvguide.com/News/Amazing-Race-interview-1003274.aspx

puddin:
Exclusive: Steve and Linda Cole talk 'The Amazing Race'

Following a tumultuous first round that included an argument about their lack of speed and a second round highlighted by a missed direction marker that led to four-hour trek down a hill that could have been completed in a quarter of the time, Steve, a 43-year-old carpenter from Martinsville, VA, and his wife Linda, a a 52-year-old customer service supervisor, became the second couple to be eliminated from the CBS reality series during Sunday night's broadcast.

On Monday, Steve and Linda spoke to Reality TV World about what led to their now-infamous argument in Switzerland and how they patched things up between the two, exactly why Linda ended up taking nearly twice the time of anybody else to get down the hill in Germany, and which contestant they may have seen breaking one of the show's rules.

.................

Reality TV World: About how long did you have to wait for a car to pick you up down on the highway, and how long was the ride back to the tram station?

Linda: You know, the thing was we weren't really allowed to do that. But after being lost for so long I figured we were probably out of it. I'd been up and down the mountains again and through fire trails and everything else trying to find my way back to where I had missed the arrows. So finally I went back down the mountain again and waited to ask for directions because I had no clue where I was.

A good lady offered me a ride and I was like 'Well, you know we're probably out of it already anyway so if I gotta take  penalty it's not really gonna hurt a whole lot because I've already wasted so much time." I had to get back in the race somehow, so I was ready to take a penalty if that's what it meant.

Steve: But we didn't realize 'till later that she wasn't the only one who took a car. (Laughs)

Reality TV World: Oh, she wasn't?
 
Steve: (Still laughing) No.

Reality TV World: Who else did?

Steve: From what I understand Kris did.

Linda: I don't know for sure, I don't know for sure.

Steve: He was one of the first ones to get lost, and he also made the mistake that he ran down the hill with the keys, and at the bottom of the hill by the [tram] your car is parked in one area but you had to wait at the clue box in another area. So since Kris had the keys when he actually got down to the clue box then he had to run all the way back to the car just to get the car. I know that he got pretty lost and I think he ended up taking a car ride.

And I forget if it was two or three other teams that had gotten lost, so it wasn't just Linda. Those signs were kinda low.



more here ......
http://www.realitytvworld.com/news/exclusive-steve-and-linda-cole-talk-the-amazing-race-8495.php

puddin:

--- Quote from: Rob on February 23, 2009, 09:32:50 PM ---My interview with Steve & Linda:

http://www.rffradio.com/podpress_trac/web/313/0/rffradio_ep191_interviews.mp3



--- End quote ---

georgiapeach:
The Amazing Race Exit Intervew: Steve And Linda Are Lost In Emotion by Sara Bibel


Steve and Linda Cole were this year’s designated country folks on The Amazing Race. The self-admitted huge fans of the show hoped to follow in the footsteps of rural TAR All Stars David and Mary. Unfortunately, the duo had problems from the start with both the physical and emotional challenges of the race. Linda dealt the team a fatal blow when she got lost on a hiking task. In an interview this afternoon, the duo sat down to discuss their brief experience on ‘The Race.’

Linda, how much time did you lose when you went the wrong way down the mountain?

About four hours. I got lost pretty good. I wasn’t even sure which side of the mountain I was on. It was pretty crazy.


Were you concerned when you accepted a van ride back up the mountain that you’d be assessed a time penalty?

I was very concerned about that, but I didn’t see any other way to get back because I didn’t know where I was at that point. I was walking down a road. I didn’t know if I should go left or go right. I had gone back up the mountain, walked a couple of fire trails. I was afraid that I was going to get even more lost so I went back down the mountain again. That’s when I stopped the van. The lady offered to give me a ride. I thought it had been four hours. We’re probably out of it. If we get a time penalty it probably wouldn’t kill us anyway. I was just feeling so down at that point because I thought there was no way we could catch up with anybody else.

Steve, what was going through your mind when everyone else came down the mountain except Linda?

There were a few teams that started before she did coming down the mountain. There was one or two others that got lost also. When they came in I was like, “Maybe there’s hope after all.” There was three teams that came in on the later flight. When they started coming in I knew there was a real problem. They said it would take an hour to get to the bottom. Linda’s slow so I figured it would take her two hours. When it hit hour three I was starting to get concerned. Jodi and Christie were the last team to come down, and they were 20 or 30 minutes before Linda came in. At that point I realized, “Hey. we’re not out of this thing. We’re still in it.”

So you two were really nipping at Jodi and Christie’s heels?

Linda: At the end when we got to the pie throwing, we realized there was still a chance. That brought up our hopes for a while. We didn’t realize that they were carrying a block of wood around, bless their hearts.

Steve: When we got off the mountain I wanted to stop and get Linda a drink. That was our first priority. Then after we did that we got directions and started across the mountain. I guess we did real good with all of that and we’d actually caught up. I didn’t realize until we passed them at the challenge. From the time we did the pie throwing contest to the woodcutter, we had to run like another ten minutes. It was hard after Linda had been on the mountain for so long. Her run slowed to a walk.

Linda: Jodi and Christie were great. When we passed them they said, “Good luck,” even thought hey knew they were up against us. They were so supportive. You’ve got to give them a lot of credit for that.

How close behind them were you when you came in to the Pit Stop?

Linda: Twenty or thirty minutes, I think. We didn’t see when they came in because they were still looking for the castle.

Steve: We had two issues after we went to the woodcutter. We went to another little town. That slowed us up some. Then, after that, when we got to the castle we could not find out how to get in the place. When we figured it out it was a god awful long walk.

Steve, you were very emotional when Phil eliminated you. What was going through your mind?

Steve: I wanted it so bad. I wanted to be on the show. I wanted to do well. When Phil said, “You’re eliminated,” it’s like everything’s over, that’s it. Your emotions just run so high. You’ll be on an extreme high one minute and an extreme low the next minute. We got into an argument the first night and I felt bad about that. My whole mood changed after that night. We woke up and we started fresh. We were more supportive.

A lot of fans thought you had a volatile relationship after watching the first episode. Was the second episode a more accurate portrayal?

Linda: Absolutely. I know that I am not a physical person. I didn’t want to let Steve down on the first leg of the race. God bless Jennifer and Preston. I feel bad that they were the first ones out, but I didn’t want us to be the first team out. It was a lot of pressure and a lot of stress. I was trying real hard. He wanted me to do good. He was getting frustrated. I totally understand where he came from.

Steve: Part of that argument was it was a long run to get to the church. We got into a footrace with Chris and Amanda and we didn’t do too well. That was where we started bickering with each other. The second thing was when we signed in, Jodi and Christie had signed the book twice. When I read the book it looked like we were in 11th when we were actually in 10th. It seemed like we were always in last. We didn’t want to get eliminated first. The pressure was just really on. It brought the worst out in me.

Steve, you seemed concerned that the other teams wouldn’t respect your intelligence. It was even an issue between you and Preston and the Elimination Station. Looking back on it, do you think the other teams treated you well?

Steve: We had problems communicating with the other teams. Mike and Mel were very nice and forthcoming with any information. When we were on the autobahn they stopped and waited for us to follow them. Kisha and Jen didn’t want to help us. I think it’s because they thought we were slow and couldn’t keep up with them.

Linda: It didn’t help that we had the argument the night before because that showed that I was slow and of course no one’s going to want to get hooked up with a team that has a handicap. I understand where everyone was coming from.

Steve: Preston and Jennifer and Chris and Amanda aligned pretty quick. They got the flight before we did. We were on the outskirts. We really didn’t get to know them on the first leg. Different people have different agendas. I was hoping that we’d meet a few people and race with them. That wasn’t some of the others’ agenda.

What advice would you give to future competitors on The Amazing Race?

Steve: (laughing) Stay off the reality forums because they bash you. The Race doesn’t start when Phil says go. The race starts when you fill out the application and you make a videotape. You have to start early. You can’t wait for them to say you’re on the Race. You have to be competitive before it starts.

How did going on the Race change your lives?

Linda: We got to go some wonderful places. We still speak with all the cast. We made some great friends. I kind of feel bad, like we let CBS down. I wish we did better for the person that fought for us to get on the show. That’s a little tough.

Steve: I think a lot of that is still in the unknown right now. Even after the Race it has been an emotional roller coaster. We did things that we were planning to do together. Even though there’s some uncertainty, I think there’s positive things in the future.

Linda: On the Race you say and do things to each other that you normally wouldn’t do.

Steve: It pulls out the good in you and it pulls out the bad in you.

http://www.fancast.com/blogs/the-amazing-race/the-amazing-race-exit-intervew-steve-and-linda-are-lost-in-emotion/

Snooky:

--- Quote ---There were a few teams that started before she did coming down the mountain. There was one or two others that got lost also. When they came in I was like, “Maybe there’s hope after all.” There was three teams that came in on the later flight. When they started coming in I knew there was a real problem. They said it would take an hour to get to the bottom. Linda’s slow so I figured it would take her two hours. When it hit hour three I was starting to get concerned. Jodi and Christie were the last team to come down, and they were 20 or 30 minutes before Linda came in. At that point I realized, “Hey. we’re not out of this thing. We’re still in it.”
--- End quote ---

Weren't there only two teams on the last flight?  Maybe just a mistake.
btw great job Steve and Linda.  Almost caught up!

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