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♥♥♥ TAR 14: LaKisha & Jennifer Hoffman - Sisters

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puddin:
Urine Trouble: Amazing Race's Kisha and Jen Explain Pee Break, How to Eat Starfish

When you have to go, you have to go — even if $1 million is on the line. Jennifer Hoffman prioritized her bladder over finding the Pit Stop on this week's Amazing Race, and she and sister, LaKisha, were eventually eliminated. But was the ill-timed potty break the cause of their demise in Beijing, as host Phil Keoghan so sternly implied? Find out below, as well as their thoughts on being U-Turned and their take of the infamous Pit-fight with Margie and Luke.

TVGuide.com: So the big question is — did the pee break cost you a spot in the final 3?
Jen: No, it did not! [Laughs] We really don't know how far behind we were, but it wasn't seconds like Phil said. It wasn't hours either. There's no real concept of time when you're racing, so we have no clue. ... It didn't take me five minutes to pee, but the Bird's Nest is pretty big, so being dropped on the other side of it, it'll take a while, especially when all the tourists are there still trying to see the Olympic center. Things happen for a reason and we don't regret anything that we did.
Kisha: We're going to say minutes, but he made it seem closer. There were a couple different factors [that caused us to lose]: Jaime and Cara's cab driver driving extremely fast and dropping them off at the correct location. Ours drove slow and dropped us further away. It wasn't just the pee break that cost us the spot.

TVGuide.com: Did you think about holding it in or peeing in your pants?
Jen: No, because it became painful at that point, to hold it.
Kisha: In hindsight, you can say, "Oh, she should've peed in her pants." But when you're caught up in the moment, that's what happens.

TVGuide.com: Were you surprised it was Tammy and Victor who U-Turned you?
Kisha: No, because it's a strategic move. You never know what people are going to do. If we were first, we wouldn't have U-Turned anyone — we didn't U-Turn anyone at the blind U-Turn — but if we were in third place, then we probably would've, but not in a first-place position.

TVGuide.com: Not even for Margie and Luke?
Kisha: Well, I wasn't thinking about that! [Laughs] We ran a very classy race. We wouldn't U-Turn someone because they didn't like us. That wasn't part of our strategy. If we were going to U-Turn someone, it would've been to put us in a better position or to gain us some time.

TVGuide.com: This brings us to the fight at the Pit Stop a few weeks ago —
Jen: [Laughs] It was blown out of proportion on their part. You're put in those situations and you don't know how people are going to react. I took full responsibility — heat of the moment, body check, what have you. I think the disability card was pulled at that point with her saying, "He's lived with this his whole life." There are stressors I'm sure she was going through from the race that built up and we just got the backlash of that — that's my assumption. Her reaction to that was completely unwarranted and unnecessary.

TVGuide.com: Did you talk about it afterward?
Kisha: We were over it. It was over, said and done. I've been disappointed watching the show because it seems they still hold a grudge toward us. We didn't. We haven't talked to them [one-on-one] since the show ended.

TVGuide.com: Let's talk about last week with your fear of the pool, Jen. Was your meltdown exaggerated in any way?
Jen: I say this with all sincerity — what everyone saw on television was progress. [Laughs] People were surprised I did the dive, let alone swim, and my thinking was that it was a shorter distance to go from the dive to the edge of the pool than to go the length of an Olympic-sized swimming pool twice. Either way, it was going to take time!

TVGuide.com: What was it like eating those bugs?
Jen: They were absolutely disgusting! Note that there aren't any crickets or starfish on menus in the U.S. I didn't unhinge my jaw like Cara seemed to have done and swallowed them whole. It still amazes me that she ate that so fast. I was like, "You have no taste buds! You have no gag reflex!" I couldn't do it. I threw up a couple times.

TVGuide.com: How do you even eat a starfish?
Jen: Apparently, you open the legs and dig out their guts. You can't necessarily eat their shell. I ate some of the shell and they said, "No, just eat the guts." "Awesome, thank you." It was going down hard and sometimes certain things you eat, you have the automatic reflex to upchuck it. That's what was happening at a certain point.

TVGuide.com: Who did you cheer for after you were eliminated?
Kisha: Even though they U-Turned us, we were still rooting for Tammy and Victor. They ran a similar race to ours and weren't malicious or anything.


http://www.tvguide.com/News/Amazing-Races-Kisha-1005752.aspx

Snooky:
Wow Kisha has good sportmanship!  She still is okay with Tammy and Victor!

ImANewUser:
I will always have a soft spot for this team. :wohoo:

TARAsia Fan:
I hope to meet them when I'm in NYC this weekend. They're one team that has caught the fascination of fans.

puddin:
The Amazing Race

Amazing Race’s Jen & Kisha: We Weren’t Laughing at Luke
May 5, 2009

When you gotta go, you gotta go. Unfortunately for University of Louisville volleyball coach Jennifer Hoffman, 25, nature urgently called during Sunday’s mad dash to the Beijing pit stop on The Amazing Race. She and her sister Kisha Hoffman, a 29-year-old youth program coordinator from the Bronx, New York, talked to PEOPLE.com about how it was more than a bathroom break that sent them home. They also weighed in on their feud with Margie and Luke and the legal team’s language advantage. — Carrie Bell

You’re the first team to be eliminated because you stopped to go to the bathroom. Looking back, do you wish you had just peed your pants?
Jen: In hindsight, we did not lose the race simply because of a bathroom break. I have gotten a lot of e-mails and phone calls and text messages saying, “I would have just peed on myself,” but you never know until you are in the situation. I don’t regret stopping. I had to pee badly and it wouldn’t have been pretty.
Kisha: There were more factors than just the pee break that made us come in behind [the cheerleaders]. They had a fast cab driver. They got dropped off closer. They must have no gag reflex. Cara ate [the bugs] so fast.

Was it hard to accept going out in this way after you survived the cheese hill, your fear of drowning, bungee jumping, walking around Thailand without shoes?
Kisha: It was tough to swallow. When we finished the swimming challenge and my sister overcame her biggest fear, we knew we were last. But when Phil said the leg was continuing, we felt rejuvenated. Thailand was another time when we thought, Oh my gosh, we’re gone. But we survived that too. It was hard but I’m not mad at Jen. She couldn’t help that she had to pee. She played a very strong race and gave it her best shot.

Which of the street treats was the worst?
Jen: I threw up a couple of times. They were all gross. The starfish was the worst. When you eat fish, you don’t want it to taste like fish. The starfish tasted like the ocean. If you are ever thinking about ordering starfish off the menu, don’t.

Did you think you had almost gotten through the race without having to face your fear of water?
Jen: Oh, heck yeah. But I knew it was coming. I knew there was no way we wouldn’t have to swim at some point because they knew that Tammy and I couldn’t swim. Had it been anybody else other than my sister with me, it would have been a done deal.

It was one of the more special race moments because lesser people would have gotten very angry with their partner. Talking her off the ledge must have felt good?
Kisha: I have never let her quit before. I knew she would regret it if she quit. It is an athlete thing, a coaching thing and a sister thing. She had been so strong this whole time so it was tough as a sister to see her breaking down. It helps that I am not a yeller. I am pretty patient. I just wanted to do whatever I could to help her push through it. I was proud of her.

Settle the debate: Were you laughing at Luke while he was explaining his side of the fight to Phil?
Kisha: No. From the first episode, Mike called me giggles because I was always laughing. It’s something I’ve done my whole life. They were frustrated we came in first. I was disappointed with the way they handled the situation. We were like, “Everything is said and done. Let’s move on.” It was obvious they didn’t feel the same way. I work with kids. I’m a role model. I wouldn’t want any kid I coach to be laughing at someone with disabilities. I actually laughed not at his signing but because his version of the story was so different from ours. Whatever baggage you come into the race with is there for the whole race. I think Margie has always been his support system and protector … and I’m sure there are times he has been made fun of, but I was definitely not laughing at his signing.

It looked like an accidental bump blown out of proportion. Now that you’ve gotten distance from the situation, what are your thoughts on the feud with Margie and Luke?
Kisha: It was absolutely blown out of proportion.
Jen: I was extremely happy with the way we were edited because that’s how we are in real life. That’s what happened. It’s a competition. There will be feather ruffling and trying to get to the clue box first even if it only knocks off two seconds, but they blew it out of proportion in how they reacted.
Kisha: I don’t approve of my sister calling him a b—h, but she took accountability for her actions and apologized. I don’t think they admitted they were guilty.

What did you think about the language advantage that Victor and Tammy had?
Kisha: I think there are two sides to that. It was disappointing that there were three legs in China, and they definitely had an advantage there. Like [Sunday's episode], they knew the next clue was right next door while all the other teams were walking around lost with paint burning their face. But even if you speak the language, you could get a taxi driver who doesn’t know where he is going.

The restaurant translations were hilarious. How hard was the U-turn task?
Jen: It didn’t take a long as we thought it would. Once we got past being pissed that we were U-turned, we came up with a plan to get through it. It was like Chinese phonics and we only had to do it four of five times. It took like 15 minutes. Think of the irony if Tammy and Victor had chosen to U-turn Cara and Jaime after all the issues they have had with languages on the Race. We didn’t know the extent of her issues, but everywhere we would go we heard her say, “Why aren’t they speaking English?” I was like, “We’re the minority here. They don’t have speak our language.”

Did the experience bring you closer?
Jen: I think our relationship got better. It is natural for families to fight and bicker, but we got closer and I felt like the way we were edited is the way we are.
Kisha: Our relationship definitely grew from the beginning to the end and I understand her better now. I am glad I did this once-in-a-lifetime experience with my sister. I am proud of how we did. We ran a classy race and we did it as a team.

http://tvwatch.people.com/2009/05/05/amazing-races-jen-kisha-we-werent-laughing-at-luke/

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