An Exclusive 2nd Place Detour with Cara and Jaime The Amazing Race
by Reg Seeton
After 14 seasons of The Amazing Race, the all-female teams have had a hard time finishing the race in first place to capture the million dollar prize. This season it was former NFL cheerleaders, Cara and Jaime, who broke through The Amazing Race defense to score an all-female touchdown to become one of the final three teams up for competition in the last leg in Maui. Although Cara and Jaime ran a strong, often emotionally explosive race through Switzerland, Romania, Russia, India and China before touching down in Maui, the former NFL sideline girls failed convert their Amazing race extra point for the victory in Hawaiian overtime.
After struggling on the beaches of Maui to transport a dead pig for ceremonial burial in the final Detour, Cara and Jaime forged ahead to catch up to the first place mother and son team of Margie and Luke and the brother and sister team of Tammy and Victor who were in second place. Although Luke was well out in front of the other teams during the final Road Block, which was a skill testing surfboard puzzle based on all the previous countries in the race, Victor breezed through challenge while Luke faltered, which opened a window of opportunity for Jaime who also passed Luke to leave the Road Block in second place behind Tammy and her brother. When it was all said and done for the 14th season of The Amazing Race, Cara and Jaime couldn't catch Tammy and Victor who hit the mat first to win the race and the million-dollar prize. But the all-female, former NFL cheerleading team did hit the mat in second place not too far ahead of Margie and Luke who Jaime helped get over the final Road Block.
The morning after the nail-biting season finale of The Amazing Race 14, we took an exclusive one-on-one detour with Cara and Jaime to find how more about the final leg in Maui, the amazing yet frustrating dynamics of the race, how they felt about their luck with cab drivers, which Road Blocks they would go back in time to repeat, and whether either Cara or Jaime will ever eat pork after getting a swine beat down on the beach in Maui.
THE DEADBOLT: So, Jamie, the race was emotional I take it?
JAIME EDMONDSON: Yes, it is emotional.
THE DEADBOLT: From what we did or didn’t see, what frustrated you the most?
JAIME: I’d say our luck with the taxis was very frustrating. At least it just never went our way. It went our way once to get us into the final three. That taxi driver actually did understand and he drove like he was in the Indy 500. But other than that one taxi, it just never went our way. And you can’t blame the other teams for getting the luck with the taxis because it’s really out of everyone’s hands, but very frustrating for me. I can accept losing because I didn’t compete. I can’t accept losing at the hands of someone else.
THE DEADBOLT: Cara, were you surprised that the cab company didn’t find the address for you guys?
CARA ROSENTHAL: No. By that point I was not surprised at all. With our luck, just through this whole race, for anyone to have been really helpful or knowledgeable about their own terrain and working track would’ve been far too convenient and too lucky for us. So at that point, I was not shocked that the woman wouldn’t help us. I was just like, ‘Wow.’
JAIME: It was like the road only went two ways, front or back, and it’s very frustrating.
THE DEADBOLT: So how tough was the laid back vibe of Hawaii compared to the other cities?
JAIME: You know, it wasn’t that he didn’t understand that we were in a race. It’s just that he didn’t understand until, actually, the very last ride up to the finish mat what we were saying to him, which was, ‘This is for a million dollars, sir. Please, this is worth a million dollars to us.’ You know, have a little urgency. Then he finally got it when he realized we were coming in second place. You know, I guess it was good he got it in the end. Better late than never, I suppose.
THE DEADBOLT: In what ways do you think your alliance with Margie and Luke helped you along the way?
CARA: I don’t know. I think that Jaime would agree that the way it helped us most is it enabled us to make a really wonderful friendship with them. I mean, the reality is our "alliance" was pretty limited to telling each other we were on the same flight. Then we were on the same flight when we told each other. They didn’t help us at the tasks. The one time that they did uphold our very loose alliance was actually an alliance the three final teams made at the point when we were heading to Russia.
And we thought that we were the three teams going to be racing each other to the final and we said, ‘We don’t care who it is if anyone is on our plane or behind us, we will all U-Turn them.’ And it just so happened that it was Mike and Mel and Amanda and Kris to save each other, and that was the only time we really had an alliance that altered the course of the race. Other than that, it was pretty much just sharing information. And to be completely honest, we shared information with Victor and Tammy just as often and as much as we did with Margie and Luke, and vice versa. They did with us as well, absolutely.
THE DEADBOLT: If you could go back, what Road Block do you wish you could’ve performed in place of the other?
JAIME: I would say I would’ve done the foot massage for Cara just knowing how much she despises having her feet touched and how painful it was for me to watch her in pain. So I would have rather taken it on. But it wasn’t an option because I had just done three Road Blocks in a row and we had to have Cara catch up and we couldn’t max out. We wanted to go into the final leg having the option of either one of us being able to do the final Road Block. So putting us at an even five and five and that sixth Road Block wouldn’t be ...
CARA: Well, we also didn’t know at that time that it was going to be a foot massage. We thought maybe a body massage and I was even a little bit anxious about that because I just - You know, I was a ballerina for my whole life and I’ve had so many disgusting foot injuries and I guess I’ve just created a mental paranoia, for lack of a better term, about having my feet dealt with, touched, especially with that massage. You know, she’s hitting pressure points where I can recall, "Wow, I had broken bones there. So I think that’s probably why it was so incredibly painful for me and I had a very bad reaction. Jaime can tell you; for about a month after we were like, ‘Oh, my God, when are your feet going to recover?’ Because they were still bruised and I had blood pools in one of my arches. I mean, it as not a pretty sight.
JAIME: Yeah, I would’ve done that one just so I wouldn’t have to watch her in pain. It was heart-breaking to be helpless and watching it, and I was covering my ears waiting for it to be over because you just feel so helpless. I imagine it must be what a man feels like watching his wife give birth ... I’m just joking, I’m pretty sure childbirth is even worse than that.
CARA: [laughs] Maybe not for me, because I’m not nearly as paranoid about that, for some reason, as I am about pedicures. But for me, I would’ve liked, just for the experience of it, to do the bungee jump. Jaime really stepped up to the plate. Before I left, I told my mother - My mother, bless her, she was like, ‘I don’t want you doing skydiving, bungee jumping. I don’t want you doing any of these wild adventures. I was like, "Mom, I’m going on The Amazing Race, these are promises I can’t make to you." She said, "If you don’t have to bungee jump, please don’t do it." And Jamie knew about that, because we were joking about it, so Jamie said, "Fine, I’ll do it, but your parents owe me a steak dinner," which they are getting her.
THE DEADBOLT: Are you guys ever going to eat pork after carrying the pig?
CARA: I actually don’t eat pork as it is, I’m Jewish. So it’s not an issue for me. Actually, one of my family members said a really funny comment to me. They said, "Doesn’t it just figure that pork and Jesus got you in the end, Cara." So it was a little inside funny joke I got a little chuckle out of. [laughs]
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