The Amazing Race > The Racers

TAR18: Mel White & Mike White (father/son)

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Prophet:
Thanks for these interviews, slayton! :tup:

Interesting info in there. They were not allowed to choose the purify detour and arrived at the PS before the redheads if you don't want to read the whole thing. :lol:

Competitor:
No ill will towards Mel and Mike, but casting them was not one of CBS' better decisions. First, they really didn't have any "unfinished business" and secondly, Mel was not physically cut out to run the race a second time. It was sad watching them and I don't know that I have ever been more relieved to see a team eliminated because they were so physically overmatched. Mike crying over the physical toll the race was taking on his dad in both legs was sad.

I appreciate their relationship, kindness to other teams, and encouraging attitude, but they did not need to do the race a second time.

Jobby:
I would say Mel and Mike aren't that bad as compared to the other teams physically. It's really just editing.. had they found the frog the moment they dip into the mud, they could have gotten 7th place still. True that it's almost impossible to see them win, but they definitely would have gone further... like how we didn't believe they can win a leg or two in TAR 14... remember? :)


--- Quote ---Did you head to the Pit Stop after Jaime and Cara found their frog?
Mel: Well, the thing was we weren't actually last. When we got to the Pit Stop, Jaime and Cara were just arriving, so it was ironic that we could've found the frog, gotten some medical attention and still could've beaten them — if we had found the frog. I will never eat frog legs again! Frogs are off my list!

Why did you choose the mud task over the purity one?
Mel: We couldn't do the purity one because it had to be done in the daylight, so we didn't have an option. It was getting dark already.
--- End quote ---

No wonder...

slayton:
Mel & Mike ('The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business')
By Lara Martin, News Editor

Father and son Mel & Mike originally finished in sixth place on the 14th season of The Amazing Race, before deciding to return for Unfinished Business. Unfortunately, their journey came to an end this week when they became the second team to exit the show after falling behind attempting a grueling detour that involved finding a frog in a large pool of mud in Japan while being pelted with mud by onlookers. We caught up with 70-year-old Mel to chat about the race and whether he has any regrets...

The theme is 'Unfinished Business'. Is there anything you hoped to achieve this time around - besides hopefully winning - that you didn't before?
"The physical side was so much more strenuous than the first time. We saw each other under physical duress that we hadn't seen in the other race, which was interesting. My son really panicked when he saw how exhausted I was after the first day when we ran four or five miles. It's interesting when you 'achieve anything' because I think I saw my son's concern and love for me in ways I hadn't seen before. He wanted to be in the race but he was much more intent on not having me hurt than racing. For an old dad, that felt pretty good."

What was going through your mind at the end of the first leg when you found out it wasn't actually a pitstop and you were still racing?
"When we heard the race was still on... That's when we had run at least four miles, and then we had to run a mile and a half back to catch the ferry on time. When I fell over at the beginning of the second episode, it was from racing so hard on the first episode. We'd run along this endless beach to get to that pitstop to be told we had to turn around and run all the way back. It was a bad moment for me, but also for a lot of [the other teams]."

Did you have concerns going into the race at your age and knowing the physical challenges that could present themselves?
"It's funny. Being with Mike and having that opportunity again to be together took away most of the fears I had, but I think most people - even Mike - don't realize that when you're 70 years old, you're not 40. You have limitations that you are only beginning to learn about yourself, so how can someone else know them? 70 is a milestone in a way, and I probably should have listened to my body rather than my heart, but the fact is, it's a good memory now even if it's a bad experience then, so I'm happy for that."

How long were you out in the mud searching for the frog?
"It was five minutes short of an hour, they told me. I was totally unaware of time; buried in mud and being hit by mud balls the entire time. It was in my ears and eyes, and I was totally oblivious to the world. All I could hear was a voice inside my head saying, 'Just keep looking. I know you're cold but just keep looking'. It was the most miserable time of my life, physically. Mike insisted that I come out and I protested because we hadn't found the frog, but I was so glad [to come out]!"

When you were resting in the vehicle, where you hoping to have another go at looking or was it over for you?
"Michael knew we couldn't. I was just determined not to disappoint him so I said, 'Let me just go back in once'. The medical people took our temperatures and we both had hypothermia so they couldn't let us go back. That was the moment we realized we hadn't lost because we were going to quit, we'd lost because our bodies couldn't hang in there."

How did it feel watching the cheerleaders finding the frog and going to the pitstop?
"Something must have happened along the way for them to have a long trip back to the pitstop because after we got our medical treatment and got cleaned up and drove back to the pitstop, we got there just as the cheerleaders were arriving... We could have beaten them [if we had found the frog] - or at least that's what I told myself! But we knew we'd lost when we couldn't find the frog so it wasn't any big traumatic thing to see them make it."

You both seemed pretty upbeat at the pitstop. How were you feeling at that stage?
"I don't know if I'm supposed to say this, but I can't tell you how relieved I was! I felt like saying to Mike, 'Try to look sad! They need that!'. I was so worn down by then and Michael was so nervous for me by then that it felt the right thing to go out early like that. We both didn't want to do that but at the same time, man, it had been four days of absolute misery."

What was the highlight of the race this time around?
"During the race, I think the highlight would be that we liked those people so much, it was like a family reunion. There were five teams from our season and we'd seen the other teams that were so popular and knew them, so the getting together [when we could] was really a pleasure because they are all interesting and worthwhile people to know."

Is there anyone that you are backing to win?
"The trouble with that is that we didn't know the other teams well enough to know their motives and what they were working for, and what that $1 million means to them. We went out too early to create a winner's circle in our mind."

You've seen so many amazing destinations in your travels. Is there anywhere you still want to visit?
"First, I'd like to go back to all the places we went to and hardly saw because we traveled through them so fast. I'd like to go back to Siberia; it was just amazing. There are some Asian countries I haven't been to, and exotic oil countries that I haven't seen like Bahrain and Brunei... If Michael was with me, I'd go anywhere as long as we didn't have to spend much time in mud!"

So looking back over the whole experience, have you any regrets about deciding to race again?
"If you had asked me that during the first few days I would have said, 'I absolutely wouldn't sign up again!'. But now distance has turned a bad experience into a happy memory, I have no regrets doing it. I do regret a little bit that I looked so old and feeble in front of millions of people! I didn't see myself as so old and feeble... It's like looking in a mirror that sees everything. Even my hair - I knew I had no hair but when you look down on it from the top... I looked so old. That's the regret - that I turned old without knowing it!"

http://www.digitalspy.com/ustv/s66/the-amazing-race/interviews/a307585/mel--mike-the-amazing-race-unfinished-business.html

slayton:
The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business - Exclusive Interview with Mel White
by Gina Scarpa

This week, on The Amazing Race, teams headed from Australia to Japan, where they participated in rituals in freezing cold temperatures. The weather and physical aspect of the race became too much for Mel and Mike, who had to bow out of their Detour. When they arrived at the pit stop, Phil informed them that they had been eliminated from the race. Today, we spoke to Mel in an exclusive interview about his experiences running the race for a second time with his son, Mike.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Any reservations about returning to the race for a second time?
A. Mel: It's funny. The body starts changing in ways that you're suddenly surprised by. I should've had more reservations than I did but I tried to act like a 40 year old. Right away, it was killing me to walk. I pushed the body. I should've gone to the old folks home and gone to sleep!

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What teams were you most happy to see?
A. Mel: You'll probably think I'm playing the Pollyanna game. There were 5 teams from our season and the others were well known. We liked every one of them. It was like a family reunion.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: The race immediately seemed to take a toll on you, Mel. What was the toughest part for you?
A. Mel: The first day, we ran between 4-5 miles after having flown 28 hours and turning back and going to Honolulu and back to Sydney and scuba diving and running down that huge long beach and finding out that it wasn't the end...

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Speaking of, what was your reaction when you found out that the first leg was still going?
A. Mel: "You've gotta be kidding!" That was moderate for what some other people were saying. Even the young, strong ones were very exhausted. I don't know if you could tell but it was a sad surprise. I was upset.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: It seems like, the more The Amazing Race goes on, the tougher the legs and challenges get. Did you notice a difference between your first season, 14, and Unfinished Business?
A. Mel: It was 100% different. On season 14, everything was calmer. You had a chance to see your partner doing things and relate to them emotionally. The Detours and Road Blocks were more leisurely and fun. This one, I think they knew we were all experienced so they put on the physical to challenge us.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: It seemed brutally cold in Japan. How bad was it?
A. Mel: I never measured it because we were running so fast. It was so cold! The mud itself! I was probably just short of an hour in... it was cold, it was dark, it was raining - it was horrible. Mike had gotten out and was telling me to get out of there. Finally, someone came and told me to come out now. We both had hypothermia. Our body temperatures had lowered so much.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Did you arrive at the pit stop, knowing you were out of the race?
A. Mel: We were out of the race at the mud because Mike said that we weren't going on. He said, "I can't have my dad in there any longer." The medical people told us we couldn't go back and we knew we were out then. The interesting thing is that we arrived just before Jaime and Cara arrived. They had a really hard time finding the pit stop apparently. We knew we could've beaten them if we had found that frog.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Let's say you had found the frog. Would you have continued on in the face?
A. Mel: If we had gotten there in time, I would've mustered up enough strength to go on until we go to the end of it. Once I realized how bad my health was, and with the hypothermia, I was kind of relieved. I just didn't want to be seen as a quitter. That's the worst thing.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Was running the race for a second time a good experience?
A. Mel: The experience has become a happy memory. Even bad experiences that become happy memories are worth it. We were all together. I watched with my family last night and we were laughing and it was so much fun to relive it. While I was in it, though, I wouldn't have done it again.

 http://www.realitywanted.com/newsitem/4072-the-amazing-race-unfinished-business-exclusive-interview-with-mel-white

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