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TAR 20: Brendon Villegas and Rachel Reilly *Engaged*

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bc922:
http://www.thedeadbolt.com/1003026278-the-amazing-race-brendan-and-rachel-we-had-a-target-on-our-back.html

The Amazing Race: Brendon and Rachel, “We had a target on our back”
by Reg Seeton

In the Season 20 finale of The Amazing Race, Big Brother couple Brendon Villegas and Rachel Reilly finished third after touching down in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Although Rachel Reilly won Season 13 of Big Brother and found love with former contestant, Brendon Villegas, the two reality lovebirds made it into the final three of The Amazing Race, finishing in third place behind winners Dave and Rachel Brown and border patrol agents Art Velez and J.J. Carrell. Like Big Brother, however, The Amazing Race was filled with drama this season since some of the other Amazing Race teams already knew who Brendon and Rachel were and considered them reality targets.

Despite butting heads with others on The Amazing Race, Brendon and Rachel gave it their all to win but fell just shy of another reality victory.

The day after their third place finish on The Amazing Race, The Deadbolt caught up with Brendon and Rachel to learn more about their time on the show, get their side of the drama, and what they’re most proud of during their time on The Amazing Race.

THE DEADBOLT: How tough was the race compared to Big Brother?

RACHEL REILLY: I think it was harder than Big Brother. It’s like an endurance race. Big Brother is so mental and The Amazing Race is so physical. In the race, you’re not eating, you’re not sleeping, and you’re just constantly going and going. It’s hard. The fact that Brendon and I made it to the final three and that we were running the race the entire time, I think that’s an achievement on its own. The race is really tough. Being in the Big Brother house for 76 days is a mental stress but being on The Amazing Race is hard.

BRENDON VILLEGAS: Big Brother is tougher mentally by far. The Amazing Race is just physically exhausting. So by the end of the race, the last leg, even the last interviews we did, we were falling asleep we were so tired. It just takes so much out of you and you don’t have time to recover. In Big Brother, your worst enemy is your own brain. Being in that house, you just have so much down-time that you drive yourself crazy. That’s what’s hard to deal with in Big Brother.

THE DEADBOLT: Did you guys feel like you had a target on your back from the beginning?

BRENDON: Oh, yeah!

RACHEL: Definitely, we had a target on our back as far as the other teams not liking us, Ralph and Vanessa plus Art and J.J.. The good thing about The Amazing Race is that even though you have a target on your back, it doesn’t matter because you’re not being voted out. They may not have liked us and made our lives a bit harder, but the good thing was that Brendon and I had the chance to run the race and we didn’t have to worry about any of the other teams voting us out.

THE DEADBOLT: Since Dave and Rachel were way ahead, did you still feel like you had a shot at winning in the final leg?

BRENDON: We really got the wind knocked out of us when we realized that we were supposed to proceed on foot but took the cab. That was really our downturn. We just really got hung up on that. I didn’t really think we had a shot at first but I did think we had a shot at second. So that’s why I wanted to press on. But you never know, that’s the hard part. You don’t know what’s in front of you. There could be a roadblock that’s completely difficult for two people but easy for Rachel to do. You can’t ever think that you’re out of the race.

THE DEADBOLT: Rachel, have you patched things up with Vanessa?

RACHEL: I’m not opposed to patching things up with her, but I don’t think we’ll be friends anytime soon. I wish her all the best and I think that Vanessa outside of the race is probably a great girl, but in the race we just butted heads so much. She made some really mean comments and I don’t think we’ll be friends anytime soon. Some of those comments were just unnecessary and that was the biggest part of it. We were running a race and the race wasn’t about tearing down other racers. The race is about running your own race.

THE DEADBOLT: What was it that sparked the fight in the airport? What didn’t we see?

BRENDON: I’ll take the blame for that one. Well, actually, maybe not. It wasn’t me entirely. I bumped Ralph when we were running to get in line and he was like, “Watch it, buddy!” At that point, I was kind of hyped up on animosity from what was going on between Vanessa and Rachel, and I flipped Ralph off because I was pissed.

So we get in line, and Vanessa had been shoving Rachel, so they get into it, and then we all get into it. Then Art and J.J. decide to jump in when they had nothing to do with it and they try to start bullying us. So after the dust settled, I apologized to Ralph and we were cool at that point. I had no animosity towards Ralph, it was all with Vanessa. It was just hard for me to watch her behave the way she did to Rachel. If anyone wants to say something to me, go ahead. I couldn’t give a crap. But when you start talking about Rachel, and it starts to get to her and bother her, that’s when I become vocal.

THE DEADBOLT: What was the toughest aspect of the race that you weren’t expecting?

RACHEL: I think not sleeping and not eating. For me, that was the toughest. I wasn’t expecting that it was literally like, go, go go. Going into the race, I was kind of thinking that we would have more time to sleep or more time to take breathers and breaks, or have time to eat, but you don’t. From the moment the race began and the word “go,” the race is literally on. You don’t have time to mess up and redeem yourself. Any mistake you make, the race could be over.

BRENDON: When you get money for the leg, you don’t know what you’re going to spend it on. Me, I’m a hoarder on the race. I don’t want to spend any money because I always think it’s going to help us in some way. And if it does, I want to have that advantage. So anything we got for free, we’d take like five of them and shove them into our bags.

In between legs, we had food. Once the leg was running, we didn’t know if we had time to spare or if we had cash to spare or even time to eat. Like when we had the salami, we were actually very hungry. It was good for about the first two laps but by the tenth we were ready to puke it all back up.

THE DEADBOLT: Brendon, what side of Rachel did we not get to see on the show?

BRENDON: I think they did a pretty well-rounded job of being fair to us. They could have easily shown Rachel just crying down and lashing out and people would think she’s just a bitchy reality girl and whatnot. But they did do a good job of showing where we were coming from. Art and J.J. were trying to gang up on us, and Vanessa never let up on Rachel, so I think they did a good job of showing the sides of us.

Do I wish they had’ve shown a bit more of us being compassionate and loving as a couple? Yeah. But again, during the race, we’re very intense people and we’re going until we’re gone. Once we’re done, then we can relax.

I wish they would have shown some of the nicer moments. In Africa, for instance, Rachel wanted to spend all of our money. These cute little African kids would come up and wanted to sell you jewelry. Of course, Rachel was buying it left and right and we’re trying to race. In Africa, my stomach got upset and I had to go to the bathroom. I was going to the bathroom and Rachel’s outside, I could hear her asking the kids, “Here, do you want some money?” I was like, “Rachel, stop giving away our money!”

There were lots of those moments on the race that you don’t get to see.

There was another time when we were walking to the mat and I gave a homeless guy our leftover food. Then Bopper came along and gave him a blanket that he used to sleep at night. To me, that’s what the race is about, learning that this world is a lot bigger. No matter how bad we have it, or think we have it, there are people out there that are much worse. If these people can overcome that to find happiness, we definitely have something to learn.

THE DEADBOLT: Rachel, what was the hardest part about watching Brendon do the rubber chicken challenge?

RACHEL: It was awesome watching Brendon fall. That was my favorite part, when Brendon dove onto the mat and went all the way back into the balloons. That was totally like Japanese game show.

BRENDON: I was just excited to have fallen and on a Japanese game show. That, to me, was a real experience.

THE DEADBOLT: Looking back, what are you guys most proud of?

RACHEL: I’m most proud of the fact that we made it as far as we did and we were in the final three. Brendon and I competed so hard and we put all of our hearts into the race. Whether we were crying or laughing, happy or sad, we put our hearts into it and we really gave it our all. We may not have won a million dollars, but we made it to the final leg. We had an amazing and incredible adventure, the adventure of a lifetime.

BRENDON: I’m proud of the fact that we made it through The Amazing Race and we’re still a couple!

Reilly Queens:

--- Quote from: bc922 on May 07, 2012, 08:00:01 PM ---I wish they would have shown some of the nicer moments. In Africa, for instance, Rachel wanted to spend all of our money. These cute little African kids would come up and wanted to sell you jewelry. Of course, Rachel was buying it left and right and we’re trying to race. In Africa, my stomach got upset and I had to go to the bathroom. I was going to the bathroom and Rachel’s outside, I could hear her asking the kids, “Here, do you want some money?” I was like, “Rachel, stop giving away our money!”


--- End quote ---

 :lol: :lol: :luvya:

Snooky:

--- Quote from: Prophet on May 07, 2012, 05:15:41 PM ---Fine. They did better than me on the Race, since I haven't been fortunate enough to go on (but I can't say I would be able to make the final three, who knows). I'm not calling their talent into question. I happen to believe Rachel R has talent, skill, and ability; I just wish she would stop whining about everything and just work. That's really my issue with her.

On the point about teams winning every leg, I happen to think this is an amazing accomplishment and is only achieved by hard work. Hard work should be rewarded, hence Davechel, one of the hardest working teams ever, winning 2\3 of the legs and getting lots of cool stuff. Maybe people are really jealous about one team winning so many legs. :lol:

--- End quote ---
There have clearly been several seasons with much tougher competition. I'm not one to judge talent, but in my own opinion, there have been several teams with more ability but less luck. (Eric & Danielle (Or Eric & Jeremy), BJ & Tyler, Colin & Christie, Rob & Amber, Kris & Jon, Dustin & Kandice, Megan & Cheyne, Brooke & Claire, Nat & Kat, Tammy & Victor, to name a few).
Stats mean hardly anything to me.

 Anyway, I don't like the hate coming towards Rachel. It's easy to tell that she didn't grow up being taught certain life skills that others see as human nature.

Prophet:

--- Quote from: Snooky on May 07, 2012, 10:59:00 PM --- Anyway, I don't like the hate coming towards Rachel. It's easy to tell that she didn't grow up being taught certain life skills that others see as human nature.

--- End quote ---

There's no hate for the hundredth time...

Bluesky:

--- Quote from: Prophet on May 08, 2012, 06:55:17 AM ---
--- Quote from: Snooky on May 07, 2012, 10:59:00 PM --- Anyway, I don't like the hate coming towards Rachel. It's easy to tell that she didn't grow up being taught certain life skills that others see as human nature.

--- End quote ---

There's no hate for the hundredth time...

--- End quote ---


:tup:

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