The Amazing Race > The Racers

TAR 20: Dave Brown Jr and Rachel Brown *Army Couple*

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Prophet:
Thanks for the video! Some interesting stuff in there. What are they talking about, 40 page applications?

Mug Costanza:
This is probably my favorite team from just having watched these videos.

However, I guarantee that just like Marcus' in-race interviews had him compare the Race to the NFL, a lot of Dave's will relate the Race to the military. :lol:

dpe:

Dave and Rachel Brown have never been shy about going after what they wanted. Dave recalls the night the Madison couple met at Wando’s, where his future wife took a forthright approach to getting his attention.

“She had the audacity, and the alcohol, to approach me and say I was hot, which I was astonished by,” Dave said.

That drive will likely serve them both well as contestants on CBS’ hit reality show “The Amazing Race,” which kicks off its 20th season at 7 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 19. The Browns are one of 11 pairs criss-crossing the globe completing challenges, with a $1 million prize awaiting the winning team.

But the Browns bring much more to the challenge than their chutzpah. Dave, 33, is a 16-year military veteran, a Blackhawk helicopter pilot who spent 12 years in the Wisconsin National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 147th Aviation Regiment. Shortly before returning home last summer and competing in “The Amazing Race,” he was on a tour of duty in Iraq as an intelligence officer for an aviation task force.

And Rachel, 30, works for Epic Systems, the Verona-based health care software company, in a position that requires her to travel every week or two. Anyone who watches the CBS show knows that being able to negotiate travel obstacles is a prized skill for a team.

Dave said he and Rachel were fans of the show before they met, and as a couple have spent many Sunday nights on the couch watching the show. But they watched it more intently than other couples.

“We would actually look at it from the vantage point of being competitors ourselves, identifying individual strengths and weaknesses that our team might possess, and how that might contribute to successes on the Race,” he said.

While her husband was deployed in Iraq, Rachel came across an announcement online seeking contestants for the series’ 20th competition. Over beers while on vacation together in Australia during one of Dave’s R&R breaks, they filled out the application together.

The thought was that, after a year apart, competing on the show would be a great way to reunite as a couple.

“Naively enough, I think both Rachel and I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to reconnect,” Dave said. “From Rachel and I’s vantage point, even just spending quality time with one another, or time in general, has been a challenge in and of itself. Rachel, working for Epic Systems, travels quite frequently if not every week for three or four days, certainly every other week. And I travel less frequently, but of course, for greater durations of time with deployments.

“We were just eager and excited for the opportunity to spend 30-plus days of time together.”

Dave and Rachel went into the Race thinking they would be serious contenders, and Dave stated confidently on a promotional video on the CBS website that he didn’t think any of the other teams could beat them. Only they could defeat themselves if they didn’t work optimally as a team, he added.

“Both Rachel and myself are hyper-competitive people,” he said. “I would say that for me, my tenancity, my resourcefulness, decisiveness and even common sense definitely contributed to my involvement on the race. From a military perspective — my attention to detail, mental and physical preparedness.”

He said he thought the different mindsets he and his wife brought to the Race made them a good team.

“Rachel definitely possesses a dramatically different mentality,” Dave said. “She is very much an optimist, whereas I am a realist. So we balance each other in that respect.”

Dave said that the greatest pressure he felt during the Race wasn’t necessarily getting from Point A to Point B first, or finishing the various challenges quickly. It was knowing that the couple, dubbed “Team Army” on the show, was standing in for so many military couples in America who have had to deal with deployments overseas.

“To represent the men and women of the armed forces, and from Rachel’s perspective, to represent the spouses left behind, was truly an honor and a privilege for us both,” Dave said. “The greatest stresser from my persepctive was not the race or the competition. It was the self-induced stress of performing optimally on behalf of our military. It’s really an underrepresented profession in reality TV.”

Now, the stress of the competition is over, although Dave and Rachel are forbidden to talk about what happens on the show before it airs. They’ll be down at Madison’s on King Street on Sunday night, watching it unfold the same as every other “Amazing Race” fan.

“In some respects, being a military intelligence officer and having been in possession of some classified type information, retaining information is second nature,” Dave said. “But something that you’re truly excited about — being on the show — it has been difficult to harness.”



http://host.madison.com/entertainment/television/madison-couple-at-the-starting-line-for-amazing-race/article_f734495f-9897-5ad2-a3e0-3592eeeaacc4.html

dpe:

Last summer in Los Angeles, Madison residents Dave and Rachel Brown were subjected to a number of psychological and physical screenings and exams, one of which was the famous IQ — intelligence quotient — test.

Neither Dave, 33, nor his wife, Rachel, 30, had ever taken an IQ test. But they hoped to be chosen as contestants on the hit CBS show, "The Amazing Race," and the tests were part of the deal.

After the IQ test, Rachel asked for the results.

The examiner said, "Are you sure you want to know?"

"When I heard that," Dave said recently, "I knew I wanted to know."

No doubt that kind of competitiveness and feisty good humor is part of why the Browns ultimately were selected to be contestants on "Race," the eight-time Emmy Award-winning reality show that begins its 20th season Sunday night on CBS.

It also probably didn't hurt that they look like movie stars.

Of course, they aren't film idols. Dave, originally from the La Crosse area, is with the Wisconsin Army National Guard, having served in a number of capacities including as a Black Hawk helicopter pilot, military intelligence officer, and currently as assistant professor of military science with the ROTC detachment at UW-Madison.

Rachel, who grew up near the Twin Cities and came to Madison to attend UW, is a project manager for Epic in Verona. She was traveling last week and not able to participate in my interview with Dave, which had to be conducted over the phone so a CBS representative could listen in.

The network appears to live in mortal fear that a contestant on the show will slip and reveal a location or result from the new season — which was shot in the fall — before it airs. Eleven couples are in the competition that takes them around the world in about 25 days and brings a prize of $1 million to the winners.

CBS didn't have to worry about Dave Brown, who was smooth as could be — friendly and funny — during our chat.

After growing up near La Crosse, Brown moved with his mother to Phoenix, where he attended high school and then Arizona State University. He enrolled in the Arizona National Guard in 1996, transferring to the Wisconsin Guard, and Madison, in 2000.

Dave said he and Rachel met in Wando's on University Avenue in 2006. They married in August 2009. Both were fans of "Amazing Race" before they met.

"Then as a couple we watched more intently," he said.

Like a lot of viewers, they speculated what it might be like to be contestants.

But they never acted on it until Dave was sent to Iraq in 2010. The forced separation — abetted by a general lack of communication technology from Iraq and the secrecy requirements of Dave's work with military intelligence — took a toll.

Dave and Rachel were able to reunite in Australia in February 2011 when Dave got two weeks' rest and relaxation from Iraq. Just before that, Rachel sent Dave a note saying a fun way for them to reconnect might be to apply for "Amazing Race."

Dave wasn't sure she was serious, but once they were in Sydney, Rachel pulled out a thick sheaf of papers that turned out to be the application. In between surfing lessons and romantic dinners, they filled it out.

Rachel mailed the application from Madison and before long, word arrived that the "Race" casting department was interested enough to want a video of the couple. Dave, however, was back in Iraq. He got his flight crew chief to tape him with their plane in the background.

Dave's overseas deployment ended in June, and not long after, he and Rachel were flown to California with other potential contestants for interviews with the "Race" host and creators as well as testing to predict how well they might handle the show's physical and mental challenges.

Clearly, they tested well. Dave and Rachel plan to watch Sunday night's first episode at Madison's on King Street, where they will host an informal party for anyone who wants to share in the fun, starting at 5:30.

And what of that IQ test?

"Apparently I beat her by two points," Dave said.

I suspect Rachel might suggest that's well within the margin of error.


http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/doug_moe/doug-moe-amazing-trip-to-the-start-of-amazing-race/article_f9ceccf8-5b0b-11e1-8fb9-001871e3ce6c.html#ixzz1mqMgSXfX

Jobby:
I am *almost* certain they will be a F3 team. :hearts:

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