by Gina Scarpa

 

Last night, on The Amazing Race, Katie and Rachel started the leg in last and were never able to make up the time difference, despite running a good race. They arrived last at the pit stop, where Phil delivered the unfortunate news that they had been eliminated. Today, we spoke to the beach volleyball players about their experiences on The Amazing Race.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What made you want to try out for the show after so long? Were you fans?
A. Rachel: Yes, we watched for a long time. Katie's been watching forever! We had always talked about but we never really thought we would get chosen. Then, an open call came and her sister wrote us an email saying that we had to go.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Did you do a lot of preparation before heading into the race?
A. Katie: We did a ton of preparation. We would go running. Rachel was lifting more weights than she ever lifted before. We wanted to be strong enough to match up with the guys. We would do trivia things and study. My family came up with the idea of a war room for all our study stuff.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What makes the other one such a great partner to race with?
A. Rachel: Katie has been such a great partner in beach volleyball. She keeps her head on straight and she never gives up. Knowing those things, on the race, I know that I could not stand anyone else. Katie and I only get to hang out when it's beach volleyball time so that's another great thing. I was excited to hang out with her. Luckily, we didn't get sick of each other! That's a huge part of why I wanted to run the race with her.

A. Katie: Rachel is such a great partner because I feel like I could just rely on her, partly because we were partners beforehand. I just knew that, in stressful situations, we had each other's backs. I would do anything for her. If she needed anything, I was there, and I think she felt the same way. We were a good support system for one another and we had a lot of fun together.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Were you working with any teams?
A. Rachel: We were kind of sharing information with Connor and Jonathan. If we didn't win, we would've been rooting for them. They didn't get enough screen time. When it comes down to it, we're not just going to let them win. I would like to think that no one wanted to help us because, from what we've heard, other teams thought we were strong.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What was the biggest problem in this most recent leg, in Norway?
A. Katie: We didn't really have any problems. We ran a really, really good leg. We were at such a disadvantage that we couldn't make up that time. You started 30 minutes behind and you finished 30 minutes behind.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Was there anything that could've happened on the race that you wouldn't have wanted to do or were you ready for anything?
A. Rachel: We were pretty much ready for anything. I'm not going to volunteer to shave my head but we were prepared to do anything. When I saw that goat head, I was like, "Darn!" We would've eaten that! We were ready for anything.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: You both seemed upset when you were eliminated. What was the toughest part about coming in last?
A. Katie: I think it's because we really believed in ourselves. We were dead set on winning. We were like, "There's no way we're going to lose!" To have your hopes built up so much was a huge letdown. You could see on Phil's face that bad news was coming.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What was the best part of running The Amazing Race together?
A. Katie: I think that the best thing was that we know each other so well now. I've always felt super close with Rachel but I know now that if I need anything, I can call her. We just have such a strong relationship. It's been a great experience. I think our friendship has grown.
A. Rachel: The best thing I took away was Katie. Other than that, growing our friendship and having something that we'll have only. No one else will get our jokes or understand what we did. And that we got to go to all those great places. I'll probably never go back to any of them and I never would've gotten that opportunity. I'm just glad that I got to go with Katie. I feel like she's my sister.

 

The Amazing Race airs Sundays at 8/7c on CBS.

 

(Image courtesy of CBS)

 

Follow Gina at twitter.com/ginascarpa

 

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