We Won The Amazing Race!

On March 2, 2022, we won the 33rd season of The Amazing Race! Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we shot the season in two chunks…first in February 2020 and the rest in September 2021. During the season, we traveled to England, Scotland, Switzerland, France, Greece, and Portugal. We are so thankful for all the amazing people we competed against and the incredible humans who make the show happen.

After we watched the premiere, I found myself up at 3AM heart racing. Watching the show is supposed to be the fun part. We’ve already done all the work and we know how the story ends.

Everyone has a story about what they were doing when the world shut down in 2020. Our story? Well, we finally get to tell you. We had just finished leg 3 of The Amazing Race in Glasgow, Scotland.

For me, sometimes just showing up is a victory. Never has it been more true for me than showing up to start The Amazing Race, AGAIN.  But we did it. After a 19-month pause in production, we restarted The Race in Switzerland.

As a contestant on The Amazing Race you can assume that you will be jumping off or climbing up something terrifying. Finally, it happened. I would jump off the Valle Verzasca Dam in Switzerland, at 722 feet, it’s the second-highest bungee jump in the world.

If you’ve watched so far, you’ve seen us overcome fears, celebrate wins, and laugh off our mistakes. Behind the scenes? Whew. I was a mess. I was missing my kids fiercely and my already constant anxiety was peaking.

In this episode, we had to eat casu martzu to earn a clue. I’ll save you the google search, it’s cheese made by (and with) real live maggots.

Our week in Greece was when it really hit me how far I was away from my kids. Luckily some yummy souvlaki and Penn’s expert memorization skills kept me focused on the race.

n this “needle in the haystack” challenge, we had to turn over THOUSANDS of rocks in a coliseum to find a gold coin. Despite having a head start, it took hours. It was a task that almost broke me.

If there was anything more magical than winning The Amazing Race, it was watching our kids watch us win The Amazing Race.

When, as a middle-aged mom living in North Carolina, would I have the chance to hang out with twin radio DJs from New Jersey? By getting outside of my little bubble, we met lifelong friends like Lulu and Lala Gonzalez.

It’s strange to think about it now, but Cayla Platt and Raquel Moore were the very first people we met on the Race.

We brought in fan-favorite Phil Keoghan, host of The Amazing Race, to give us his behind-the-scenes take on what it’s like to be on the other side of the mat each week.