Interview ‘The Amazing Race Canada’ contestants Brendan and Sam

TEM (The Extra Mile ) : How do you guys both feel being back a second time?

Sam: Oh, being back  a second time, we’re so grateful to have had the opportunity to run this race a second time.  I mean, yeah, if we won already by applying and getting on this show, to have the experience to do it together as new partners, we’re winners. Yeah, even though it ended short. We are just so  so thankful for all of the production, honestly, like what a show they put on taking care of us and showing us around Canada. This show is such a special, has such a special place in my heart.

TEM:  What do you feel like is something that you guys both brought from your first race experiences that helped this time around and there’s something that you feel like you have to  unlearn?

Brendan: Yeah, I think from the first race, you know, even though we had that in the way that it played out and we ended up getting eliminated, we had like a sense of like calmness that I never had in the first time that we raced, you know, and and, you know, right up to the point where that Smurf challenge happened and we got like a bad bounce there and then inevitably at the end, you know, we just made the wrong call. We raced like extremely well, you know, we were like, we were really fast, we were, you know, front of the pack and our directions were on point.We had figured  out the process of the race, you know, that we brought to this time, you know, so yeah, so I  yeah, I think like doing it before gave us the ability to kind of, you know, know what were the  important things, right? Yeah, like that’s getting from A to point B like properly and we had our process figured out.

TEM: Do you guys feel like then you race smarter this time or would you just  say differently this time?

Brenda: I would say both.

Sam: Both for sure, you know, like I was so much more chaos  with my dad, so much more like he and I together, we both like build off of our cortisol levels,  we get stressed and we’re like go at each other and then it’s like but Brendan really brought like  calm and energy and that’s why I had never really been first in the pack, I don’t think with my dad,  so to start the race, we were first and that like that felt pretty good just being  yeah on cloud nine with Brendan there, yeah, it was good but yeah, smarter for sure. We had some tools that definitely we were racing very smart. Yes, yeah, like I caught, we caught, I calmly like realized I made the wrong call, you know, like but it was yeah, I just like, it’s just the way it goes,  you know, I wish that I like hadn’t made that decision, I made the decision based off of like  you know, what I thought was right off of, yeah, off skill set but because I thought it would give us an advantage but then it ended up playing out that that challenge was going to take way longer  than the other one that we did.

TEM: So, you know, going into this as a couple, like do you feel like, was there a moment  that, like from this leg, that really kind of tested your patience with each other and how did you guys handle it?

Sam: Yeah, there was a few times that I, we looked in the rear, I was driving and he was in the back and like, so where’s the next turn and he wasn’t answering or he was too busy  doing something else and I’m like, when’s the next turn Brendan and I don’t remember making eye  contact like, just like a little bit, you know, giving each other looks. We’ve done this before, you know, like bite your tongue once the audio mics come off, but no, no, we, we had a great experience. You know, that’s the reason you’re gonna come into conflict, like there’s gonna be, it’s a  stressful situation.

Brendan: It’s the way it is, we’re real, authentic, like we’re just being ourselves and so  we’re just like, you know, if you can’t, if you were to do this race, there’s no way with a partner that you can just like breeze through this, especially if you’re with your partner, you know  what I mean? So, um, I don’t think it’s possible to ever just be like, the race will test your relationship for sure. Yeah.

TEM: So what do you think was more stressful racing with a partner or racing with family?

Brendan: Yeah. Like I didn’t, because it was our second time, I feel like we had a sense of calmness, you know, like if, if, if you were to  go head to head right off the hop, I would say racing with Sam was, would have been a bit more  stressful just because like, you, you know, I don’t really care if I let my brother down.  No, I, I do, you do care like either way about like, you know, it’s different when you’re with,  like, you know, um, racing with your partner versus racing with, you know, family, you know,  like you have a different relationship, how you handle things.You want to make sure they’re comfortable. You want to, you know, you’re, you’re, you want to make sure that like, you know,  um, that they’re, they’re feeling confident with everything that kind of you’re doing.

Sam: And with your family member, you have like a bit more of like, I know it’s hard. It’s a  hard way to say it, but if you like family and you have close family, it’s like, there’s no  boundaries there. Like, you’re like, Oh, you’re going to love me no matter what. But you know,  with a relationship, you’re like, crap, is there going to be resent? Oh yeah.

TEM: Was there a one challenge that you wish that made a comeback from your original season for myself?

Brendan: Yes. Um, like, I think, I mean, there was a lot of, there was some really fun things we did.  I was hoping we were going to get to do something like that, like gave me and Sam,  the opportunity to do something like outdoors. Me and Connor got the chance to like, you know, we’ve canoed down a river, uh, when we were in Canmore. And if I wanted to do something,  remember, I know I’ve blocked that out of my memory too.No, we were hoping like we were, I was hoping we would like get into like some wilderness stuff. Me and Sam  like had a lot of camping together and stuff. And you know, she like, she’s like, uh,  she’s, she’s not soft at all. You know what I mean? She dives right into it, like anything like that. So I knew that we would do well with something like that. 

TEM: Is there any show that you guys want to be on other than like, like Amazing Race Canada?

Sam: Inside Productions, Bell Media, CTV, bring it on, give me some opportunities. I’ll take them. Give us a challenge. I think Brendan feel the same.  There’s not one specific thing, but I mean, yeah, like just, yeah. Traitors Canada.

Brendan:  The Amazing Race USA.

Sam: honestly, we like, we both love a good challenge and that’s kind of what we’ve  taken from being able to experience this race twice is we want to continue to challenge ourselves no matter what, if that’s signing up for a Spartan race or that’s signing up for, or just going, Hey, on a Sunday, let’s go for a little mountain bike or like  try to try this new trail. Like it’s all about challenging yourself and growing and testing your limits. And I think that’s a huge part about life.So we’re open.

Brendan: We’re open to it. If anybody gets the opportunity to go on a TV series, at least look into it because like,  you know, these, these challenges and these race series is, uh, you can’t put a price on them.

Watch the Amazing Race Canada season 11 on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CTV, CTV.ca