Interview ‘The Amazing Race Canada’ contestants Julia and Olivia

Julia and Olivia, the fifth eliminated team from “The Amazing Race Canada,” shared their reflections on their journey during an interview with “The Extra Mile”

TEM (The Extra Mile) : What kind of inspired you guys to go on The Amazing Race Canada and who’s idea was it?

Julia: So it’s been one of our favorite shows for so many years, know, we’ve watched year after year after year and we’ve always thought, you know, we’ve got to do this one day, like, we have to apply. This is perfect for us, because like, what we like to do in our everyday life is, you know, learn new things. We love to travel, we love to take on challenges and obstacles, and just create memories together that we’re going to be able to remember for the rest of our lives. Like, we have this nice thing that we like to live by to celebrate our anniversaries and birthdays. We don’t really like to buy each other gifts. We like to do something fun. So we’ve been in a hot air balloon. We’ve been skydiving, like all these incredible things that we’re going to remember for the rest of our life, and what other experience than the Amazing Race Canada. You get all these incredible memories. So that’s what we wanted, just an amazing thing that we’ll be able to cherish the rest of our lives.

Olivia: And it was definitely Julia’s idea. I like to say that I’m the one, but we’re sitting back watching the show here and we’re sitting there going, yeah, we can do that. That doesn’t look hard. We can do that. They messed up there. Come on. And now we realize that it is a lot more challenging than just sitting there saying we can do that. But Julia’s always had this fascination of us competing together as a unit and what better platform than The Amazing Canada?

Julia: See all the incredible things that they do, know, tight walk ropes on top of buildings and bungee jumping and all these incredible things. We’re like, we want to do that. We would love to do stuff like that. So that’s where the inspiration and the desire to apply and be on the race team.

TEM : What did you guys do to prepare for the show? Is there any particular routine or anything that you guys did before you heard when you were going to be on The Amazing Race Canada?

Julia: Yeah, oh my gosh, there was so much. Like, having watched all the seasons, you can kind of see what are reoccurring challenges or strengths and skills that you need. And so obviously, memory is a big one. There’s usually always a dancing task that you have to do in driving in directions. Of course, is a big part. So, like, for the dancing, you know, we’re not, we’re not good dancers. We’ve never done anything.

Olivia: We’re not the best dancers.

Julia: So, yeah, you know, our PlayStation and we got the just dance game and we would. We practice a lot of different memory techniques and memorizing lyrics and poems and speeches, different things like that. And we would go on road trips and we would not allow ourselves to use GPS or phones. We would have a map and we’d have to navigate ourselves to that destination using only a map and so we did a lot of things

Olivia: Which is a lot harder to use a map than one would think you know just to understand where you are on the map and then the direction that your car is facing without looking at the navigation system in the car it was a lot challenging but we had a lot of fun preparing as well

Julia: You’re never going to be fully prepared for everything that they throw at you but there are things that you can definitely prepare yourself for and then that’s what we try to do just get as prepared as possible \

TEM: What was the most challenging and your favorite challenge on the show?

Julia: My favorite was repelling down Niagara Falls that was so exhilarating and like I said before like the types of challenges I always dreamed of doing like these extreme activities that you never get to do so that was my favorite that was incredible. The most challenging was probably the green bin

Olivia: Glass Blowing?

Julia:  Yeah but the glass blowing, at least you knew what you had to do with the green bin you didn’t see an end in site because you had no idea where this clue was. You could be pushing it down further and we could have been there for hours and hours.  There was literally no end to it that we could see and that was really tough mentally but you know we maintained a positive attitude. Obviously, never give up and we just kept going and we finally found that.

Olivia: And surprisingly the grains are heavy and cold and hard to make. You think grains and oats, they’re light, you can just push them aside. But that quantity was really heavy like it was taking all of us, like we were sweating buckets moving these grains from one side to the other. And like she said, you know, we could be pushing the clue further down where we might not even know. One, we didn’t know what we were looking for. And two, we didn’t know where it was. So we could have made a very big mistake by pushing it more and more down the bottom of the offer, but luckily our method paid off.

Julia: And yeah, you saw it, like Kevin and Gurleen were there till it was dark out, right? So they literally could have been, we could have been there for hours and hours. And so just mentally, that was tough, like, what did we get out of here, right?

Olivia:  Actually, like, you’re, we were, in there for over an hour, but when we’re in there, you don’t really realize that it’s going so quickly and your adrenaline is really pumping and you’re moving these grains and you’re yelling at each other and communicating with each other. So you don’t know like when we got back at the end of that challenge she was like we were in there for over an hour I was like well like we didn’t realize at the time but it did take a toll it was a hard challenge. We had grains stuck everywhere.

TEM : So what’s one thing that I would say about each other that you feel like you brought to the team?

Julia: She’s very detail-oriented and actually way calmer than she is in the world like day-to-day life. So like she was just being a couple and together for 10 years and now married for almost one like having your spouse as your teammate for us at least was just incredible because we trust in each other 100% and we will do anything for each other. We’ll pull it all out on the line for each other and my favorite part is like how excited and proud I was to watch her take on these challenges that she never thought she could do and so succeeding and like I can’t even explain like the sense of pride and how you know happy I am

Olivia: and you know what for me it’s I guess come almost the complete opposite I’m just very like she’s naturally good at everything and watch I’ve never been able to watch Julia you know give it her all in any situation and just fully put on the line and have that faith in each other that we’re going to do this, we’re going to pull it off and see her in the football challenge, coming down the waterfall, or even when I had a slight panic attack in the haunted house in the beginning. I don’t do good with dark, don’t do good with people jumping at you but just how she was able to understand the situation and calm me down in that moment. I just knew that no matter what the race was going to throw at us, Julia’s going to have my back and with having your partner by your side a hundred percent, you feel like limitless, like nothing is out of your reach and it was really great to see our relationship tested in this way and be able to come out so proud of each other and so happy. Even though it’s not the outcome that we wanted, we’re still sitting here as champions.

TEM: Do you guys have any advice for any future contestants that are wanting to participate in the show or anything?

Julia: I always say like it doesn’t matter who you are male, female, whatever your gender is, your sexuality , your race, your culture. It doesn’t matter. Always follow your dreams and chase your dreams and do what makes you happy at the end of the day because it’s your life and you have to go after it and you will never fail if you just try.

Olivia: I think just remember that life is here to have fun and enjoy and if you are even interested slightly about the race, apply. Apply, apply, apply because like Julia said, doesn’t matter your ability, how smart you are, your strengths. The race throws everything at you in all different levels at all different times and you never know what your partnership is going to take you to and it is an amazing experience to test yourself and each other.

TEM: So we’re here all about going the extra mile. So what do you guys do to go the extra mile in your personal life or whatever that means, whatever they may look like to you?

Julia: Yeah, so we are triathletes and marathon runners, so we are literally running the extra mile. don’t know why he says but the mindset behind that is these marathons and triathlons and the training is just so grueling and such a huge task. But we take it on together. We do everything together and go through all the training. And when we cross that finish line together and all our hard work and training pays off, it’s just so, so sweet and makes it that much more enjoyable. So yeah, in our life, we like to set really high, um, endurance type of challenges and go that extra mile. and, you know, put ourselves to the test and then overcome it and call them together.

Olivia: And even in our daily, like, personalize outside of athletics, you know, just go and treat everybody 100% with respect and dignity and go the extra mile to open the door for somebody or even wave at somebody down the street because you never know each person’s like what they’re going through and you never know that one smile, one wave that you might think is nothing could mean the big difference in someone else’s world. So, always remember that we’re all doing our best at all time, even if, you know, some might think otherwise and just always put yourself out there, always help out, always go the extra mile because it’s the extra mile that’s really going to make the difference.

Watch the The Amazing Race Canada every Tuesday 9pm ET on CTV