An amazing race of a lifetime

SINGAPORE — Every Amazing Race experience — be it the Asian or US edition — is a ride of a lifetime. Team Philippines’ Eric Tai and wife Rona Samson, third placers of The Amazing Race Asia (TARA) Season 5, can attest to that.

“The entire experience was very memorable,” Rona told The STAR during an interview held the day after the show’s finale party at ION Sky. “It is something that you will always treasure and parang how often can you say to anyone that I’ve been on The Amazing Race?”

You know racing with 10 other teams in six countries and a dozen cities is a tough privilege only few like Eric and Rona have been called and chosen to enjoy.

“There is something about us that we don’t see that made us stand out,” added Rona, who was perhaps referring to the screening process for the possible Season 5 racers. “That on its own is a privilege.”

However, doing TARA was couple goals for Eric. “I never thought I would ever experience something like this with a partner like a wife. This, to me, (is one for) the books — one of the best experiences of my life. And I would never trade this experience for anything else because it made our relationship stronger, the depth of our love was put to the test and we were able to come up on top.”

What was the reaction of their family and friends on their inclusion in the reality show’s final leg or final pit stop?

“Even my close friends and family didn’t expect that we would even make it to the Top 3,” answered Eric. “My friends and family know us as a couple that’s strong (physically), but they never thought that we would be strong emotionally.”

Making it to the final pit stop was not the only be-all and end-all for them to move forward leg after leg. Rona had a personal reason for joining TARA.

“There is still the stigma that big people can’t really run that much,” she said. “There are a lot (of judgmental people). That’s one of the reasons why I joined the race because I wanted to show them that fitness comes in every shape — and sizes. It’s not just this is how fitness looks like. It’s just one cookie-cutter size. It’s not. I was hoping to break that stigma, I was hoping to break that image. I’m glad that came across.”

Eric took pride in what Rona had shown in the entire race. “She had some setbacks in her life physically (but) she was able to do it… the fact that she pulled through and you know, there was never a time she wanted to give up,” he said.

No matter how calm and collected racers are, there are points in the race where they will be challenged by situations that are beyond their control.

“I can’t believe we lost our lead because of the taxi,” shared Rona. “If one is a little frustrated, the other one should be just calm and quiet,” Eric offered an advice.

Although ready to be surprised and stumped by the race, the couple entered The Amazing Race Asia with a game plan in mind. “Try not to argue, no blaming. Walang sisihan,” said Eric. “Let’s try (to) organize our roadblocks.” They were given a maximum of five roadblocks each. If the roadblock was a bit physical, then Eric handled it. If it were slightly easy, Rona would take charge. “We know that the race would get harder and harder. So as much as possible, I would try to do the early roadblocks if I could... that’s the smartest strategy to do it,” she said.

The couple’s smartness was also seen in deciding which team to be given the yield. Unfortunately, it was Team Indonesia of Treasuri Tamara and Louisa Kusnandar who received it. Eric and Rona’s decision was valid because Team Indonesia was strongest having won four pit stops. After all, TARA is a competition where one wants to weed out those who will stand in their way.

“It’s always been on my bucket list,” said Rona of having fulfilled the dream to play in TARA. “When I was in Seattle, I would watch The Amazing Race,” said she, who was then entertaining thoughts like if she could do it, who would she do it with and how hard it was to get in the show. 

The road to that journey took off when Eric and Rona sent their video (“which wasn’t even a fancy video,” she said) on the last day of audition. “We got the camera, we put it on a table. We just made sure that our personality showed, we were real and we just let the video show itself,” recalled Eric.

When asked about the game changer in a race like The Amazing Race Asia, Rona had this to say. “Luck. Before we started the race in Jakarta, we actually had the privilege of speaking with Bertram (van Munster), he is the creator of The Amazing Race and he said, ‘Good luck, guys. I know you, guys, are all good. We chose you guys for a reason, but do understand that this game, a big portion of it will rely on luck and chances.’ And it’s true. I mean you could get the first taxi, but what if that taxi driver wasn’t the best.”

As for Eric, he added, “Always think that you’re at the bottom, meaning you always need to be rushing and you’re always fighting… you just try to slip into the middle, so that (you) will not much of a target, but you always do your best in every challenge.”