Racers Susan and Sharnjit count their blessings
“A blessing.” That’s how Sharnjit Gill describes her experience on The Amazing Race Canada alongside best friend Susan Hayre.
Granted, they were told they couldn’t use “amazing,” but the Vancouverites found plenty to be thankful for about their experience on the reality series, despite being the second team eliminated from the Race. I caught up with the pair, who are both corrections officers in their daytime jobs, via phone in Toronto:
Q What made you think you were good candidates for the show?
Susan For sure, Sharn and I are very, very competitive, so this is something we thought would go hand in hand with that ...
Q What did you do to prepare?
Susan We basically eat, slept and ran and did whatever we needed to do with our backpacks on because we knew that a majority of the Race, we’d have those as part of us. We work out, keep fit on a regular basis, but we incorporated our backpacks into everything we did ...
Q How was that first day out on the Race?
Sharnjit The first day was overwhelming because we didn’t know what to expect. The rules were overwhelming a little bit. ( It’s) ‘ Here we go!’ and your adrenalin is going. ‘ Are we overthinking it?’ And then the camera crew is following you and maybe these are things you didn’t mentally prep for ... I think it gets better and better after the first leg. You know what you could do, what you can do, the rules are clearer. I think as the legs go on and go forward, it gets easier. Having said that, we got eliminated in the second leg so we didn’t get to experience it!
Q What was it like landing on the ground in Santiago?
Sharnjit For us, it wasn’t really a big shock how South America is. I grew up in the Philippines and we have been to India several times. There are a lot of similarities in terms of travel to South America or Asia. We kind of expected it. It was beautiful, though. It was amazing, the experience alone, and we tried to take in as much as we could. It’s hard to do that though, when you’re in Race mode.
Q And how has being on the Race affected your relationship?
Susan Going through this is another milestone in our relationship, something that we’ll look back on when we’re 90 ... If anything, it’s gotten stronger. … And going back to reality, to family life, just realizing that it is so important to take the time out and spend it with our families.