Being the first team eliminated on any season of The Amazing Race is quite heart-wrenching, partly because you’re the first one to get dropped, but mostly because of the embarrassment that came with it. It’s not really a nice position to be in. That’s exactly what happened to Eric and Lisa, the married yoga teachers, but the circumstances were different: in a twist this season, one team was to be eliminated right on the starting line if they didn’t finish the challenge. Eleven Japanese car plates and eleven plane tickets later, it was them who went home before even taking a step–or, in this face, driving a car to the airport on the way to Tokyo.
I interviewed to Eric and Lisa earlier today, and we talked about their shocking early elimination, their first impression of the other teams, and what they have going in the future.
How does it feel to be the first team ever eliminated before the starting line?
If there had to be a first team eliminated, it was good it was us. The way we live our lives definitely prepared us to take that kind of “unkind” hit. We live our lives fully and have been able to experience so many grand adventures. This was just another experience to add to our list. At the end of the rainbow, we had each other!
How did your family and friends deal with your early elimination?
We are blessed to have family, friends, and an incredible yoga community who love us. We have four yoga studios called Yoga Shelter, with a fifth one on the way here in LA. We have over 800,000 students. We have received a thousand of emails, Facebook messages and calls, mostly thanking us for showing people that one can take a real hard hit in life and stay graceful.
What was the feeling when Phil announced the first challenge?
When Phil announced that someone would not be leaving LA, we both thought, “This is so mean and unnecessary.” All the teams worked so hard to prepare themselves to be on this race. We spent so much time and money, and juggled just to get there ourselves. We both looked around and thought for some of these teams, this was their adventure of a lifetime. How could they not even give us that first leg?
Watching the race on TV now, are there any regrets?
We don’t live our lives with regrets. There is no time to worry over the past. We are both alive and well in this moment and we are very grateful for that!
Was there any task that you hope you could’ve done if you weren’t eliminated early on?
Africa.
Which teams do you think you would’ve gotten along well with if you weren’t eliminated early on?
We would have gotten along with everyone. They all seemed wonderful, dynamic and sweet.
What’s next for you two?
We have just started the treatments for our own reality show called No Ordinary Gurus. We are signed on with a production company. We have an infomercial coming out on a DVD series we did called XFOWSION and you can always check out more about the both of us by visiting our website, yogashelter.com.
– Henrik Batallones, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
(Image courtesy of CBS)
Staff Writer, BuddyTV
