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Amazing Race's Pam and Winnie: We Picked the Lemon of the Donkeys

Pam and Winnie were cruising to a second-place finish on The Amazing Race until they ran into some "stubborn asses" — or donkeys. Rather than tough it out, they switched Detours, but messed up twice when they couldn't spot an ostrich cutout on the trail and subsequently got eliminated. "We knew it was over when we got it wrong the second time," Pam tells TVGuide.com. "Everyone has that hope that some other team is behind them or someone got penalized or it's a non-elimination leg, but we knew we were last. We had wasted too much time." Find out how long the whole ordeal took and if they have any regrets.

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Joyce Eng

Pam and Winnie were cruising to a second-place finish onThe Amazing Race until they ran into some "stubborn asses" — or donkeys. Rather than tough it out, they switched Detours, but messed up twice when they couldn't spot an ostrich cutout on the trail and subsequently got eliminated. "We knew it was over when we got it wrong the second time," Pam tells TVGuide.com. "Everyone has that hope that some other team is behind them or someone got penalized or it's a non-elimination leg, but we knew we were last. We had wasted too much time." Find out how long the whole ordeal took and if they have any regrets.

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It seemed like you decided to switch really quickly. What was your rationale besides the donkeys not moving?
Pam:
Yeah, we did change really quickly, but we knew that animals were always unpredictable and we probably spent like 15-20 minutes trying to make them move. We were thinking, if we jumped on the horses, then at least we're moving forward. The donkeys would just not go. They were stubborn asses! We picked the lemon of the donkeys. By the time we switched, everyone else's donkeys were going. Do you think you should've waited it out more?
Winnie:
I think we should've freakin' seen the ostrich! [Laughs] But yeah, we probably should've waited it out more. We also thought that by switching, maybe others would switch too because initially no one's donkeys were moving. But that did not happen.Pam: At that moment, when the adrenaline's rushing and you're just trying to get things done, you just think switching is the best. How did you miss the ostrich twice?
Pam:
All of those cutouts were hidden really well. We were on that trail for a really long time. That probably took an hour to get through. Trying to spot each animal and memorizing them were hard. We heard that the ostrich was hidden pretty deep in the bush. But it's not like we have a hunter's eye! [Laughs] We can spot things in like Urth Caffe, but not random animals in the bush! ... And the last one had two animals, so we thought, "We got this!" But no, that was a trick. Did you think about going back to the donkeys after you were wrong the first time?Pam: Well, we figured we had gotten the order wrong. ... We talked about going back to the donkeys, but we were thinking that the donkeys are not going to move again, so we should just power through this again and hopefully we'll be fighting for last place.It had to have been deflating to know you were in second place and now you might be in last. Did you see any teams after you switched?
Winnie:
Yeah, we just wanted to fight for second to last place. We knew a lot of time had passed. ... We saw Meghan and Joey when we went to do the horse the second time. We didn't see Max and Katie. [Meghan and Joey] had just gotten to the donkeys. We thought Max and Katie could be behind us, but we thought worst case scenario, it was us against Meghan and Joey. And we didn't see them after we started the trail again.Winnie: We also didn't know how long the donkey Detour took. We figured it was faster, but we thought since our donkeys were so stubborn, everyone would be struggling and it'd take long.

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Do you have any idea if you would've beaten either of them had you been right the second time?
Winnie:
We really don't know. They didn't tell us. You can only gauge how long you're spending on things. It's hard to guess how long everyone else takes and we didn't see them at the end.Do you regret switching?
Winnie:
Obviously, there's part of us that's like, "We shouldn't have switched." But it's hard to regret it because it seemed like we truly were not made for that challenge! It was just our time to go. Having watched it, everyone else had such bad luck and for us to not overcome their bad luck, it was not meant to be.You were good racers, but had a lot of trouble navigating.
Pam:
I would say we got majorly lost only one time on the jet skis.Winnie: The time in New Zealand was really overdramatized. It really was just one U-Turn. I didn't feel like we got lost that much. I think a lot of other teams got more lost than we did. I think the expectation because we're Asian is that we're bad drivers. [Laughs] We have to reinforce the stereotype!

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Winnie, a lot of fans were annoyed that Connor looked at your surfboard. Are you upset that he did?
Winnie:
I was shocked when I saw that in the episode because I didn't know that had happened. I had the surfboard turned into my body, and I was running down cliffs for 30 minutes, so I was kind of delirious. In my head, I thought the surfboard was covered. That was shocking that he did that, but it is a strategic move and it wasn't illegal. Everyone decides how they want to play the game. If you can't figure it out on your own, that's a good strategic move.Were you surprised that he didn't take your deal?
Winnie:
No. I threw it out there as a last resort. At that point, I could not find Phil. I didn't want to just wait around for Connor and follow him because that seemed like such a pu--- move, so I suggested it. And if he didn't take it, he didn't take it. It was just like on the off-chance that he would say yes. So I ran off when he said no. But I didn't know that he looked at my board.What are you up to now?
Winnie:
Talking to you.Oh, you mean in general. [Laughs] Back to our lives.Pam: We're having fun watching the show every Sunday. We're just back to normal stuff. (Full disclosure: TVGuide.com is owned by a joint venture between Lionsgate and CBS.)