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Retracing The Amazing Race with Gary and Matt Tomljenovich
by Reg Seeton
 On
this season of The Amazing Race, the father and
son team of Gary and Matt Tomljenovich started
the 15th season of The Amazing Race as underdogs
but quickly gained the respect of the other teams
after Matt and Gary hit the mat in first place
a quarter of the way through the race. After braving
the sweltering heat of Dubai before hitting the
ground in Amsterdam, Matt and Gary looked like
they were on their way to becoming a formidable
team to go the distance in The Amazing Race.
But when Gary and Matt fell victim to one of the toughest roadblocks in all of the seasons of The Amazing Race, as Gary was forced to look for a clue hidden among 180 hay bales, all hope of winning The Amazing Race was almost lost until Matt and Gary we spared by a non-elimination leg. Although Matt and Gary gained ground after falling behind with a speed bump in the latest episode of The Amazing Race, the father and son pair from Montana were eliminated when one mistake led to another and Gary and Matt hit the mat in Estonia in last place.
The next day we caught up with Gary and Matt to retrace their Amazing Race steps through Estonia and Dubai to learn the challenges of The Amazing Race, the turning point of the most recent leg, how the race brought them closer together, and what it was like to sit in an Estonian sauna bus.
THE DEADBOLT: So I guess there aren't many candelabras in Montana?
GARY TOMLJENOVICH: [laughs] I'll let you answer that one, Matt.
 MATT
TOMLJENOVICH: I never knew that's what they
were called. I've always called them just candle
holders. I didn't know there was a technical
term.
THE DEADBOLT: It seemed like one mistake led to another. What moment do you guys feel was the turning point during the leg?
GARY: I don't really feel like there was a turning point. You know, the speed bump took us about twenty minutes and we didn't lose time in the candelabra. We really didn't lose time, we actually made up time when we got to the end of the leg. But at that point, unless someone is going to make a major mistake, it's tough to make up a speed bump with four strong teams like that in a short leg.
THE DEADBOLT: Well, how close were you guys behind Brian and Ericka?
MATT: We were seven minutes.
THE DEADBOLT: Wow, so that speed bump really didn't do anything.
GARY: [laughs] Well, it was twenty minutes long, so it cost us the race.
THE DEADBOLT: True enough. Matt, along the race, did you experience anything weird because of your hair color?
 MATT:
No, actually. I mean, you always get the people
staring in the airports and kids pointing and
whispering to their parents and stuff. But you
get that anywhere. Anything weird per se? No,
not really. People were actually very nice
THE DEADBOLT: Gary, with the hay bales the week before, can you describe how tough that really was?
GARY: The only thing I'd encourage you to do is just go out in a hay field some day [laughs]. The hay was tough. Sam and I both got put through the ringer on that one. I mean, we were out there probably four hours or so and we started with 180-something bales in the field and when I left there was only 19. So yeah, it was tough. It was a tough leg, there was no doubt. That's the hardest part about the race when you run it, to get the chance or luck and it just doesn't go your way. That's the hard part to accept.
THE DEADBOLT: You guys looked pretty wiped in Dubai. What didn't we see that was so tough about the heat? What else bothered you guys in Dubai?
 GARY:
Well, I guess coming from Montana - I mean 130
degrees, most people didn't realize how humid
it was, too. There's 80-something percent humidity
in that. The amount of heat, you didn't see
anything other than that you couldn't feel actually
how hot it was. When we left the slide and ran
down to the mat, we literally had blisters on
the bottom of our feet from running on that
hot sand.
MATT: The next day we were in wooden shoes, which didn't help. My feet were bleeding by the time I got on that dock.
THE DEADBOLT: Did the other teams underestimate you guys, or did they see you as a threat?
MATT: First off, when we first were there, a lot of people said that. Well, afterwards they said that they didn't feel we were much of a threat until we won that second leg and then they realized, "Well, maybe we shouldn't turn our backs on those guys." But all in all I think there were other teams that had larger targets on their back than us.
THE DEADBOLT: What did you guys learn about each other that you wouldn't have if you didn't run the race?
GARY: I learned in where I had to turn
it over to Matt, like on the roadblocks and
other issues, too. You know, he just really
stepped up and showed me that if he gets into
a situation, that he's got the ability to make
decisions and overcome it. When he hit a roadblock,
he just knocked them out. I was so proud of
the way he did that.
 MATT:
The race really showed me my dad's human side.
Growing up you kind of idolize your father and
he's infallible. It showed me that I can relate
to him and that he's not perfect, even though
he thinks he is sometimes [laughs]. It really
brought us closer together.
THE DEADBOLT: So when you guys were in the sauna bus, it didn't seem like that blond girl was sweating very much at all. How awkward was that experience?
MATT: When you're used to saunas a lot, and you're in them quite a bit, you sweat less and less. With her being from Estonia, I'm pretty sure she's used to it. I mean, I've been in a couple of saunas in my day. But after running there and then getting in that, yeah, I was going to sweat.
GARY: [laughs] He was sweating because he thought his girlfriend was going to see him sitting next to that girl, that's why.
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