The 12th season of The Amazing Race is well underway and looks to be in “Emmy-nominated” mode once again. Eleven teams started this race around the world, but we are now down to eight. The third team eliminated from The Amazing Race on Sunday were two sisters from Miami, Florida, Marianna and Julia Ruiz. I had the chance to talk to them both about many subjects including if using their sex appeal gave them any advantage at all and what were Ronald and Christina really like? Here is what they had to say…
Josh Clinton: Hey guys.
Marianna Ruiz: Hey Josh.
Julia Ruiz: Hi Josh.
JC: How are you doing?
MR: Not bad, how are you?
JC: I’m doing good. So I wanted to ask both of you first if you were fans of The Amazing Race before you got on the show?
MR: Oh yeah, definitely. You know it’s one of those shows that everyone can relate to. Everyone that I know has always wanted to do it. Yeah, definitely. We love traveling, so it’s for sure something we always wanted to do.
JC: Yeah. What were the main reasons you wanted to be on the show, though?
MR: Uh, the one million dollars. (Laughs) No, kidding.
JR: It was about traveling and being able to explore the world with Marianna instead of a boyfriend, who I might break up with later in life. It’s kinda like a video diary of an experience we did together. I mean who watches the show and doesn’t want to do it?
JC: Right, exactly. Going into the show did you plan to use your sex appeal as a strategy on the show?
MR: Well there was nobody to have sex appeal for except for gramps! I mean gramps is a little dirty old man, but jesus we didn’t have any young hot guys there. They need to give these girls a bone!
JC: Yeah, you mentioned grandpa. Were you trying to use your sex appeal there?
MR: No, we were just trying to have a good time. We were dancing the whole time and we just wanted to get everyone involved.
JR: Yeah, in this race there is really no way to use your looks to get ahead at anything. First of all, you look and stink like crap. This race really had nothing to do with that, because it wouldn’t have helped you. Yeah, it might be advantageous if you need access to a map. But mostly flirting doesn’t really help in this season.
MR: Especially when there are 4 or 5 different couples and they see you flirting around with everyone, that’s not the best strategy. You don’t want to get girls on your bad side.
JC: Yeah, I totally understand that. The last couple of episodes we have seen Ronald be really horrible to Christina. What is he really like?
MR: He’s horrible! That was the only team that we didn’t get along with from the get go. Christina kinda portrayed herself as this sweet, little, innocent girl that was trying to rekindle the flame with her dad. It was a very interesting story, so she pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes and I saw right through it from the beginning. So I was incompatible with them. She was trying to be super sweet to everyone, which gave us a bit of a disadvantage as it made us look like the bad guys. We were just trying to run our own race and not manipulate anybody. They were just out there.
JR: They played Christina out as the victim, as we watched the show. Christina was a wolf in sheep’s clothing too. She definitely came and made an effort to foil a plan when there was no plan in place. She made an aggressive move on the airplane to Amsterdam. No one had stepped out and tried to interfere with another team’s plans and she was the first one. That is when I was like “wow, this isn’t the team that people think they are.”
JC: Right. That’s interesting. How much of a factor is age in The Amazing Race? You were one of the younger teams. Does mental strength play a bigger role than youth?
MR: I think there are so many different aspects that affect the race. There’s physical aspects, there’s mental aspects, there’s effort and control, there are so many different things going on that you can’t say a younger team is going to win, or the oldest and wisest team is going to win. There is no way to tell how your advantages and skills are going to play out on the race. You don’t even know if you will be even able to use them.
JC: Yeah. Along those same lines, why do you think an all-female team has never won The Amazing Race?
JR: I think it just played out like that. I know one team got really close, but they didn’t win. It’s just a matter of luck.
MR: The season is not over yet.
JC: Right.
JR: I don’t know. It could be a lot of things. Maybe the whole “roughing it” aspect isn’t really cut out for an all-female team. I don’t know. Has there been an even ratio of all-male teams and all-female teams? There is those kinds of statistics. It’s really about there being so many different aspects that anybody can be canceled out and it’s just a coincidence that an all-female team hasn’t won yet.
JC: Yeah. So Julia, are you looking forward to milking a camel any time soon?
JR: (Laughs) Yeah, no actually I’m in the market to buy one so I can have camel milk on hand at all times. I’m trying to switch from cow milk. No, the camel milk was disgusting. It truly was.
JC: Marianna, what were you thinking while you were watching Julia milk the camel?
MR: I was just getting really frustrated, because I couldn’t really see what was going on. At the same, there was nothing I could do. I couldn’t help out. She was on the opposite side. I didn’t want to yell and have her yelling back. So it was really frustrating. By the time I got the idea that our camel had no milk, in the back of my mind I knew there was absolutely nothing I could do. I wasn’t freaking out or anything. Jason and I were there on the side just talking about what was going on and what we were feeling. I was really just trying to calm myself down and not put too much pressure on her or myself. Certain things happen for a reason. Like I said, it was like that black cloud that was following us. We couldn’t catch a break. Everything we attempted would just go wrong. So I just tried to take it easy.
JC: Right. Was there one mitigating factor that led to you finishing last?
JR: I think the fact that we didn’t run with our camels and got lost and fell back a little behind from Lorena and Jason. When we finally found the school, they were about five minutes ahead of us. I think that just kinda ruined it for us.
JC: Yeah. What would you say was the biggest mistake you made on the show for either one of you?
MR: Honestly I didn’t think we made a lot of mistakes. There were other factors out of our control that ended up costing us the race in the end. Every night after we had our “Pit Stop”, wherever we were, we really wanted to talk about what we did the day before and try to make different decisions the next day. I really felt that we consistently started improving and it showed in the first leg. We started that leg in first place, but when we all got evened up, it all came down to the camel. But we were really hitting our stride. The camel just had no milk. They also didn’t show that after we dropped the camel we were running in the opposite direction. After we figured it out and ran back, a six mile run with 60 pounds on your back, could affect things. I mean I was purple after we finished.
JC: Wow, yeah, stuff like that just happens. Do you think you were both portrayed accurately on the show as far as your personality in real life?
MR: We both have big personalities, so I’m surprised that didn’t show more of us on the show.
JR: We’re also more outgoing, funnier, and like to have a good time everywhere we go and get along with everybody. It’s kinda hard to do that when you are in “race mode”. They didn’t portray as everything I thought they would portray us as, so I’m not upset about the way we were shown. But I don’t think it was a very true portrayal of who we really are.
JC: So overall, you both enjoyed your Amazing Race experience?
JR: Oh, very much.
MR: Definitely.
JC: Did you learn anything about each other that you maybe didn’t know before doing this race together?
JR: I learned that my sister, Marianna, is very level-headed. I mean I had an idea, but I never had to trust her level-headedness. She is very calm, whereas I’m a little out of whack. I mean I just learned a lot about her.
MR: I think Julia deserves a lot more credit. I always used to make fun of her. In our family, there are more of us that are athletes than not so I didn’t really give her enough credit always. But she’s pretty fierce and she put a smile on face when she was competing with me.
JC: Alright, very cool. Well that’s all I have for you. Thanks for your time and good luck with everything.
MR: Thanks Josh.
JR: Have a good one.
– The Amazing Race airs on CBS in the U.S. on Sunday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
– The Amazing Race airs on the CTV network in Canada on Sunday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
