"I couldn't breath..." This was Lisa — one-half of the self-titled 'Glamazons' — gasping at The Starting Line of The Amazing Race 9. After watching, relishing and fretting-over her hands-down favorite television show for nearly four years, here she was — in a weird way — standing inside her TV set. (Now figuratively inside, looking out.) It was almost a Rocky Mountain High hallucination.

By David W. Taylor (Email The Author)
Reality Reel Media
04.14.06

<img src=http://image.realityreel.com/2006/04/14/lisa_joni.jpg align=left> "From the first episode, the first show, I just said, I want to do this," recalls Lisa, whose voice rocked with emotion whenever discussing "The Race". "I was just compelled to do it. And something in the back of my mind just said, You're going to do it one day. And I didn't know when or how..."

As it happened, Lisa found herself standing in front of Phil Keoghan with her sister, Joni, at the Red Rock Amphitheater in Colorado — the Ninth Season about to be ceremoniously unleashed. The pair of them towered over the competition — both besting six-feet in height, or as Joni surmised, "On a good hair day I can go six-three. Depending on how high I poof my hair up on top."

Joni had started watching The Amazing Race during the Fifth Season after small nudges from Lisa to watch the show and urgent appeals to consider joining her as a contestant. Joni initially thought the show was titled, The Amazing GRACE and decided to take-in the show "because I was, like, this children's pastor and I was thrilled that she wanted me to appear on a Christian TV program. And, so, I began to watch it."

"But we just could never get it together because we had to make a videotape together and we hadn't seen each other in... forever..."

"We really didn't talk a lot," said Lisa. "Maybe once a year, maybe once every couple of years because she lived there (Texas) and I lived here (Florida)... kind of raising kids; we had our own lives and, you know, went in different directions.

"And so when Hurricane Dennis was headed in this direction, when it got up to like a Category Three, my husband suggested that I leave. So my sons and myself we drove to Texas and went to Joni's. So when I was there we just started milling around again and we thought, You know, we ought to do it (TAR). And we checked the web site and sure enough they were taking applications for Season Nine.

"So we pulled out the video camera and we made this long list of stuff we wanted to say on the video — we wrote them down on cue cards — and we sat down on the couch and we just..."