The final of BBC’s Race Across the World is just around the corner and Welsh contestant Cathie and best friend Tricia have made it to the last leg of the competition. Over the course of eight weeks, viewers have enjoyed watching the best friends trek across Canada in a bid to win £20,000.
Speaking to WalesOnline ahead of the series finale, Cathie and Tricia revealed that they have “bittersweet” feelings about the end of the Race. “It was amazing. There were definitely a lot of, ‘Am I actually here? Am I actually doing this?’ moments,” Tricia said. “The Canadians were so friendly and the country is so beautiful. It's also a little bittersweet because it’s coming to an end and I'm really sad that the race is going to be over.”
“It’s been wonderful watching our journey,” Cathie echoed. “We were there and we know what happened to us but we don’t know what the others did and what their experiences were so it’s been really lovely seeing that. I don’t want it to end." Over the course of the show viewers have particularly enjoyed seeing Cathie and Tricia’s friendship on screen - read about some of the things they’ve had to say here.
Discussing the public's reaction to them in the series, Cathie added: "Both Trish and I feel that everyone has been really positive towards us and we’ve had a lot of support. People that have recognised us or been kind enough to come up and talk to us have been really supportive. It’s really humbling because we don’t have that kind of media exposure normally.”
Tricia admitted that as the show has gone on, she has become more open to looking at social media. “To begin with, I avoided Twitter and Facebook but now I check social media while watching the Race. You just can’t help it because it’s so lovely and great to receive that support.”
To no one's surprise, the two best friends have agreed that they’ll be friends “forever”. “After seven weeks of being out there, there were no cross words and there was never any horribleness. It cemented that we are going to be friends forever and we are going to grow old as gracefully,” Tricia explained.
“I feel a lot more confident when I’m around Trish and we have a lot of fun together. The Race didn’t teach me that, though, and I knew that already,” Cathie echoed before sharing how she has been able to take in the “surroundings” of Canada in greater detail while watching the show go out. “When you’re in the Race, yes you are looking at the incredible scenery but you’re literally running from one place to another so to actually see it on the television screen, you get to appreciate it again.”
Tricia said: “It has been really lovely to see everybody else’s journeys. We know what happened because we’ve obviously spoken to them but we haven’t seen it so it’s really lovely to watch what they’ve done and to see people grow.”
Although Cathie and Tricia were hesitant to reveal too many details about the grand finale, they both revealed that it is set to be “nail-biting”. Tricia implied that viewers will see “a bit of tears, a few running scenes and not a lot of eating”. And Cathie teased: “It was just as tense as it looks on TV. The final episode has moments of sheer panic and it really counts because this is the last leg.”
They both said that there's nothing they’d do differently if they were to go on the adventure again. “I genuinely feel that we did our best and we couldn’t have done any more that we did,” Cathie said before Tricia agreed, saying: “We gave it our all - blood, sweat and tears.”
Cathie shared how she thought that appearing on the show has changed her “a little”. She explained: “It’s taught me that I can step out of my comfort zone and I can ask people for help. It’s also taught me to appreciate travelling and rather than just going to a place where you default to spending two weeks on a beach, I’m much more interested in travelling and seeing a country.”
“The experience has made me realise that it’s okay to not be okay,” said Tricia, who has chorioretinopathy caused by uveitis - a rare condition that can cause sight loss. She added that it’s “okay to ask for help”.
When asked what winning the £20,000 would mean to them both, Cathie said: “It would be confirmation that we could do it and it would be a really good way of saying thank you to all of the Canadian people that helped us.” Tricia, meanwhile, described how winning the show would “prove to ladies of a certain age that it doesn’t matter what age you are, how menopausal you are or what disabilities you have, you can still do it.”
Cathie and Tricia told WalesOnline that they have both agreed that they’ll be returning to Canada in the near future. But will they win big in the Race Across the World final? Find out at 9pm on BBC One on Wednesday, May 10. Race Across the World: The Reunion airs shortly after at 10.45pm.
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