After getting a reprieve in last week's first non-elimination round of The Amazing Race, the luck ran out for Mary Jean and Don St. Clair. In last place with no money, Mary Jean, 66, and Don, 69, managed to corral cash from fellow teams and succeed at a challenge making 7-inch-long bratwursts. But Germany was the final leg of their journey. The Portola Valley, Calif., grandparents, who've been married for 20 years, talked with PEOPLE about their adventure of a lifetime and how it brought them closer.
What made you do the Race?
Don: We are doers, not watchers. It was simply another challenge for us. We've had a great 27-year relationship that has gotten stronger because of this race.
Are you building any more furniture in your future after the IKEA counting/construction debacle in Sweden?
Don: It was a very humbling experience to watch myself on television as someone who I at least thought had a modicum of intelligence. It's the first time we began to really work with each other and it's held over. And believe me, it's improved the quality of our life.
Mary Jean: We're working much more as a team now. I don't have to run all the time to catch up with him. Before he had to be in charge of everything.
What were your favorite places to visit?
Don: Senegal. Not only because of the people, who were wonderful, but the incredible emotions (when we visited) the slave door. That's a memory that I'll take with me forever.
Mary Jean: And sleeping and spending that time on the glacier in Iceland. Had we done nothing else during the entire race, to be out there and to look as far as you could in all directions and see nothing but glacier, words cannot describe it.
Did you feel a kinship with any of the teams?
Don: I think Gus and Hera. Gus and I, although I'm certainly a lot older than he is – Gus is 50 and I'm going to be 70 – but I would say them.
Mary Jean: We found it fascinating once we got to know Lori and Bolo. They were just totally not what you would expect at all. They had an incredible honor system and value system.
What would you do differently if you were to race again?
Mary Jean: The first three legs – I would like all those decisions to be joint decisions.
Don: They were all unilateral decisions by guess who!
Did your kids like watching you on TV?
Don: Our kids know how much we love each other. Our kids know the strength of our relationship. I think for them to be able see it and be shown to the rest of the world was a positive for them.
What's next for you?
Mary Jean: Since the race we've gone out and gotten our Scuba deep-sea certification. We don't want to stop having adventures.
Don: Yep, and we're getting ready for ski season, too. We are keeping in shape for when they call us back for an all-star Race and we're going to be ready for them.
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