'A goal on our again': Calgarians Ty and Kat mirror on profitable Wonderful Race Canada

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It wasn’t uncommon over the summer season for Calgarians Ty Smith and Kat Kastner to hitch household and associates when watching episodes of the ninth season of Wonderful Race Canada.

However on Tuesday night time, the couple determined to relive their triumphant win and watch the season finale in a quieter vogue.

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It was an thrilling episode that featured all the pieces from helicopters, to Highland dancing, to crossword puzzles, to zooming round on a Jet Ski off of Georges Island in Halifax Harbour.

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“That is going to sound lame, however we truthfully simply watched in a lodge room . . .  simply the 2 of us,” says Smith, who joined Kastner for a Zoom interview with Postmedia on Wednesday morning from Toronto. “We had been clearly inundated with cellphone calls and textual content messages and other people attempting to achieve out, which introduced some smiles to our faces, however we undoubtedly wished it to be intimate. It is a fairly particular second in our lives and a fairly large chapter.

“For us, we wished to totally engulf ourselves within the episode and totally take us again to Halifax and that complete day. As soon as once more, it was a gruelling day. There was so many highs, so many lows, there was so many feelings. I feel, for us, we wished to totally be current as we watched one of many best days of our lives unfold on nationwide tv.”

“Each of our households had watch events at dwelling, so we ended up face-timing them after however we simply shared the expertise with us two,” added Kastner.

Tuesday’s finale discovered the remaining three groups, which additionally included Calgarian Tyler Turner and girlfriend Kayleen Vandervee and Winnipeg associates Ben Chutta and Anwar Ahmed, typically neck-and-neck within the numerous challenges. However, ultimately, it was a teary Ty and Kat who had been declared the winners by Jon Montgomery at Level Nice Park in Halifax as previous opponents cheered them on.

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The season, which was filmed within the spring, took 10 groups 12,000 kilometres via six provinces and 11 cities and a variety of challenges. Raised in Leduc, Smith survived the devastating 2018 Humboldt Broncos bus crash that killed 16 folks. Now primarily based in Calgary, he’s a public speaker and psychological well being advocate. Kastner, who was born and raised in Calgary, is described as a shopper success specialist. Smith mentioned the group can be racing for “all the pieces they misplaced and for everybody who was impacted by the Humboldt Broncos tragedy.”

The group had a powerful begin within the first leg, which aired July 4. It noticed Smith and Kastner take their first win of their hometown in an episode that included memorizing Calgary Stampede pancake orders and collaborating in a drum circle and ended on the Peace Bridge.

“To have the ability to come again dwelling and win that first leg as a lot as we didn’t actually have expectations, I feel after that it actually allowed us to shine a lightweight on the truth that we may probably do that,” says Smith.

The group would go on to win the second leg as effectively, which made for a promising begin but additionally had a few of their opponents plotting towards them.

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“We knew there was a goal on our again a bit of bit,” says Kastner. “I feel we had been truthfully stunned to listen to a few of it. It’s a contest and we knew that was in all probability going to be the case (even) if we weren’t seeing it immediately after we had been racing. We had been stunned a bit of bit however we have now essentially the most respect and completely beloved our opponents and racing with them.”

Tuesday’s finale had some nail-biting moments for the group. At one level, they unintentionally left their backpacks and IDs in a taxicab, which made renting the Jet Ski afterward a little bit of a problem. Smith’s efficiency on the non-public water craft, which had him negotiating a slalom course and retrieving a zebra swim ring, helped put them again on high. The episode additionally concerned studying advanced Highland, scarf and Punjabi dance routines and ended with a 25-word crossword puzzle.

“The finale was so neck-and-neck between each group, it was loopy,” says Kastner. “I don’t suppose we had a leg like that the place everybody was so shut and wished it so unhealthy. Undoubtedly, the dancing: I used to be apprehensive about that and was stressing a bit. However (Ty) saved it cool and determined we had been simply going to have enjoyable with it. And after we didn’t seize our backpacks from the cab, I simply couldn’t consider we misplaced our lead for this silly mistake. It’s ironic it was the backpack that brought about us to lose the lead after which the phrase we would have liked to complete the crossword and make it first was ‘backpack’”

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The win earned the couple two 2023 Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 automobiles, $250,000 and a visit around the globe. Smith says he plans to proceed public talking however in any other case take their future “in the future at a time.” 

They’re set to fly to Europe in little over every week. Given the hectic, exhausting expertise of Wonderful Race Canada, one would possibly suppose they might need a stress-free journey. However Smith says they’ll use the European jaunt to “totally get again to what made us profitable within the race, which is placing us exterior our consolation zone, having conversations with random strangers and simply attempting to totally embrace that we get to do that proper now.”

“We’ve obtained lots deliberate on the itinerary, we’re used to travelling at such a quick tempo,” Kastner says. “I suppose the nice factor is I discovered find out how to be a lightweight packer. I’m not going to be hauling round additional suitcases and all the additional garments I used to pack.”

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