Exclusive: 'The Amazing Race' team Marty Cobb and Hagan Parkman talk (Part 2)

The Amazing Race eliminated "Mother and Daughter" Marty Cobb and Hagan Parkman during the most recent broadcast of the CBS reality competition's 28th season.


The two women became the first team eliminated from the around-the-world competition after they arrived at the Race's second Pit Stop at the Plaza Bolivar in Cartagena, Colombia, in last place.

Marty and Hagan were very disappointed to be eliminated so early on because they were looking forward to more adventures together.

In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Monday, Marty and Hagan talked about their short-lived The Amazing Race experience. Below is the concluding portion. Click here to read the first half.

Reality TV World: Which team/s did you find especially intimidating? Were you already thinking about which teams would be great to U-Turn down the road?


Hagan Parkman: For us, you know, the Race is such a crazy thing that you don't know who could win this thing. You can't, like, look at a team and go, "They're going to win," or, "They're not going to win." For us, it was just if we know someone's behind us, we can U-Turn them.

It wasn't like we looked at somebody and said, "That's who we're going to go after" by any means. But if we were ahead of all the teams when we got to a U-Turn board, we'd definitely handle it fairly and say, "Who's the strongest team here that's behind us? Let's get them out now."

Reality TV World: Did you both really prepare for the Race? If so, what exactly did you do and how might you better prepare if there's a next time?

Marty Cobb: Well first of all, we [would] definitely appreciate that offer and do it! (Laughs) Of course Hagan's in a lot better shape than I am. She's young. But we worked out together. I mean, I'm a flight attendant so I work out on the road. I mean, really and truthfully, I don't know how much more you can prepare. I don't know if you can work at it enough.

Hagan Parkman: The best thing that you can do to prepare for this is watch the show.


Marty Cobb: Yes, I agree.

Hagan Parkman: On top of working out and making sure your body's right, if you don't watch the show, then anything you do is not going to be relevant. You have to watch the show.

Marty Cobb: A lot of it is a mind thing. It's keeping your head about you and making good decisions and not making mistakes and reading your clues and, you know, we've watched every season and people made big mistakes that cost them the Race. It's kind of like what we did with the cab, but everybody makes mistakes.

You don't know what you're going to do until you go into it. A lot of it's luck and a lot of it's just keeping your cool. You've got to keep going down the road and try to give it 150%. So, you know, we worked out but I think Hagan is right. Watching the show certainly helped me the most I think.

Reality TV World: Hagan, after The Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan told you about your elimination, you got upset because you said you had so much more to give. Would you mind elaborating on what you meant by that?


Hagan Parkman: I just saw us going so much further, and I wanted to do more for my mom. I was just so prepared to go through absolutely anything to win the Race, and so by that, I just meant, like, I was looking forward to the rest of it. In my head, I never imagined us going home so soon, and so, by "giving more," I was just ready to give anything to win the whole thing.

Reality TV World: This is a little bit of a silly question, but at the beginning of the episode, Blair Fowler whipped out her blow dryer and curling iron. Phil seemed shocked she brought those items and so was I, but how typical is that I guess? Did you girls bring anything like that?

Hagan Parkman: (Laughs)

Marty Cobb: No, we didn't bring anything like that. All the teams have talked about how we would pack if we ever did it again, and I felt like we were pretty good. I mean, we could've used a tissue or pair of pants along the way, but that never entered my mind. Obviously you want to try to look halfway decent on TV, but you also know that is not the reason that we're on the Race.

And we knew that it was not beauty school, and so we were cracking up when we found out [Blair] brought all that stuff. I think the models brought spray tan, and everybody had brought stuff (laughs) that you clearly don't need.


But I think we were pretty basic on our packing! We just tried to figure out the least amount of stuff that we needed and we tried to prepare for hot and cold, and those kind of things, but nothing like a curling iron or a hair dryer. No. My [essentials] were more like my hormones and eyeglasses. (Laughs)

Reality TV World: That's fair! In a season of all social media teams, do you think there was unfortunately more of a focus on self-promotion rather than what the show's all about -- like racing with a loved one around the world and potentially winning money? I mean, Marty, you had a video that went viral but it's not your profession. So what are your opinions on that?

Marty Cobb: I mean, I don't think so! Hagan, what do you think? Because in other seasons they've had, like, Harlem Globetrotters and professional athletes.

Hagan Parkman: I think the thing is, these people have a huge following. This is their job and people have been really hateful saying, like, they're trying to be these huge celebrities. But the thing is, this is their job, and they're putting themselves out there. This could be bad for them based on who's viewing it!

So I don't think personally, knowing these people, that they went into it saying, "I hope I get more followers out of this!" They really wanted to do well, and they also said, "We could make a mistake and say something bad on TV and lose followers," but they were doing it for the show.


Marty Cobb: Right.

Hagan Parkman: I don't think it entered their minds to do it for the followers.

Marty Cobb: No, not at all. I think everybody was in it to win it, and in it just to be on the Race and be competitive. It just so happens that's the common thread. You know, just like when they did a season where everybody was single and hadn't met each other before. It's just a different group of people. That's just all we had in common.

Reality TV World: What were your expectations going into the Race? And I know you only got to run two legs, but how did being on the show differ from what you thought it'd be?

Marty Cobb: For me, my expectation was that we'd be determined and we were not going to be the first team eliminated. Just like Hagan. My expectation was that I had no doubt we'd do whatever we had to do -- no matter how hard it was or how stressful -- and we would not give up.

We would just enjoy this race together and race as smart as we could. Never in a million years did I think we would go home first. I mean, we were in it to win it. We were bound and determined to be the first mother and daughter team [to win] and show other girls that they can be strong too. The Race was everything I expected, just harder. It's harder when you're in it.


Hagan Parkman: Yeah.

Reality TV World: How were you cast on The Amazing Race? Did you actually apply since you were big fans of the show already or did they contact you for this season specifically because of Marty's viral video?

Hagan Parkman: Yeah, my mom had that viral video and the girl who contacted us used to be in casting but she's also a flight attendant. And so, she saw the video and called us and asked if we were willing to come out to LA and go through the tryout process and casting process. And we never even second guessed it. We were all about it from the day we first heard about it.

Marty Cobb: And we've watched every episode. We love it!

Hagan Parkman: I've seen every season, every episode. (Laughs)

Click here to read the first half of Marty and Hagan's exclusive The Amazing Race interview with Reality TV World.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski