“I’m doing the best I can.” It’s been the motto of married couple and internet personalities Kim and Penn Holderness for years, an all-encompassing phrase for the stresses of parenthood, anxiety, and ADHD. But when it came to The Amazing Race, the best they could do was pretty darn good. Their understanding of each other and intense studying came in clutch on the race, claiming four first-place finishes along the way. And their fifth was the most important, as all that preparation paid off in a payday worth a million dollars. Though Kim and Penn were both comfortable with The Amazing Race as well as having a camera in front of them, having reoriented their lifestyle to being content creators, the start was admittedly not smooth. London proved to be tough on the married couple, as navigational issues coupled with overthinking had them finishing in the middle of the pack. Fortunately, that would be the lowest they placed the entire season. All it took was a change of scenery for them to literally change their tune in Scotland, where a song and dance task right in their wheelhouse gave them the start of many first places. Unfortunately, that momentum halted when the race shut down for 19 months due to the pandemic. And when they were asked to return a year and a half later, the Holderness family had a tough time letting go and getting back out into the world. Luckily, they did, and the rest was history. The restart put them in the front of the pack, as they were able to fit back into race mode naturally. And it wasn’t long before they became team number one again, winning three legs in a row in France and Germany. While other teams struggled, Kim and Penn comfortably found themselves in the final leg. But just when first place mattered most, they found themselves behind Raquel Moore and Cayla Platt immediately. Regardless, they kept doing the best they could and caught up to them in the final task, just a short run from victory. And as Penn himself would tell you, Kim became the hero of the team. Her literal picture-perfect preparation gave them a last-minute surge, as they crossed the finish line in disbelief as the victors of this season. Now out of the race, Kim and Penn talk with Parade.com about the meticulous studying that got them the win, the reaction to their success on the race, and being able to use their time to showcase anxiety and ADHD. To start, Kim, you posted a video about your kids reacting to your win. People may not know this, but you did not tell your family about how you did on the race. What was it like to watch their reaction?Kim Holderness: Well, first of all, CBS makes you sign a really big contract. So we couldn’t spoil the ending. And I think that’s way too much pressure to put on a teenager to have to keep that secret. So the choice was very simple not to tell them. But we still haven’t seen the end of the show.Penn Holderness: We weren’t looking at the TV. We were looking at the kids.Kim: They were very surprised. I think it was just a really sweet, sweet moment. We have to start to where things finished. Because I can’t remember a final leg that close in quite some time.Penn: There were eight lead changes from Lisbon to L.A. And we know as a big fan of the race that sometimes they have to create a little bit of drama to make it exciting at the end. They did not need to create anything. It was bonkers. As superfans, you know there would probably be a memory challenge at the end. But what made you figure out it would be something around pictures?Kim: I mean, down to like Napoleon’s hat. And I mean, I always Yeah, so I just felt like they were going to be the images of the race.Penn: I thought there were gonna be stairs. Because there were just stairs everywhere. They didn’t even show some of the stairs that we went up! It’s safe to say your biggest struggles were at the beginning of the race. Most prominently, Penn, when you overthought whether the clue you got at the Roadblock was actually a clue. How were you able to learn from those initial errors?Penn: Well, I did some writing after the second challenge when I stared at a clue for 45 minutes that was a clue. And I knew it was a clue, because it was a clue! (Laughs.) So after that leg, we looked at each other. And I knew that it was mostly on me. I wrote down three things in my book. One of them was, “Calm down. Slow down and read things. Do things slowly.” The second thing was, “Don’t overthink it,” which obviously I did in that leg. And the last one was just “trust your gut.” There were times when we should be doing something, but we either listened to an outside force, or we panicked and thought about it too much. We put those three things together in Scotland, and we won the leg really easily. And we also realized, “Wait, we’re having fun now too.” So it was the formula for relaxing and enjoying yourself.Kim: And I will say Penn struggled to find the clue that was a clue. But we made up time, and we still finished fifth that leg, which was our worst finish of the race. And we screwed up royally. We even messed up the cake stuff we really had. We had a terrible day. And we still passed other teams. That was the day I was like, “We may not suck at this after all!” As you mention, you come in first place in Scotland, then everything gets put on hold for 19 months. How tough was it to come back and get that momentum, especially leaving your family behind again?Penn: We knew the lead was gone. We knew we would start altogether.Kim: I was really mad because we won by a lot! (Laughs.)Penn: We did. We know you’re doing well when you’re barely in the episode. But we had lived together, and we had kind of existed together in this tiny space. And we knew that was going to bode well. Because we’ve grown, I think, as a couple, through counseling and writing this book that we did. But with the physical side of it, we thought we were in okay shape. And we got there, and Mike had turned into a professional bodybuilder.Kim: He was like three people.Penn: He was three Mo’s! And everybody else took the time to get in better shape. And we did what we could. But we have jobs and kids. And I was like, “Oh, damn, we’re gonna have to find another way to win this.” Because everyone was superhuman. That being said, you dominated, getting three first-place victories in a row. I know you tried to remain humble, constantly saying the final leg is all that matters. But how much of a confidence boost was it to see you were doing well?Penn: Well, we’re old. We’re not that old. We’re older than the other people. When we drove as children, we had to read maps. And a huge part of that restart was self-driving. I think that that helped us get closer to the top of the pack.Kim: But to your question, I would say even though we would win a leg, I struggled with being super confident about it. I would always say like, “Oh, well, it’s only because we chose this right task. It’s only because we’re good at navigating.” And I still struggle with claiming that we were good at something, but I’ll get there eventually. But it never felt watching it now. I’m like, “Oh, we were pretty good at that.” But living it, I was in a panic most of the time. I was scared. We were just in a panic the entire time.Penn: Every restart every morning, we just felt awful. (Laughs.) Just no confidence. As content creators and podcasters, you’re used to being in front of the camera and being open about yourselves. How much did that prepare you for reality TV and The Amazing Race?Kim: Keep in mind we shoot most of our videos on a cell phone. We do it in 30 minutes, and we post the next day. So when it comes to anxiety or ADHD, I’m really thrilled that CBS chose to keep those themes in that we talked about. Because I was in active panic a few times. It was really hard to watch, I have to say. I did not enjoy watching myself. Because I know myself and what was going through my mind on those particular days. But nothing really prepared us for this. Between the size of the cameras and there’s audio. The general scope of the production is so vast, and you don’t see that. We were not prepared for that at all.Penn:We’re used to being on camera. This is a different type of camera. Also, when we do something, and we don’t like how we look, we edit it out. We didn’t have that; the editors were in charge. And I agree with Kim; I love that they kept everything in. I mean, no one gives you this life unscarred. Everybody’s got something. And I don’t know that they’ve really spent as much time on CBS talking about mental health issues as they did this season. And it was great. We’ve gotten so many responses from people saying, “Thanks for showing the good side and the bad side.” I mean, I didn’t need the whole world to see that I could stare at something for 45 minutes and not compute that it’s the actual thing that it is. (Laughs.) But then they did let me explain the side of hyperfocus and how it can be used positively. So I love how they handled it. And Kim, you could argue that due to your anxiety and anticipation of what could come in the final leg, it caused you to be really meticulous about your notes and win you the race at the last minute.Kim: Well, I would say for my brand of anxiety, it’s very calming to write and to take notes. So even on a long drive, I was calculating, “If we have 250 kilometers to go, and driven 170…” I was tracking when we arrived at a challenge, how long it took us to do a challenge when other people arrived, how long it took them to do challenges, for no reason. But that is when I started. And it was like therapy to me. It was soothing to draw the pictures of things we saw. And to write down all the numbers of things we saw, was a special sort of calming force for me. Let’s talk about some stats. You have the fifth-highest racing average of all time, and the third-highest for a winning team after Rachel and Dave and Meghan and Cheyne from seasons 20 and 15, respectively. What’s your reaction to that?Penn: Oh, wow! If I knew that a clue was a clue, I bet we would have been even higher.Kim: And you know what we noticed, even pre-pandemic? We were like, “We’re mom and dad; they’re not even going to see us coming.” Even after we won three legs, everyone was saying that Ryan and Dusty were the ones to beat. Even Phil at the end of the rock task. He’s like, “You guys have had the best record.” I was like, “Excuse me?!” I don’t think even production realized that we were doing that.Penn: At the same time, I also want to add that I’ve read a lot of stuff online. How did nobody think Raquel and Cayla had this?! We were scared of them in that last leg. Maybe it’s just a bias of women on the race. But we were more afraid of them than Ryan and Dusty on that last leg. I’m just going to be honest. I mean, I would argue when it came to dominating, Ryan and Dusty owned the first third of the race, you owned the middle third, and Raquel and Cayla owned the last third.Kim: Dusty and I were talking about that last night. It was a very real weird thing that happened. If there had been one more leg, I think it would have been Raquel and Cayla. They were catching fire. Last night and even that day, my first reaction crossing the finish line was obviously joy and elation. It was a great life moment. But also I felt very bad. I was thinking of female/female teams winning this race. I always root for the female/female teams. And so coming to the finish line, we hug, we kiss, and I’m like, “Oh crap. If I’m a fan sitting on the couch, I would have wanted Raquel and Cayla to win. I’m so sorry.” And even last night, I’m like, “I’m so sorry.“Penn: It was tough to know them and love them. As much as I loved winning, it was really tough to see how it went down. You have the oldest average age of winning teams on The Amazing Race, edging out Chip and Kim from season 5. What’s your reaction to that?Penn: I mean, it’s hard to win this race, no matter what age you are. We trained so hard in so many ways that we can have the ability to say that that happened. We don’t feel old normally walking around the street. But there were a lot of young, intelligent, brave, courageous people in this race that could have very easily beaten us. So it means a lot to be able to set that record.Kim: And, honestly, I think at a certain age, whether it’s marketing or what you’re seeing, they’re trying to sell you on Instagram that when you’re a middle-aged mom, they kind of write you off. With the Instagram influencers in the fitness industry, everything that’s trying to be sold to you is trying to make you younger. And so, as a middle-aged mom, to do something that’s pretty hard and amazing, I hope it shows people that like we’re not done yet. We’re in our mid to late 40s. But we’re not done yet. There are still a lot of cool things we can do. Next, check out our interview with Lulu and Lala Gonzalez, who were eliminated in Leg 8.
