'The Amazing Race 35' Runners-Up Joel Strasser and Garrett Smith Break Down Their Last-Second Loss

Joel Strasser (L) and Garrett Smith (R)

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Joel Strasser and Garrett Smith were no stranger to hairy situations on The Amazing Race. That isn't just because of their unique facial hair, which served as everything from divining rods to points of interest for Pit Stop greeters. But, of the final three teams, the best friends had by far the rockiest road to get to the last leg. Every time it would seem like they'd catch momentum, they would struggle on a task or leave something behind, which sent them hurtling to the back of the pack. But through that adversity, they kept a mile-wide smile, grateful for the opportunity. And that optimism had them squeaking through time after time, results that astounded them a number of times.

But it wasn't all bad for Joel and Garrett. When given the chance, they would catapult themselves up to the front. They netted a few third-place finishes, a couple of second-place, and even a surprise first-place in Sweden. They were particularly proud of that one for beating the "Machines" Greg and John Franklin. And, in Seattle, for a while it looked like they would repeat the effort. Despite being the underdogs going in, Joel and Garrett were having a great day, surviving the "Scramble" and heading to the final challenge in first place. But, in a tale as old as time for them, it came undone. Mixing up two heights-based Roadblocks proved to be their undoing, leaving them up a creek as Greg and John passed them by.

The day after the finale, Joel and Garrett talk with Parade.com about how things broke down during the final challenge, how they went from being deployed together to racing around the world, and the impact their time on the show has had on their families.

Related: Everything to Know About The Amazing Race 35

So I know you guys were part of a celebration happening last night in honor of the finale. How bittersweet was it to be surrounded by so many fans and fellow racers, only to watch yourself lose out on a million dollars again?
Joel Strasser: It was crazy. There was so much energy. I was blown away by how many people showed up. At least one person from every team showed up, and a lot of people from previous seasons were there. So much energy.
Garrett Smith: There were only missing two people from our cast. Everyone else was there. And so it was an epic turnout for all of us. And I mean, like you said, the energy was just high. Anytime somebody completed a challenge, there was cheering for all the teams. And so when it came down to that final finish, even though we knew what we were about to feel, it was just still the excitement of the room. I mean, we were all about it. We're applauding just as much as anyone else. We loved every second of being at that event. We were happy we were able to make it.

Getting into the final leg, despite labeling yourselves the underdogs, you were crushing the challenges, and arrived at the final challenge in first place. As much as anything can happen on The Amazing Race, were you counting your chickens that you may win this whole thing?
Garrett: I don't think we're counting our chickens. I think, in previous legs, we might have leaned too much into the mentality of "we just can't be last." Even though from the beginning of the race, we said, "You know what? We're not going to have the 'Don't be last' mentality. We're gonna have the 'Let's be first' mentality." I still think in the back of our minds, anytime we had a setback, we would have that subconscious mindset of, "We just can't be last." But in this leg, I mean, that mindset doesn't work. It's all about being first. And so I felt like we were pushing harder. We were doing really well in the challenges. Throughout the race, we've worked really well together. In all the detour challenges, we've done really well together. So the fact that this Scramble was all challenges working together, that was our strong suit.
Joel: I mean, also, I lived near Seattle, about an hour from Seattle, for about five years. Recently! I only moved back to Idaho about a year and a half ago. We lived near Olympia, Washington for five years. But I avoided Seattle. I didn't like Seattle.
Garrett: I thought he was the right partner. But apparently I needed Chelsea or Robbin or something. Because they're from Seattle!
Joel: I went to Mariners games, and the airport, which isn't even in Seattle. And that was about it. And when I thought we were going, I go, "Why couldn't I have spent more time in the city?" But we actually got around pretty well. The navigation wasn't an issue, even though I hadn't been to any of those places before. But gosh, we thought we were going to win it. When we were getting through the glassblowing challenge faster than Greg and John, getting through the roadie setup challenge pretty relatively quickly. I was happy to see that we weren't the only team who couldn't find the hidden components. We did good at the trapeze.
Garrett: I thought we would spend forever on the trapeze. I mean, when I walked in, I was like, "Oh, shoot, this is gonna be tough." And I was surprised how quickly we were able to get through it. And so after those challenges, we got good directions to the Kenmore airfield. And our navigation was good. I mean we had quite the lead starting out that that final challenge, and we were feeling good

I do have to, unfortunately, talk about that finish you mention. Because it seemed to us like it was as simple as swapping two of those kayaks. And Greg and John told me there was a picture element to it too. So did it really just come down to that?
Joel: It was just that.
Garrett: That was the only thing we had wrong. Those two just needed to be flipped.
Joel: We got everything else perfect. The pictures, the locations. it was literally the two kayaks. And, to the keen ear, you will notice that he knew that they were messed up when we placed them. And then later, he brought it up again. And I was pretty confident, and I didn't even think about it. I was just like, "Well, yeah. Bird's eye view, on top of it all." They're very similar concepts, but they're not the same.
Garrett: But at the same time, I obviously was not confident in my questioning of it. Because if I honestly thought, "No, bird's eye view is the plane, I have no doubt," I would have pushed harder towards them. But I didn't know for sure. And so with his confidence, I'm leaning towards what he's saying, because I don't know either. It wasn't until it clicked in my mind. An airplane flies; a bird flies. It only makes sense that bird's eye view would be an airplane challenge. And that's when I was like, "That's gotta be it." And that's when we flipped them. And that solved the problem. Unfortunately, Greg and John had left five minutes earlier, maybe something like that. So they weren't that far ahead of us. And so we still thought, "We still have a chance. We don't know how long the drive is. We don't know how the directions are going to be." We got directions as quick as we can. And this is at midnight.
Joel: It was after midnight. And we know we made up some time because Greg and John left at least five minutes before us. And we got there about two minutes behind them. We stopped at the Jack in the Box to get some directions from the guys in the drive thru.
Garrett: It wasn't easy to find a car to get directions from. And so when we saw Jack in the Box we thought, "Oh, yeah, that's a good option."
Joel: If I wouldn't have had that Jumbo Jack from those guys...
Garrett: He was hungry!

That was a million-dollar burger! [Laughs.]
Garrett: [Laughs.] No. We didn't do that.

So let's go from the end of your race to the beginning. Joel, you mentioned in the premiere that you had been watching The Amazing Race since it was on the Armed Forces Network. When did you decide to make the leap from fan to racer, and did you always want to run it with Garrett?
Joel: The first time. I watched season eight. The family season was the first season I saw, and I fell in love. I know that's not the most popular season, but I loved it. And there was another guy in our platoon. Because Smith got hurt. And originally, me and another guy had talked about applying together. We wouldn't have done well together; we would have fought the whole time. We would have been on each other's throats the whole time. But then it became a dream. It wasn't real; it wasn't something that was actually going to be pursued. And Smith and I talked about casually for years.
Garrett: My wife and I love the show also. And my thought was, when he brought that up, I was thinking, "Why are you thinking about somebody else? You speak French. I speak Spanish. We can get along in a lot of countries throughout the world. Me and you need to do this together." And that's when we got serious about wanting to do it. But, again, that was 15 years ago or so. And so it was still a long time before we finally said, "You know what? Let's do this."
Joel: Just think how much better we could have done if we were younger and in better shape.

Of the final three teams, you were definitely the most up and down. But, no matter how many brushes you had with elimination, you guys always seemed to have a smile and gratitude for where you were. Was that something you planned to bring into the race, or did it come naturally?
Garrett: It's not necessarily what we came in with. But once you're in that moment, once we're standing at that Hollywood sign, Phil Keoghan is standing in front of us. We're looking at all these people that look like Amazing Racers. It's like we're inside the TV screen right now. And at that moment, we couldn't help but just be grateful for the fact that we were there, and just enjoy every moment that we had. I mean, that's all it could be. 
Joel: And a lot of our dynamic, it's not strategy. It's just us. We didn't calculate that this will lead to success. We just are who we are, and it works. And I've said it multiple times, and I think somebody has said the same thing. My wife and I are huge fans of the show. We've watched every episode of every season. We've known from day one we could not do the show together. We would be divorced inside of one leg if we did this show together. But this works for the stress and the teamwork and everything. This is a good combination for this.

I want to talk about that. Because you mentioned at the finish line how you never fought once in the race. And that is a rarity, especially this season where we saw a lot of team conflict. What do you chalk that up to?
Garrett: The only thing I can think of is just the love that we have for each other. We've both been through a lot of similar experiences in life. I mean, the military time. If somebody's been to basic training, you can connect with them on that. We both have daughters that spent time in the NICU and the PICU, for very similar situations where they had to be revived through CPR. And, though each of us have our own different experiences, they're very similar that we can connect through. That just really brought us together. On top of that, our wives are best friends. Our kids are best friends. I mean, just as a whole, we just love hanging out together. And so we have a hard time upsetting each other.
Joel: I think I could have tried. [Laughs.]
Garrett: We can, but we put on a good face.

So you have gone through deployment together, and are clearly very close. What's the biggest thing you learned about the other person racing around the world together?
Joel: So that's tough. Because there's so many. But the things that I suck at, the things that I that I fall short at, he's got that. For example, if I had to do a Roadblock by myself, and build something by myself, I think I would struggle, I think I would get caught up on weird little details. But when we do it together, somehow it works. And I don't know why it works. I don't know how. But whenever we're doing something together, it's going to work. We should start a business or something.

I know some guys with some seed money!
Garrett: [Laughs.] For me, when we were in the military together, we were basically equals. Neither one of us were in the leadership role. And so we kind of bonded with that. But then, in the race, I started to see the things that he does that really pulls me along. I'm a big time overthinker, I would stand there for half an hour, just thinking about it before I made the decision. He just knows how to get up and go. He's like, "Okay, you can think about it. But we also have to go." And so I just love how he's a go-getter. When there's something that needs to be done, he's like, "Let's go get it done." And so that's really a big help to me. Because I mean, I might still be standing around thinking about something while everyone else is already done with the race. And so the fact that he's like, "Okay, go ahead and think about it. But as you're thinking about it, we're gonna keep moving and move forward." It just works out great.
Joel: It balances. Because I'm too far one way, and he's too far the other way in those regards.
Garrett: It pulls us to the middle.

Anything else you guys want to mention?
Garrett: So I do have to say. I'm not in witness protection. I know you guys talked about the mustache at one point. And this mustache actually was a year long joke that Strasser put me up to. I was keeping it for a full year without trimming it. And it just so happened that, in the middle of growing this mustache, we applied for the race and got picked up.

So are you keeping it?
Garrett: I feel like I have to! It's my thing now.
Joel: You can't cut it off now.
Garrett: My wife's gonna hate it, but... [Laughs.]

What about you, Joel?
Joel: Really quick, I want to add something. It came up in the last couple episodes that one of the motivations for us was trying to get a specialized service dog for Smith's daughter. And the outpouring of support online and on social media has just blown us away. People have latched onto that and asked if they could participate. And Smith  felt awkward about it. So I said, "I will take care of this." And I created a fundraiser. It's out there. It's published and it's live. And people are already giving money. It's shocking that people are already giving money. There's so many good people in The Amazing Race family that want to do something. And this is something that something they can do to help Smith's family, and it means a lot to me.
Garrett: I can't even talk when I think about the outpouring of support that everyone is wanting to give. So I'll just stop before I start crying. [Laughs.]

Click here to access the fundraiser for the Smith family service dog.

Next, check out our interviews with The Amazing Race 35 winners Greg and John Franklin.