When season 39 of “The Amazing Race” premieres on Sept. 30, Tinley Park dietitian Jaime Tribo said she wants to watch it with her mother, her two children and her husband.
“I was there, I know what I experienced. Do I need to watch it? No. Will I? Yes,” Tribo said. “But I find that I’ll probably be watching the expressions of my loved ones more than I’ll be watching the show.”
Tribo and her older brother, Cody Langlois, participated in the competition show as one of 13 pairs of contestants charged with completing a fast-paced, round-the-world scavenger hunt race for a million-dollar prize.
“You rip an envelope open, sometimes it’s 2 or 3 a.m., you decide where you’re going,” Tribo said. “You’re trying to get any sleep that you can on the flight because you’re knowing that as soon as you get off that plane you’re going to rush to do whatever challenge.”
Tribo has traveled extensively within the United States, she said, but prior to participating in the show, her international travel experience was limited to one visit to Canada, where the show’s next season begins.
“I’m kind of like a South Side mutt, when it comes down to it,” Tribo said. “I was born in Chicago Ridge, then I went to Plainfield. My parents were separated, my dad lived in Oak Lawn and now I live in Tinley Park.”
It would have been easy for her to say she was from the much more well-known Chicago, Tribo said, but she wanted to put her home community in the spotlight.
“I am very proud to say that I’m from Chicago, but it is really rare that towns like Tinley Park kind of get a shout out,” Tribo said.
She hopes that her appearance on the new season will be a way to bring the community together.
“I want to do some watch parties that encourage the town to come out and to celebrate, maybe at Harmony Square, Bourbon Street,” Tribo said.
“The Amazing Race” is her mother’s favorite show, Tribo said, and a large part of her motivation in participating was for her.
“Growing up, my mom was always watching it. She rewatches it,” Tribo said. “When we got on ‘The Amazing Race,’ she was like, ‘Wait a minute, do you think you’ll get to meet so-and-so from previous seasons?’ So that’s how much of a fan she is.”
Since the show’s casting and production was secret, Tribo had to come up for excuses for why she was learning to drive a stick shift or getting tested for diseases ahead of traveling internationally, she said.
“You can’t just drop off the face of the earth for so long without people being like, ‘But why are you leaving?'” she said. “You have to get creative with it.”
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Though there’s a lot she’s still not allowed to say, she said it’s been a huge relief to have her casting on the show finally be public.
“Oh my gosh, my guilt has been so free,” Tribo said. “All of the people, like, whether I was getting my international driver’s license, my instructor for the manual, I have sent them all text messages and emails confessing my sins.”
The first part of the season’s two-part premiere will air on Sept. 30 on CBS.