Regina’s Lavoie sisters finish third on Amazing Race Canada

Joanne and Lauren Lavoie earned a third-place finish and a gift card during the Amazing Race Canada.

In reality, though, the Regina sisters got something bigger out of their appearance on the TV show.

“The opportunity to be able to travel the country with such amazing Canadians, that’s a prize in itself,” Joanne said Wednesday during an appearance on The Greg Morgan Morning Show.

The sisters — the first Saskatchewan residents to ever appear on the show — were in the final three with couples from Alberta and Ontario.

The Lavoies’ chances took a hit when Lauren lost a clue at the Toronto airport.

“It was quite stressful losing it right off the bat,” Joanne said. “Missing a clue, that’s the one thing you don’t want to do. But I couldn’t be mad at Lauren because there was so much high stress and it was absolutely crazy. The finale is on the line.

“We were no strangers to being at the back of the pack (throughout the show), so it was just another thing for us to get out of the way and just keep pushing forward.”

Lauren admitted it was “definitely tough” knowing for weeks since the final episode was taped that she had lost a clue — and that it had been a key in the finale.

“In the long run, losing the clue didn’t actually set us back too much,” she said. “We arrived at the game in time to make up ground with the other teams. It was just exhaustion and frustration and being tired and all of that playing into it. Then trying to focus, it was tough.”

The Lavoies have been in Regina for most of the weeks that the show was on the air, but they were in Toronto on Tuesday when the finale was on the air.

“We didn’t have many family or friends,” Lauren said. “We got to meet up with a bunch of the racers, but we actually watched the episode itself with the entire CTV team — some of the camera crew, the editors (and) our producers — so that was really nice because that was kind of some of our race family.”