WC’s Braun the Amazing Race champion

EDMONTON – From coast-to-coast-to-coast, Woodlawn’s Jonathon Braun and his friend Jesse Harink battled physical tests, mental challenges and 10 pairs of contestants as rabid as they were, but in the end, are your season 11 Amazing Race Canada champions.

Over 10 episodes from July 8 to last Tuesday, night (Sept. 17) Braun and Harink visited some of Canada’s most beautiful and remote locations, racing 20 other contestants, with only their quick wits, fearless attitudes and physical conditioning which was enough to be crowned champions.

West Carleton Online spoke with Braun on July 4 when we broke the story of his entry in to one of Canada’s top television shows and reality contests.

Braun, 36, who is currently a lawyer in Vancouver, BC, grew up in Woodlawn; was one of Stonecrest Elementary School’s first graduates; and went on to high school at West Carleton Secondary School (WCSS) before heading to Ottawa for undergraduate school. Then he left for the left coast for law school before beginning his career, currently working as a lawyer at a non-profit firm.

At the time of that first interview, Braun knew a lot of secrets about this season of Amazing Race Canada he was not allowed to share at the time. He promised West Carleton Online at that time we would catch up following his team’s exit from the show whenever that might be.

It turned out his and Harink’s exit would be on the last episode of the season, with the title ‘champions’ attached to it.

“Wednesday was a bit chaotic, but fun,” Braun told West Carleton Online today (Sept. 19) while attending a friend’s wedding in Edmonton and after a whole bunch of media interviews. “Amazing Race films over about a month. A very whirlwind month, very fast paced and then it’s over and back to real life.”

Although that real life now comes with the mantle of Amazing Race champion and the recognition that comes with winning Canada’s most popular reality show.

It’s been amazing having the support of the Ottawa community, the Vancouver community, the Edmonton community (where his competition partner is from) that’s been really special,” Braun said. “It’s fun to have people you grew up with cheer you on and even random strangers who have reached out. It’s been a very special part of the experience.”

Braun told West Carleton Online in July, appearing on Amazing Race was a lifelong dream of his. But even then, he never dreamed of winning it.

“My dream was always to just get on the show, I could never have imagined doing so well,” he said. “I though we would be a strong team, but strong teams can go home early. It definitely lived up to expectations and exceeded them. Just to be able to be a part of the entire map was a dream.”

The contestants took on challenges in Langley and Prince George, BC; Inuvik, NWT, which included a visit to the Arctic Ocean; Gander and St. John’s, NFLD; and many other points in between, starting in Edmonton, AB, and finishing in Gananoque and Collingwood, ON, which provided a hometown surprise for Braun.

“I’ve never been to the Northwest Territories before, Newfoundland, even Gananoque, so close to Ottawa, but I’ve never really been,” Braun said of the new adventures the show provided. “Just to see these places I haven’t really explored before was special. And the people in these communities were so welcoming. It was so special.”

Gander was especially memorable, a place that was so significant during 9/11 where travellers were rerouted following the terrorist attack in New York, NY, and warmly welcomed by the community there.

 “To witness that hospitality was really special,” Braun said. “It just showed off the beauty of these communities so well.”

One of the last places in the race was in Collingwood, ON, and there was a hometown surprise for him there. The show was filming at Karen Ferri’s Apple Orchard. The Ferris used to be Woodlawn residents before moving to Collingwood to buy and operate the orchard.

“I though that was a cool little tidbit,” Braun said. “A friend mentioned it to me. I had no idea.”

But there was a competition to win as well and the pair stuck to their mantra.

“Focus on the fun and the wins will come,” Braun said. “We were here to have a good time, and we thought if we have a good time, we’ll have a chance. We never took it for granted we could win, but we knew we had what it took to win. But it really took a strong day on that final day to beat out that second place team (Prince George siblings Grace Dove and Joe Syme).”

Braun said the biggest challenge they faced was the Granny Square challenge – a memory and teamwork task where teams had to place a crocheted granny square in the correct position with a larger backdrop of squares inspired by the local Newfoundland production Come From Away, based on that previously mentioned 9/11 experience.

“It really pushed us to our limits,” he said. “We were there for a long, long time. A lot of teams caught up to us and a few teams passed us. We came in third that leg. But we reminded ourselves that it was about fun. We both really loved Come From Away, and it was a bonding experience for us when we saw it. That background didn’t help us at all, but our knowledge was why we chose that challenge.”

It is easy to see how a high-stress competition like Amazing Race could easily ruin a relationship, but Braun says that was definitely not the case he and Harink.

“Jesse was such an incredible teammate throughout,” Braun said. “We focused on not blaming each other when things went wrong and instead supported each other throughout. We already had a super strong relationship beforehand, but this has brought us even closer together.”

While you’re in competition with 10 other teams, you are also spending a lot of time with those 20 other people, and something you don’t really get to see on the show is the bonding that takes place.

“There’s definitely time at challenges and travelling together,” Braun said of opportunities to meet the other contestants. “I really enjoyed getting to know their stories and formed some strong friendships because of it. During the race, it’s a bit of a different mentality and we were targets because we started off so strong. We didn’t hold that against them; we would have done it too. But it’s a unique shared experience.”

Braun came back to the Ottawa Valley for the season premier of Amazing Race Canada and said that was an interesting dynamic watching friends and family watch the show while knowing a whole bunch of stuff they didn’t.

“It was fun,” he said. “It’s a real joy to be able to see people’s genuine reaction. Even when we weren’t doing so well and to see the stress they felt on our behalf. It was special. If I had told them what happened, it would have ruined it for them. It was tough to keep the secret, but also fun to keep the secret.”

Now that the lifelong dream of competing on Amazing Race is a box checked, Braun says it has inspired him to work on other lifelong goals.

“Take a moment to breathe and soak it all in,” he said of immediate plans. “We’re have a celebration party in Vancouver next week just to thank everyone. Try to get back to normal life but have fun with it. This was a goal for a very long time. So, now I need another silly little dream. I’ve been thinking of a children’s book for a long time. This gives me the courage to pursue those dreams no matter how silly they may seem. It’s something I wrote a really long time ago. The goal was to have something to give as a gift to friends and family. I just kept sitting on it and didn’t make it happen. I think Amazing Race taught me that you have to make a dream happen, it’s not just going to happen. So, I’ve used a bit of the money I won to hire an illustrator. It’s about Canada and travelling around Canada so it’s very fitting.”

But in the immediate future, Braun is enjoying a wedding in Edmonton, where this year’s Amazing Race kicked off more than two months ago.

“I’ve done a lot of celebrating me this week, so it will be fun to celebrate her,” he said of his friend’s wedding.