'The Amazing Race 34's' Glenda and Lumumba Roberts Talk Their Car Accident and Give a "Boom Boom" Update

The newlyweds also get into everything they learned about each other during their highs and lows in the race.

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Glenda and Lumumba Roberts are firsthand proof how important momentum is in The Amazing Race. It's only appropriate that the newlyweds had both high and low moments in the race, given their height discrepancy. In some legs, their synergy and efficiency got them in the top of the pack. In others, crucial mistakes put them behind with no chance to catch up. And it was a mechanical amount of momentum that sent their car crashing into a ditch in the countryside of France, ending their race for good.

Glenda and Lumumba started the race with enthusiasm, ready to take home the million dollars for their future child affectionately nicknamed "Boom Boom." And things were looking good for Boom Boom as they started the race, with two second-place finishes in a row. But the start of the : in Italy had the cracks beginning to show like a shoddy plaster sculpture, as a crucial mistake in misreading the clue combined with a rare argument between the two put them in last place. But when the going got tough, the two maintained a stiff upper lip, making sure to continue having fun and being positive in the hopes that their race would not end that day. And indeed it didn't, as they were able to catch up massively and survive elimination.

Unfortunately for Glenda and Lumumba, that was far from their final flirt with last place. After another finish in the back of the pack, the slate was wiped clean in Jordan, and they saw it as a second chance to surge ahead once more. What they didn't account for was quite literally tripping up during a dance challenge. Though they weren't eliminated, they started their next leg in France behind all of the other teams. And again, they were not able to repeat their success of catching up, as an attempt to get out of a country road sent their car into a ditch. But the situation appropriately mimicked their attitude through six legs. Even in the biggest holes, you can always pull yourself out and keep driving forward.

Now out of the race, Glenda and Lumumba talk with Parade.com about the experience of their final leg (and the car accident), how much they learned about each other on the race, and an update on their future son "Boom Boom."

Related: Everything to Know About The Amazing Race 34

Coming into this episode, you knew you were 45 minutes behind the first group of teams. And it's obvious that your car accident put you further behind. I'm curious, did you end up seeing any other teams at all during your time in France?
Glenda Roberts: No. (Laughs.)
Lumumba Roberts: We didn't. But let me tell you this. We were never afraid of that 45 minute deficit, never. As a matter of fact, the previous leg, when we were in Jordan, when we went to the cart challenge, we got there last, far behind everybody else. And we knew there was not going to be an elimination because of Abby and Will's unfortunate circumstances with COVID. I had already done three Roadblocks, and I only had two Roadblocks left for the entire Amazing Race. And so even though cart building is literally a strength. I know sounds weird to say, but I can build cars. So to preserve that leg, I begged my wife. So she ended up doing it, even though she's never picked up a hammer before. So we just took the L in order to recoup that one Roadblock.

So now let's get behind the wheel. Talk me through the experience of your car ending up in a ditch on that country road, and what was going through your heads as everything went down.
Lumumba: So I had led us a mile and a half down a person's driveway. So this was actually a farm. And the road was the same size as every other road that we had driven down. And I thought that it was a shortcut. It was not. We saw mailboxes, and we saw people standing in the driveway. So it narrowed as we went closer. So I said, "We're gonna have to stop and turn around. What we didn't know was that all that brush to the left side of us was actually a ditch. It wasn't a ditch, it was a hill. It was probably about a 15-degree decline. But it was for about 100 meters. So we ended up turning around at that point. And that's when the sparks started flying, trying to back up out of the person's driveway. Because they literally were walking like, "What are you doing in our driveway?"
Glenda: They're speaking French. We don't know French, and we ended up in the ditch. Thankfully, no one got hurt. We were able to get out. We didn't damage the car. And the grandma came really quickly with her tractor. (Laughs.)
Lumumba: Tractor Granny!
Glenda: There's no AAA here in America that could compete with grandma. But at that point, we weren't sure if we were going to be racing. We thought was going to take hours, or we're going to say, "You know what, forget it. We're done." So the fact that we were able to continue to race was huge for us.
Lumumba: It took about it took 25 to 35 minutes, that entire ordeal. And we were already behind 45 minutes.

But you never know what's happening! David and Aubrey seemed to be getting so lost.
Glenda: And we didn't know that they had had direction trouble. The first group people end up being in the back. Then people like the brothers end up being in the front. So you just never know. We went in knowing that you're not going home until Phil says that you're going home. Which is what we were thinking even after the ditch situation. We were like, "Somebody could be in another country."

(Laughs.) It's happened before! So you started the season off strong with two second-place finishes. What was your reaction to that?
Glenda: Well, for me it was so nerve-racking. First of all coming in The Amazing Race is nerve-racking as it is. Now you have a Scramble. What is the Scramble? This is not what we studied! We watched almost every single season. This is not in the book! (Laughs.) And no non-eliminations. So that on top of the anxiety being high.
Lumumba: We're racing for a million dollars! For me, on the first day, I didn't trust anybody. Not just because we're competitors, but because there was the type of money on the line that can cause people to do crazy things. So the anxiety was really high. I'm sitting here like, "Not only do I have to run this race correctly, but I gotta make sure nobody does anything stupid to my wife!" (Laughs.)
Glenda: So we went in saying, "Okay, we're gonna do our best," and it worked out for us. I'm the karaoke queen, I think. So yodeling kind of played to my strengths. (Laughs.) I felt like I needed that confidence because this was totally out of my element. Being on The Amazing Race was me supporting my husband's dream. So I think I just was so nervous that it made me feel, "Know that you're a strong team. Don't come in here feeling like you're the old woman. 40-something years old competing with these younger people.

I mean the Holdernesses won last season and they were the oldest team!
Lumumba: They were. They were our inspiration!

So from what we saw, you two seemed to get along really well on the race. The exception, though, came when you got in an argument at the beginning of the Megaleg in Italy. How much conflict did you get into over the race?
Lumumba: So you have to understand, we're newlyweds. And we're literally learning each other on film. So that's us learning each other. I didn't know some of my wife's strengths. I didn't know some of her weaknesses. I didn't know how she handles stress or pressure situations. And she didn't know those things for me. I didn't know how she would communicate those things. So because she says one thing, it doesn't necessarily mean what I think it does.

The thing is that we have love and respect for each other. And I think that's the difference. I can respect the fact that she has a different opinion. And she can respect that with me. We're very strong, opinionated people. But we respect each other. And so we had tension here, tension there, just like every other couple, and some things behind the scenes. But even when we got in an argument during the Megaleg, we were like, "Let's pause for five minutes. We're gonna stop."
Glenda: We stopped racing. And people think there's one team that stopped racing. We actually started to! They just didn't show it on the show. So the Megaleg was just a series of just bad mistakes. Not reading the clue ,getting lost, trying to find the first Detour, not doing well on the Detour. So the difference between the first two legs and the Megaleg was just a series of mistakes that were compounding. And we know that we're here for our family, our son who's not here yet. It was so important. It was such a sacrifice and such high stakes. Knowing we're a strong team and being behind, you saw us just trying to fight to stay. But it was just a series of mistakes that put us in a bad situation.
Lumumba: Because we started so high the first two legs, that was our first time being low. And a lot of that was being frantic in trying to make sure that we're not last, because we hadn't been in that situation.
Glenda: Maybe we should have started from the back. We would have been more comfortable.

I know with some teams, getting so close to elimination is a big learning experience. And I'm sure you had a good debrief after the Megaleg to break down what not to do.
Lumumba: We definitely had that conversation. We debrief after every leg thoroughly. We talked about the pros and the cons. We had our own little acronyms for how we how we're gonna proceed. Like PATD! It was "Pay Attention to Details," which we didn't work on. (Laughs.)

It's no C.A.R., but I love it. Something I noticed last leg was, when you were struggling in the dancing challenge, you were laughing by the end of it. Even when you were in the back these last few legs, did you have this mentality of trying to be positive and take it all in?
Glenda: Now, that wasn't the case. For me, I was trying to win. (Laughs.)
Lumumba: We're competitive individually. And the thing is, there's only one thing that you can do to improve your standings in The Amazing Race, and that's to continue. So everything else is going to take away from your odds of winning. We were very competitive when it came to the dancing. It's just some things are determined even by the instructor that you choose.

The instructor that we chose kept telling us we were doing the right thing over and over and over and over. It wasn't until the actual judge stepped in and said, "Listen, you guys are hopping." But by then it was our sixth time going through. And so that's when we figured out that's what she was looking for. So then the instructor was able to show us how to stop happening. It was just the luck of the draw on that one. But we always stayed intense up until the end.

So I have to ask about "Boom Boom." I know you wanted to get the million dollars to help build your family. If you don't mind me prying, has the timeline for that changed at all since racing?
Glenda: The timeline has not moved. We are chronicling the timeline on our website, RobertsFamily365.com and on our YouTube RobertsFamily365. Because there are a couple of us probably who are having a challenge on the fertility journey. It's been really tough for us. Us even going on The Amazing Race being 40-something-year-old newlyweds, having found our soulmates, we wanted to encourage people on that side. But also our baby journey, being 40-somethings and wanting to have a baby, and trying for a baby is not easy. So we wanted to chronicle that so that we can be an encouragement to those folks as well. 
Lumumba: Yeah, we are moving full steam ahead. And we're excited about Boom Boom whenever he arrives. And to be able to continue to let people know, just continue to maintain your faith. Figure out what it is that you desire, and great things are gonna come. Because even as talking about Boom Boom was our step of faith, because he's not here like physically yet. But just having that memorialized. So when we do show him and he is here, he could see mom and dad had faith in God that he would be here.

Lastly, you've talked about using the race to get to know each other, having only known each other for two and a half years. What's the biggest thing you learned about your spouse on the race?
Glenda: I learned that I don't have to always be in control. I can relax and enjoy. You were talking about enjoying the moment. Unfortunately, Mike, I didn't enjoy the moment until the last leg. So you saw a more relaxed Glenda after having an auto accidentand being behind. I was like, "I'm in France with my soulmate, the love of my life." So I think I learned to trust my husband, that I don't have to feel this pressure to be perfect or 100% or on point every time. I do my best, and maybe it doesn't go according to plan. But I'm still winning,  because I'm experiencing this amazing life changing thing that most people would love to do. And, I just want to enjoy anything moving forward. I'm gonna take that moment to enjoy it. I'm not gonna let that moment pass me by because I'm trying to be 100% perfect.
Lumumba: Well, for me, I realized that she's here to bring out the best in me. And I didn't know how that was going to happen. Until I stopped holding so tightly onto the way that I was used to doing things and just opened up. I'm very methodical. I'm very calculated. Everything had to be a certain type of way before I moved. That way, we wouldn't make as many mistakes traveling. And I knew once we got to the Roadblocks and Detours, we'd be fine. But I have overanalysis of what caused me to make so many mistakes. And my wife is more like, "Trust your instinct." So she's been showing me how to trust my instinct. And every time I listened to her, she was like, "Just make a choice, and let's just go." Every time we did that it worked. And I'm still trying to figure out this magic. What is this? Because I didn't know that it could work like that! But she's so confident in me. She's like, "Lumumba, trust yourself. I trust you, and let's go with it." And so it's been revelatory.

Next, read our interview with Abby Garrett and Will Freeman, who were eliminated in The Amazing Race 34 Episode 6.