THEY came, they raced, but didn?t quite conquer.

For three seasons, local viewers watched ?The Amazing Race Asia (TARA)? with sanguine anticipation. After all, most of the Filipino racers were young, fit and gung-ho, not to mention good-looking. But the final pit stop always proved to be the pits for our team.

So what went wrong? And what can we do right to get ahead of the pack? Looking back, what would the RP team have done differently?

Well, for starters, they?d still join ?TARA.?

?Joining ?Amazing Race? was my dream,? reveals Jeena Lopez, who considers herself and husband Ernie as an active and adventurous couple. The pair has tried bungee jumping, diving, tech diving, wreck diving, rock climbing, wake boarding and skydiving, among other sports, and joining the Race was the logical next step on their checklist.

Early favorites Marc Nelson and Rovilson Fernandez meanwhile suddenly found themselves single on the last week of the audition and decided the Race was just what they needed to climb out of the dumps. With the help of friends, they turned in what the show?s producers described as ?the best audition tape ever.?

Tisha Silang confesses that the reality show enticed her because ?it involved a lot of traveling, which I love.? Teammate Geoff Rodriguez had a different reason for joining. ?I wanted to beat Marc and Rovilson. Plus, have the adventure of a lifetime,? he says unabashedly.

Once accepted, the teams went into the thick of preparations, from practicing their physical skills, to watching the old episodes of ?The Amazing Race USA.? Marc even loaded the episodes in his iPod. ?We were watching the series right up to the time they took our things from us.?

They should also have practiced self-restraint, some of the teams rue. Says Tisha: ?Our weakness as a dating couple at the time was that we argued a lot more than the other teams. Time spent arguing might have been better spent on finding solutions quicker.?

Fortunately for Ernie and Jeena, the couple had agreed beforehand that they would not argue on-camera. ?We didn?t want to embarrass ourselves in front of everyone,? says Ernie. Being extremely competitive, the pair managed to put aside their differences and focus on the tasks at hand.

Still, not everything can be controlled, the racers realize now. ?The race is all about brains, brawn and luck,? says Ernie of their team being eliminated in the second episode because of an inept cab driver. ?You live and die by your taxi driver,? is a rule that the Marc-Rovilson partnership remembered well and used to their advantage.

Geoff and Tisha couldn?t help but agree, ?The one thing that cost us the race was not of our doing, says Tisha. ? We did everything that we could to get in first place in the final leg. Which included being first out of the airport, first to the clue box, and so on. Unfortunately, our cab driver had no idea where he was going and we couldn?t even flag down another driver, or ask for directions to the place we were looking for.?

There were lessons learned along the way. It was a lesson in humility, says Ernie of the Race, and on the need for mental preparedness, adds Jeena.

?Decision making is harder under pressure. You don?t have time to think,? says Geoff, who got a lot of flak from fellow contenders for his brusque manner. ?I learned that being ruthless and playing the game will not win you the race.?

Rovilson is as candid, recalling how he lost the race for his team when he failed to identify the flags of several Asian countries. His particular learning at that point? ?The history and geography lessons in the US are sub-par compared to the rest of the world,? says this TV host who studied in the United States.

Asked what they?d do differently given another chance to join the Race, Ernie laughs: ?I wouldn?t take the Fast Forward. And I wouldn?t have let go of the good cab driver.? Marc and Rovilson, on the other hand, say they?d have done things exactly the way they did, even the final damning task. Even before the race, the pair had agreed that they would alternate doing the road blocks, which was why the flag-identification task landed on Rovilson. ?If we had to do it again, we?d do the exact same thing,? says Rovilson. ?It ended the way it should have: the underdogs won.?

He adds, ?It wasn?t about the winning, but traveling together and doing well.? It was an attitude that the two guys held on, right to the disappointingly end. After the flag task, Rovilson remembers Marc telling him in the cab, ?It was an honor racing with you. Let?s hold our head high; we have nothing to be ashamed of.?

With ?TARA?s Season 4? about to premiere in a few days, local viewers can?t help but ask, ?Will we ever win this Race?? Previous contenders seem to have it all: strength, intelligence, teamwork, fitness, but they weren?t enough. Do we actually have a shot at the top prize?

Jeena wholeheartedly agrees. ?Maabilidad ang Pinoy [Filipinos are very resourceful]. We know how to make the rules work to our advantage. We know how to use our abilities.?

A little more preparation doesn?t hurt, says Rovilson who adds that teams have to be smart to win. ?Study old episodes and learn from the mistakes of the past teams.?

What other advice can they give the RP team?

?I don?t know that they?d want advice from me,? says Ernie with a laugh, but gamely adds: ?If you have a good cab driver, don?t let him go!?

Offers Tisha: ?Relish the moment. Have no regrets!?

Having a good attitude, Rovilson agrees, is key to enjoying and even winning the race. ?Money and winning are not the top goal. Make friends and keep the friends that you make.?

But really, are there strategies they can immediately apply? Rovilson says: ?Use the Internet!? And Marc adds: ?Pack light!?

Still, even the smallest backpack should have room for a bit of national pride. Take it from Marc who was carrying a Philippine flag the whole time. ?I was hoping that I could run to the final pit stop with it,? says this Australian citizen who is English-Burmese-Chinese by blood, but describes himself as ?the biggest wanna-be Pinoy.?

Hopefully, the thought of representing the country in this globally-watched series should be enough to give our racers wings on their feet. ?