As teams raced around Namibia, Chloe Logarzo and Emily Gielnik were once again in first place. On the way to their next challenge, Emily realised she had left her bumbag at the previous bag drop.

As per the rules of the race, team members must check in at the pit stop with all their gear, including their bumbags, meaning the pair had no choice but to turn around, go back and retrieve it, costing them a lot of time and their lead in the race.

“Obviously it was a lapse in concentration,” Emily told 10 Play, “we feel like we nailed the first thing and then you race out of there, and the chaos kicks in and you realise you screwed up big time.

“The hardest thing was driving back and seeing everyone else driving past us, knowing we had just gone from first to last in an instant,” she continued. “There’s something cool about that moment as well because I had no doubt in my mind that we’d catch up,” Emily added. “We really did make up some ground after something that could have really crippled us. We didn’t let it cripple us.”

“That’s probably the most heartbreaking thing that Em and I won’t get over,” Chloe said, “We did so well to get ourselves back in a position, racing all the way until the last second and seeing cars pulling in at the same time.

“You might be doing everything you possibly can to get yourself back in a position to be successful but it’s just not your day,” Chloe continued.

Clawing their way back and smashing through the remaining challenges, Chloe and Emily arrived at the pit stop just as the last team had checked in. Having fought so hard to stay in the race, the pair were gutted to hear Beau tell them they had been eliminated.

“It didn’t feel real,” Chloe said. “I just wanted him to be like, ‘Just joking, here’s a virtual pit stop’. We didn’t envision ourselves being on the mat and being told that, so for it to happen was quite heavy-hitting. We thought we were going to be able to do this. We truly believed in ourselves.”

“I fully believed, after the amount of time that we had been racing, that Chloe and I could win this thing, so it was honestly pure heartbreak,” Emily agreed.

“You can’t help but feel like a failure even though other people might not see it that way,” she continued. “Not only for us as competitors but also for the charity… it’s a really difficult thing to deal with as an athlete because we hate losing.”

Being on the race together, the besties and teammates also got to experience something outside of their comfort zone; being themselves.

“For years we’ve been categorised as footballers and never had personalities outside what our job is,” Chloe explained. “This experience – just being Emily and Chloe instead of ‘the Tillies’ - we thought this is truly just us as individual people.

“That was so liberating and powerful to be on our own journey as friends and as individuals. That’s also what was so devastating… it was this incredible adventure that was over, and now we go back to an incredible reality.

“I love being a professional athlete, but we had never been able to step out of that realm before and that little slice of heaven was beautiful.”

Chloe and Emily also found the unpredictability of the race an exciting shake-up to their usual routine of training and preparing for football games.

“You’re blindsided at every single road block, every challenge, and every time you get back in the car,” Emily said. “Everything that you face is a constant unknown! There’s adrenaline in that but there’s also an insecurity of no physical or mental way of preparing for what’s next.

“That’s fearful yet exciting and I think we were really drawn to that!”

“We are extremely competitive and we did come into this race wanting to be two females to win The Amazing Race for the first time,” Chloe added. “But the beautiful thing is, along the way we got distracted... and we got humbled a lot in South Africa.

“For a split second, we didn’t care about what was happening in the race and enjoyed the beautiful moments we had.”

Chloe and Emily were competing on behalf of The National Breast Cancer Foundation, an organisation that offers help and support to those affected by breast cancer, and a cause close to Chloe’s heart.

“I have had two incredible women in my life who have both overcome breast cancer,” she explained. “If we think about the journey we’ve had in our football career, the statistics are that one or two out of every single locker room will have breast cancer or go through that experience.

“We wanted to spread the message of not having any shame around getting checked, being really strong and supporting women in our lives,” she continued. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to get that foundation out there and speak about it more.”

“Although we didn’t win for our charity, I think the overall message and goal was so that more awareness is raised,” Emily added. “As sad as it was to not win that money for the charity, we hope we’ve done justice by at least raising more awareness.”

You can find out more about the National Breast Cancer Foundation as well as all the charities our celebs are competing for here.

The Amazing Race Australia: Celebrity Edition continues on Sundays at 7 and Mondays at 7.30 on 10 and 10 Play