Tonight, the ninth season of “The Amazing Race” takes off from the mile-high city of Denver. Our obsession with the show is well-documented, so we wanted to catch up with one of the former contestants to learn about her experience on the race, get the dirt on the other racers that season, and solicit advice for future would-be contestants.

Hera McLeod was a contestant during the sixth season of the show. She ran the race with her father, Gus, overcoming a slow start to eventually place seventh. Controversy erupted several times that season — first, when contestant Jonathan Baker came under fire for his verbal attacks on his wife Victoria, and later when eventual victor Kendra Bentley questioned why poor families in Africa kept “breeding.” Gus and Hera provided not only one of the season’s most amusing scenes — with Gus trying to sneak sips of beer in a German beer hall — but also the season’s most powerful moment, when Gus and Hera were overcome by emotion while visiting the slave house in Senegal.

A graduate of George Washington University, Hera spent several years in Los Angeles, attending graduate school and working as a special education teacher with the Los Angeles Unified School District and has since returned to the D.C. area.