'Amazing Race Canada' stars Gracie Lowes, Lily Bateman show girls 'you deserve positive friendship'

Two of the funnest racers on The Amazing Race Canada Season 9 had to say goodbye to the competition after a shocking twist.

Friends Gracie Lowes and Lily Bateman had been particularly successful in the race, until a missed turn put them at the back of the pack as the competitors raced through British Columbia.

"It really was one of those kind of perfect storms," Lowes told Yahoo Canada. "It was just one punch to the gut after another."

"But I will say, the whole time we were having fun. Even when we kind of knew we were about to go home, we were laughing and giggling, and it was just such a positive experience."

The destiny for Lowes and Bateman was really sealed when they saw their pictures were up on the Pass Board, which meant that they had to wait until the team behind them arrived to move forward.

"That Pass Board, I really think it sealed everything because we were used to having times at the back of the pack and then climbing the ladder," Bateman said. "So I really don't think we were worried at all in our place ... until it came down to a luck challenge."

"Once we saw that one of the Detour options was a luck challenge, we kind of knew at [that] point it was out of our hands," Lowes added. "We just had to try our best, but know that there was just going to be some things that we couldn't control."

'Demonstrate to young women that you deserve positive friendship'

One thing that particularly stands out when it comes to how Lowes and Bateman played the game is how close and joyful their friendship was throughout the whole process.

"I think that our friendship was our greatest asset," Bateman stressed. "We have credentials but at the end of the day, the communication between us and just the respect we have for each other is really what helped us thrive in the challenges."

"The challenges that we actually did weren't necessarily our wheelhouse challenges on the race, we were kind of waiting for a math challenge, or something to do with more puzzles, or logic," Lowes added.

"So the reason I think that we got to win a leg and the reason we were getting on the podium so much, before we got eliminated, was just because we had such strong communication, and such strong trust and support."

Both Lowes and Bateman have since received a huge amount of support from their friends, families and other Canadians who loved watching them in the race.

"We've never been on television in this way before, so you do kind of have some nervousness like, 'oh my gosh, what if I didn't look good? Or what if I said something and I didn't like how it sounds?'" Lowes said.

"But generally we've been so fortunate, I feel, to be received pretty well by people and to feel so much overwhelming support from our friends and our family in our community, and people in general."

"It's moving, honestly, to see some of the things people say to you, and support you from different parts of your life too, because we both lived in so many different places and so many different communities," Bateman added. "So to see them pull up and say a few nice things, it means a lot."

Lowes also highlighted that they received a note from a young girl, who sent them a message about how much she loved seeing their friendship on screen.

"That was really meaningful to me, to be honest probably one of the more meaningful interactions I've had since the race," Lowes said.

"I feel like one thing we can do is just demonstrate to young women that you deserve positive friendship. You shouldn't have anything less than that. You deserve women that uplift you and those women are around you. So it really is so nice to see that people got to see that represented on television, because I do think that's underrepresented for sure."