Orlando native Ericka Dunlap and husband Brian Kleinschmidt say taking part in “The Amazing Race” was an overall good experience. They finished third, but they do have regrets.

“It’s a great opportunity to see the world, but looking back, there were times I wish I could have stayed home,” said Dunlap, a former Miss America. “It was the way I was edited. In my opinion, it wasn’t favorable and akin to who I am. It was a competitive situation. We were not in our normal state.”

Kleinschmidt acknowledges that his wife had “a couple of meltdowns,” which the show played up. She had trouble counting bells in a bell tower. On the Amsterdam leg of the contest, the couple also made a long, unnecessary walk in clogs when they failed to notice bikes to make a trip.

“Ericka had a lot of great moments they didn’t highlight,” Kleinschmidt said. “They made Ericka look bad in some situations, but she came across real. She wasn’t a typical Miss America. She was tenacious.” (Kleinschmidt and Dunlap are pictured in this CBS photo by Monty Brinton.)

The couple live in Nashville, where she is pursuing a music career. He hints that they may go into a business venture with Meghan Rickey and Cheyne Whitney, who won the race. Per CBS policy, the third-place finishers couldn’t discuss the money they earned.

Dunlap and Kleinschmidt started dating as students at the University of Central Florida. They learned they had the same agent when they were acting as children. (He lived in Casselberry for a long time.)

What did “The Amazing Race” do to their three-year marriage?

“You cram 20 years of marriage in that race,” Kleinschmidt says. “You’re not allowed to be more than 20 feet away from your partner through the contest. The cameraman has to be able to get you in the same shot. You’re always together. Just imagine being with a spouse for a month, not 20 feet apart. I’m glad we had the experience. We had some speed bumps, but the good thing about us, I believe we learned from the hiccups and we’re going to grow stronger.”

Dunlap says the show is “amazing and unreal and almost like a fantasy” but that viewers don’t realize how strenuous it can be to any relationship.

He lost 15 pounds in three weeks. Contestants don’t eat or sleep normally while taking part in daunting challenges.

“You’re susceptible to being very high strung,” Dunlap says. “You don’t act in normal ways. It’s a very intense, abnormal situation.”

Even so, she says the couple were very goal-oriented.

“We knew we were strong enough to make it to end,” Dunlap says. “We wanted to stay in it. After the second leg, it didn’t matter we weren’t coming in first. It was just staying in it.”

They tried to ignore most of the reviews and blogs about the show. Kleinschmidt earned mostly positive reviews for his friendly demeanor; Dunlap drew some harsh critiques for her complaining and those meltdowns.

“I could care less what people say about me,” Dunlap says. “They don’t know me. They have no idea what they would do. Eighty percent of the people who have something to say wouldn’t have been able to do half the things we did. We were toughing it out and making it. At the end of the day, it’s television. It’s not the end of the world. It’s not a qualifier about whether I’ll get into heaven.”