On 'The Amazing Race' - Meet the couple turning the training room into something more - Queerty

And they've begun! The 35th season of the global reality competition "The Amazing Race" on CBS kicked off last night. The show has remained a favorite among reality TV fans since its premiere in 2001, both because of its exciting journeys around the world and its emphasis on interpersonal dynamics.

Whatever the bond between teams of two - brothers, partners, best friends, coworkers, parent-child - you know they're going to start arguing as soon as they have to drive a manual transmission car in the middle of nowhere. Throughout the show's seasons, we've seen a lot of great LGBT+ couples to root for, most recently the recently engaged couple Joe Moskowitz and Ian Todd. From New York, Moskowitz, 35, and Todd, 40, have already won our heart. In the season premiere, we saw them quickly get off to a fast start, jumping ropes and navigating LA traffic, eventually making their way to Thailand, where they *spoiler alert* placed 9th and continue their fight the next day.

The first leg of the race was especially meaningful for the couple, as it was in Thailand where they got engaged last November! In an interview with Out, Todd revealed that he proposed by getting down on one knee when the couple visited the country as part of his 40th birthday celebrations, leaving his partner "shocked" - "I had no idea," Moskowitz adds. "I'm a big planner and I have midwestern values," says Ohio native Todd. - "I asked Joe's parents, made sure they were in agreement, talked to his family. I felt like I was doing the right thing. It was taking about 12 months before the trip." The weather was rainy and foggy on this day in Thailand, but the couple claims the moment couldn't have been better. They captured the magic in some adorable photos on their Instagram:

• Moskowitz is a business development executive at a commercial real estate company,
• and Todd is senior director of new business at a marketing technology startup.

According to one of them, their offices were next door to each other and they ended up in the same neighborhood gym during their lunch break. So yeah, they met at the gym. "I know it's questionable," Moskowitz joked. "After casting glances at each other for months, I worked up the courage to introduce myself to Joe," Todd says in a separate interview with EW.

Back in Thailand no matter what, "The Amazing Race" really comes full circle for the newlyweds, who both claim to have been big fans of the show even before they met, in fact, it was what brought them together in the early days of their relationship, especially during the self-imposed isolation at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. "About who would perform what tests, we weren't always on the same page," Moskowitz explains. "Even before we started the process of getting on 'The Amazing Race,' we talked about it. Who will do what, who will do better in this or that challenge. When we were watching the show, we were already starting to strategize what to do. "

And here they are, already running around the map as contestants on "The Amazing Race" Season 35. After all, there's no better way to test the strength of your relationship than traveling to a new country where neither of you speaks the local language. We're definitely looking forward to seeing where Moskowitz and Todd's path leads - both in life and on reality TV! Scroll down to see some more of our favorite photos from their Instagram pages. Subscribe to Queerty for a daily dose of life, engagement and couples stories.