Amazing Race Tidbits
CBS' The Amazing Race 14th Edition
Teams had to fly from Bucharest, Romania's Henri Coanda International Airport to Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. There are a multitude of flights into Moscow, but only an 8:55PM and a later flight from Moscow to Krasnoyarsk. Three teams picked the correct flights into Moscow: Christie and Jodi, Kisha and Jen, and Mark and Michael. Two teams, Kisha and Jen, and Mark and Michael took a flight through Sofia Bulgaria, while the flight attendants took the Istanbul connection to Moscow. The other five teams, using connecting flights in Germany, had to settle for the later flight into Krasnoyarsk. The key was using flights into Moscow with the longest possible times for the connection.
Krasnoyarsk Hydro-electric Dam is pictured on the ten-ruble note. The first three teams found the entrance closed until 8:30 AM. This made for another equalizer, aiding the trailing five teams. Once inside, they got a clue directing them to the church of Saint Innokenty.
Stack From the website: Teams traveled to a nearby riverbank where they had to use a traditional method to stack a pile of firewood.
The log stacking was stacked against any team trying it. In Phil's Diary for Episode 4, the ground was frozen. Also, some teams placed their pile too close to the other stack, causing it to collapse if their stack came undone. It was so hard that three teams switched to the other side of the Detour. Also, it was a definite advantage to be tall, while shorter Racers had a hard time reaching the top of the pile to place the final pieces. That was painfully evident with Margie and Amanda.
Construct From the website: Teams traveled on foot to a work shed where would find materials to build a set of traditional wood shutters. After correctly assembling the shutters, they had to take them to a nearby house marked with a �Repairs Needed� sign and properly install them.
The trick was finding the one house marked for repairs, tucked around a corner, possibly at the end of the long street. The three teams doing this side of the Detour fell to the bottom three places.
At the end of the Detour, teams were instructed to travel to the Museum of the Novel �The Last Bow�, where they found the station for the blind U-Turn. Wanting to give friends Jaime and Cara more time, Margie and Luke anonymously U-turned Amanda and Kris, forcing them to do both sides of Detour.
Episode Four Detour |
||
|---|---|---|
Members |
Option |
Notes |
| Amanda and Kris | First, Stack, then Construct, and then Stack again after being U-Turned | They did OK until their stack collapsed, causing them to give up and go with Mel and Mike to Construct. Then the U-Turn forced them to go back and complete Stack. |
| Cara and Jaime | Stack | They survived the partial collapse of the left side of their woodpile. They rebuilt it with not too much lost time. |
| Christie and Jodi | Stack | Did very well with it. |
| LaKisha and Jennifer | Stack | Did well with it. |
| Margie and Luke | Stack | Did OK with it, although they worked slowly. |
| Mark and Michael | Stack, then Construct | They switched quickly when their woodpile partially collapsed, but they wasted a whole lot of time searching the longest street in the village for the house without finding it before starting in the shop. This foul-up allowed all the later teams to catch up with them. |
| Mel and Mike | Stack, then Construct | They worked quickly on their woodpile, only to see the worst collapse of any team, almost all of their pile. Mel had the right strategy to find the house. He spotted it for all three teams doing the repairs. Doing this service positioned Mel and Mike to finish first among the bottom three. |
| Tammy and Victor | Stack | They wisely worked at their own pace, avoiding the all too common collapse. |
At the station for the blind U-Turn at the Museum of the Novel �The Last Bow�, teams were instructed to travel to a local amusement park Bobrovy Log Park
Teaser: Who's ready to speed-read
From the website: One team member had to ride up to speeds of 55 miles per hour while completing a three-mile bobsled course in less than four minutes. They also had to look for seven letters posted on the course along the way. Once finished, they had to unscramble the letters to correctly spell the name of a famous Russian playwright, Chekhov.
Episode Four Roadblock |
||
|---|---|---|
Team |
Member |
Result |
| Amanda and Kris | Kris | Not too bad, even though he struggled just a bit on getting the name. |
| Cara and Jaime | Jaime | OK |
| Christie and Jodi | Christie | Only needed one run to get the letters. Christie was a bit stumped trying to unscramble the name. |
| LaKisha and Jennifer | LaKisha | It took a second run, as she missed the "V" the first time. |
| Margie and Luke | Luke | He had such a hard time figuring out the name, looking as if he was about to lose it. Margie kept encouraging him to not give up. Margie explained that for him, English was a second language, so literature was very hard. He lost a lot of time |
| Mark and Michael | Michael | He made the fastest run, only to have missed a letter and had to take a second run. |
| Mel and Mike | Mel | Did well enough. |
| Tammy and Victor | Victor | He got it right away. He recognized the answer as Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, perhaps even from the clue. |
Krasnoyarsk Theater of Musical Comedy
Episode Four Order of Finish |
|
|---|---|
Members |
Place |
| Amanda and Kris | 8 |
| Cara and Jaime | 5 |
| Christie and Jodi | 1 |
| LaKisha and Jennifer | 2 |
| Margie and Luke | 4 |
| Mark and Michael | 7 |
| Mel and Mike | 6 |
| Tammy and Victor | 3 |
Amanda and Kris's luck ran out when Margie and Luke chose to use the U-Turn to protect their friends Jaime and Cara. Mark and Micheal had trouble paying their taxi driver at the theater, but the driver eventually let it pass, and they finished in the running, apparently well ahead of Amanda and Kris.
Outlook for Episode Five
The seven remaining teams have diverse backgrounds and relationships. The surprise this edition is how even the teams are. Each of the teams has their own combination of strengths and weaknesses. Mel is still nursing the injured groin. Several team members have leveraged their intelligence, while other Racers are creative or resourceful.
Christie and Jodi made up a lot of ground and surged into first. Kisha and Jen also had a very good day with challenges that they did well at, and only at the very end got bit by a navigation error, such as those that plagued them earlier. Tammy and Victor got an equalizer to gain back quite a bit of the lost time, and they worked well together on tasks again, gaining still more time. Luke really struggled in the Roadblock, but Margie and Luke made few other mistakes. Mark and Michael struggled through this long day of competition, after two solid legs of the Race. They fell far behind the other teams, and need an equalizer.
Will the blind U-Turn cause teams to turn on Margie and Luke? Watch the exciting Episode Five on March 15, 2009 at 8:00 PM.
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