From the Cutting Room Floor - TAR 30.7.8
The Amazing Race, Season 30, Episode 6: "All's Fair In Love & War" #TeamExtreme Recap
Woohooo we went to Zimbabwe!! Kristi and I have still not finished below 3rd place AS A TEAM after 8 legs of this race. Our consistency is something that not even Kristi and I can fully understand, but we feel very fortunate to have continued to perform well. Neither of us has been to Southern Africa at all and if my face didn't give it away at the start of the episode, we were so excited! I LOVE animals, so I was thrilled to be heading to a wildlife conservation.
How long did it take to get from Prague to Zimbabwe?
After we ripped our clue at Letna Park in Prague, we had to make our way to a travel agency to pick up our tickets. Yes, once again we were all on the same flight. Understandable considering how much of a venture it would be. We walked from the park to the travel agency since we had plenty of time. From the city, we took the metro to a bus to the airport. Then we had a sequence of three flights, including a 12-hour overnight flight from Zurich to South Africa. Once we landed in Zimbabwe, we had to take a taxi to a train station to a shuttle bus to a safari vehicle before arriving at bushcamp. All-in-all, it was about a 32-hour travel day, so we were fried when it came time to assemble that tent.
Aren't you and Kristi supposed to be good at setting up tents?
Hahaha!!! Yes, we've both spent a fair amount of time in the outdoors. I camp a ton with my husband, though thanks to Escapod, we don't camp in tents any more. That said, I've assembled many a tent. From the train it was full on taxi race to Imire. The first 3 teams managed to stay together and cruise down a super sketchy road. Indy Car's suspension went out during the drive and they veered off the road right in front of us. We knew we were behind the other teams quite a ways, but rolled with it considering the potential outcome. We managed to assemble the tent pretty quickly, but we started about 7 minutes behind the first three teams (Yale, BB & Firefighters). Ocean Rescue impressed me more than anyone. They finished that challenge in 2nd despite arriving there last (10 mins behind the first three teams).
What did you think of the partner swap?
Besides potentially messing with Kristi and I never finishing below 3rd place, we're alright with it. (I still stand by the fact that we have all top-3 finishes to this point as we weren't racing together on leg 7 - have I said that yet?).
We are fully accepting that the Amazing Race creators can do anything they want. However, there was very minimal information provided at the time of the announcement. We didn’t know how long we would be racing for, what would happen to the last team to arrive at the pit stop, and when or IF we would be reunited with our partners. It was pretty stressful. Kristi and I had been racing really well together, so we weren’t thrilled to have something potentially disrupt our momentum.
Were you surprised that Jody picked you?
Kind of. We had been getting along with Jess & Cody really well on the race, but I don’t think Kristi and I quite realized how much teams were paying attention to our performance. Especially being athletes, we’re always looking for ways to improve our performance. We knew we had the best finishes of all the teams, but didn’t necessarily think of ourselves as the “team to beat” until this moment.
How did you decided which partner would switch with whom?
We were very much put on the spot. Since Cody & Jess chose us, Phil asked them who would race with whom. Cody pretty quickly said that he’d race with me and Jess with Kristi. At this point, Kristi leaned over to me and said, “I think your strengths would better match up with Jess and mine with Cody.”
In hindsight it’s always easy to play the “if-only” game, but Kristi is a better paddler than me, so on the rafts, I think it was good to have Kristi with Jess.
Did teams have to do opposite sides of the detour?
No, teams were allowed to do the same side of the detour. There were only 3 stations on each side, so if you arrived early, like we did, you could go choose the same detour. That might’ve been a game-changer for this leg. Or, it might not have made a difference, given how much the Firefighters struggled with the singing later on.
For the record, Kristi does know how to drive stick. However, should she and Jess have gotten stuck, Jess would have been the one doing the winching... they'd still be stuck in that mud puddle.
Then why didn't you switch detours to go with Jess & Kristi?
When the girls switched, it was my initial instinct to go with them. My thought was that 4 brains are better than two. We could potentially work together to get through it really quickly. Cody said that Jess is good at puzzles, so I let it go. That’s not to say that Kristi isn’t, but memory & puzzles are more my thing, physical is more her thing. Had we switched, that would have forced Evan and Daniel to do the 4x4, which could have been interesting… If Daniel were driving, Evan would have had to winch. Evan took stick driving lessons before coming on the race, but these trucks were really difficult to drive. (Hence why I switched with Cody at the water crossing).
Cody & Jen flew through the 4 x 4 challenge. How did they do that?
Cody & I worked really well as a team. The only "mistake" we made was not switching to help Kristi & Jess, but hindsight is 20/20. Originally, I started out driving with Cody in the back, so if we got stuck, he could do the winching. But when we got to the water crossing, I got a bit nervous about me doing the driving. The vehicles they provided were VERY difficult to drive. I kept accidentally starting in 3rd instead of 1st and it made for a very jerky ride... So, I switched with Cody at the water, which was the best decision I could have made.
The second water crossing was intended to get you stuck. We found a good route across and Cody knew a secret about this kind of the driving. Apparently you need to keep wiggling the steering wheel left and right so that you don't dig a giant rut. Welp, it worked! We nearly beat Phil to the mat. LOL. Production was scrambling when they saw us get our pit stop clue.
How did Jess & Kristi get so stuck on that puzzle?
There were a few factors that went into this. Partly, not fully understanding what was expected of them. The clue doesn’t explicitly state “remember the location and order in which you find the evidence.” Some teams read between the lines on this and realized it before getting to the puzzle. Regardless, Jess & Kristi got the first 5 correct and just scrambled the final 3 on their first attempt. Let me tell you one thing about getting a puzzle wrong on The Amazing Race. IT SUCKS! You very quickly start overthinking it, which I think they did.
They thought that they path may have been in a crisscross pattern instead of in a circle. Also, not knowing your new partners strengths and weaknesses makes it very difficult to know when to sit back or assert yourself. Once Evan & Daniel came through and got it on the first try, they realized it must be simpler than they were making it out to be. That's when it all came together for them.
Why didn't anyone U-Turn #TeamExtreme?
Though it sucked to finish at the back of the pack in Leg 7, we were very fortunate that Ocean Rescue and IndyCar were the two teams to finish about 20 minutes before us. Had it been Yale, we would have been U-Turned 100%. Because, according to Evan, that would have been the "strategic calculation" to make. And, she's right. If you were looking at the U-Turn as an opportunity to get the best team out of the race, we would have been it. However, Kristi and I were very close with Indy & Ocean Rescue. We were racing the same way and had a lot of respect for one another.
How did you and Kristi make up so much time through that Detour?
When we were in the cab from Imire Wildlife Conservation to Harare, we weren't able to exactly locate the haberdashery. We knew the street, but not the exact address. I asked our driver which end of the street the "fabric district" was on and he led us there. We made a left when a lot of other teams went right to arrive at the U-Turn board in 3rd place.
Rolling those tires through that marketplace was no easy task. It was about 92 degrees outside and we had to put those suits on over our clothes. Not to mention, we were instructed to "roll the tires like the locals do." The dirt roads had giant holes and rocks everywhere and the surface was extremely uneven. I just knew that the crux of the task would be locating the hardware store, so I kept my eyes peeled. That's ultimately what allowed us to jump in front of Indy & Ocean. We sprinted back to our cab to make our way to the garden.
Why was Kristi mad at you for helping #TeamYale?
Kristi wasn't really mad at me for helping Yale, but it wasn't the smartest race move. If you're going to help a team, it should be a team that will reciprocate that down the line. Henry & Evan gave us no reason to believe that they'd ever help us. They absolutely 100% would not. And I don't blame them. Kristi completely understood why Evan didn't help with puzzle in the previous leg. You can see that she moves past it quickly and shifts attention back to solving the puzzle. But it wasn't absurd for her to ask. If you don't ask for help, you generally don't get it (unless your Yale, and you pass me...oops). So, she was razing me a little bit. Especially because we had strong working relationships and loose alliances with some other teams at the time (Ocean, Indy & BB).
How long did it take you to get the singing challenge?
Kristi and I handily arrived in first place to the singing challenge. We were there for about 15-20 minutes before Ocean Rescue showed up and had already made 1 or 2 attempts on stage at that point. Every time we got up there, they'd tell us we had to another little thing different. First it was pronunciation, then it was keeping pace, then it was not using the paper, then we needed be dancing and grooving more, then my mic got unplugged, then they couldn't hear me well enough... It was like, seriously guys?!
The edit made it seem like we were all more stacked up than we were. The only other team we saw get on stage was Ocean Rescue. Brittany & Lucas very quickly realized it was more about putting on a show than nailing the pronunciation or pacing. Once they got it, we hopped back up and did our best to play to the crowd. We got it immediately after Ocean Rescue got theirs correct. At this point, the other teams were there and learning from our failings, so IMHO it helped them move through after fewer attempts.
What is the name of the song?
For your convenience, I've added the lyrics below. For now, you can watch this YouTube video of the song. Haven't been able to find it on iTunes or elsewhere.
Jen: E’yay yoi-ye e’yay Ho-ye ba-bá
Pasi pã-no ka’ni pa-ne zee-edzo
Kristi: E’yay yoi-ye e’yay Ho-ye ba-bá
E’yay yoi-ye e’yay ini n’do-da kwen-da
Jen: Mwari’uyu akasika wo zwee-no tapira
Dokosi-kawo zeenovava
Kristi: Musika akasika zweeno-fadza
Dokosi-kawo zweeno-su-weeza
Next week:
We're off to Baharain for the first time in Amazing Race history! We'll do some heavy lifting, make a splash, get up-close-and-personal with multiple mammalian creatures, eat some bugs and more. This is going to be an insanely action-packed two hours of adrenaline pumping RACING! Join us from 8-10 pm MT & CT (9-11 pm PT & ET) or DVR this sh*t and watch it later!!! Preferably both :)
