Recap Amazing Race 13, episode 1   by Arthur Perkins
 
11 teams gather at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for a race for $1,000, 000 for a first-place finish. Phil Keoghan introduces the stadium as the only one to have hosted an Olympics twice. The teams are:
 
Toni-Dallas, Mother/Son, California

Nick/Starr, Siblings, New York

Ken/Tina, separated husband/wife, San Diego/Tampa
He's an ex NFL player

Aja/Ty, dating long distance Los Angeles/Detroit

Marissa/Brooke, southern belles/friends from South Carolina

Andrew/Dan, frat brothers, Phoenix

Anthony/Stephanie, dating 4 years, Los Angeles

Anita/Arthur, married beekeepers who double as old hippies

Kelly/Christy, recently divorced, Texas

Terence/Sarah, newly dating, New York City

Mark/Bill, best friends/geeks, San Diego
 
There has been a lot of press commentary about the personalities of the racers and teams prior to the race, but there is so much to cover that I will let my thoughts on that emerge in my commentary over time. Phil tells the teams there are 8 elimination points, which since is is known that there are 11 total legs and one is for the finish line leave only 2 legs for ToBeContinued(TBC) or NonEliminationLeg(NEL) status. Typically in a U.S. Amazing Race the course set down by World Race Productions has no NELs or TBCs for many legs so that several teams can be eliminated and fewer camera/sound crews are needed. The first clue says fly to Salvador de Bahia, an approximately 3 million population city on the east coast of Brazil.
 
So off we go and it's the usual mad scramble to the Los Angeles International Airport. Ken distinguishes himself as the mad racecar driver passing everyone else.  Aja knows the city where she lives even better and she tells Ty to go into the Carpool Lane, which results in them being a close first to the designated airport parking area. Anthony and Stephanie Stephanie are also from Los Angeles and they take a direct route to the airport, not using the longer one the Interstate which all other teams took. Arrival in the airport carpark was not not enough for success, as teams had to find the correct Amazing Race check-in lane for American Airlines 252 to Miami, connecting there to either Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro and from there to Salvador. The order of arrival for the claimed 3-hours-earlier combination of flights (I can substantiate only 2.25 hours earlier) was Mark/Bill( a big surprise to me), Ken/Tina,  Anthony/Stephanie, Nick/Starr, Aja/Ty, Kelly/Christy. That left for United flight 843 to Chicago and on to Sao Paulo, connecting from there to Salvador Andrew/Dan, Arthur/Anita, Stephanie/Anthony, Toni/Dallas and Marissa/Brooke . My information has the "American" route scheduled to arrive Salvador at 1220 pm and the "United" route arriving at 240 pm. However there was a weather delay that affected the "American" route and made their advantage smaller but still significant. That means that the race on arrival of the "United" route teams is essentially between them for not being in last place at the episode 1 pitstop. Teams arrive in downtown Salvador looking for a specific sandwich shoppe. They receive instructions to maneuver a traditional vending cart overfilled with food items and candy for sale up the Funicular Goncalves and at from the top find the Praca de Se and next clue. It takes them to the 19BC military base where they will sleep in tents. First, they have to sign in for a release time the next morning. Signing for 9:00 am are Terence/Sarah, Nick/Starr, Mark/Bill and Ken/Tina. For the 930am release time are Aja/Ty and Kelly/Christy. Later when they arrive first of the second group, Andrew/Dan become the final team for 930. That leaves Arthur/Anita(already lagging behind), Stephanie/Anthony, Toni/Dallas and Marissa/Brooke for the 945 am release.
 
On release the next morning teams are directed to a Detour, choice of "Hard Way Up" or "Soft Way Down". Both of these tasks are situated in the Pelourinho area with a specific geographic purpose in mind. "Hard Way Up" is to crawl on hands and knees up the step leading to the Igreja San Francisco and then answer a mystery question. The only team out of 10 that chooses this(and succeeds as a result) was Andrew/Dan. They crawl up, get the mystery question ("How many steps have you just done?"), and have to go around and down to repeat it. However, the second time they count and get the right answer of 53. The other teams went to the Elevator Lacerda, 240 feet above the bottom, where cargo netting was draped all the way to the ground and extensive safety equipment was mandatory. I did not see any teams trying to go fast. They all were careful and cautious. This tasks did not change the order of anyone. All of the 900 group got down the netting and the 930 group did so as well. That left the last 4 teams in the 945 group to battle to avoid last place. Arthur and Anita continued to be moving at a leisurely pace and so they were last off the cargo netting by a bit.
 
The first team off the cargo netting (no surprise) was Nick/Starr and their clue sent them locally to walk to the dock for Forte Sao Marcelo. They get a small passenger boat that appears to be dedicated to Amazing Race teams. They arrive at the pitstop first and win a prize of 5 night trip for 2 to Belize. Everyone behind them does the same walk and boatride. Order of finish is:
 
Nick/Starr
Ken/Tina
Terence/Sarah
Mark/Bill
Kelly/Christy
Toni/Dallas
Andrew/Dan
Aja/Ty
Stephanie/Anthony
Marissa/Brooke
Arthur/Anita
 
I think all will be staying the night at the Forte. Anita says "we gave it our all". Arthur says that it is a privilege just to be a team on the Race (so right with the tens of thousands of teams that want to have their opportunity). Information from a secondary source shows that they were sent to sequester in Acapulco, Mexico. What a hardship! World Race Productions could have selected somewhere in South America for the first sequester, but Acapulco is on the way back to the west coast of the U.S. where the finish will be.
 
This was an exciting beginning to AR13. The teams are interesting and this looks like it will be one of the best ever. WRP casting has improved  its performance dramatically for AR13 vs. AR12. There are 3 racers from San Diego and 3 from Los Angeles, but not 5 teams from Orange County, southern California. In spite of my knowing in advance much of what the flights and tasks were, the editing by World Race Productions still made it thrilling. I look forward to episode 2 next week.

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