by Arthur Perkins
 
Hello there Amazing Race fans. I want to tell you about the AR13 finale. It was  hum-dinger due to some pretty crafty editing by World Race Productions and CBS to make the final 5 tasks seem closer than they really were.   It appeared that this was a team team race as soon as teams landed in Portland Oregon. The checkin time for Nick/Starr I am guessing to be around 4pm, which if true means that it was a 7 hour pitstop to get to a 1056pm release time. They go to the Domodedovo airport (almost certainly directed by their clue) and book a 705am departure connecting at Frankfurt to Portland Oregon. Once their a clue directs them to driving to Newberg OR to the Tilikum Adventure Center.
 
Andrew/Dan were released at 228am and Ken/Tina at 330am. It's amazing to me that Ken/Tina were lost for a whole hour after crossing paths with Andrew/Dan. Nick/Starr and Ken/Tina go directly by taxi there, but Andrew/Dan have a poor taxi driver and fall quite a lot of time behind. From that point the race For the $1,000,000 prize is between just Nick/Starr and Ken/Tina. A DETOUR awaits at Tilikum, HIGH AND DRY or LOW AND WET. Teams chose between climbing a tree, then walking out a fairly low circumference log to jump for a metal triangular bar which has the next clue or walking along a long log in the water. Nobody chose LOW and WET. Starr is competing against Tina and Starr finishes first because Tina is afraid of heights. Nick and Starr are ahead by several minutes, but by the time teams get to the next competition site they miss a simple turn as their taxi driver is not familiar with this area and have to go ahead and come back. Ken/Tina sneak into first place. They climb stairs onto the Bridge of the Gods east of Portland on Interstate 84 at exit 44. They they go to the middle and get attached to a 2000 foot zipline onto an island. On that island are 150 clueboxes each with a picture. There is a gameboard with 10 slots, one for each of the episodes of AR13. Teams must stay together (no double-dipping) as they find a specific type of scene (such as DETOUR or ROADBLOCK or task or pitstop) requested for each episode. The correct pictures were:
 
leg 1 moving cart with many items on it in Salvador
leg 2 moving boats on log rollers for Beach-It DETOUR near Fortaleza
leg 3 fighting the cholitas in El Alto near La Paz
leg 4 sheep at the pitstop at Summerhill Farms near Tauranga New Zealand
leg 5 not shown (why?)
leg 6 Ambassador Hotel in Delhi
leg 7 not shown
leg 8 a gentleman from whom clue received in Almaty, Kazakhstan
leg 9 Monastery interior, Moscow
leg 10 Lenin/Stalin roadblock in Moscow
 
Nick/Starr finish slightly ahead of Ken/Tina but the taxi ride is pretty much even except at the end when Nick/Starr's taxi driver take a different route and gets them there first. The next clue takes them to Portland building in downtown Portland, but the following clue is at a green dinosaur in the Standard Plaza across the street. The next clue takes them on foot to find a food stand on Alder Street Cart Pod between 9th and 10th for the cart of the last county they were in (Russia). The clue there takes them to "magic is in the hole" which is a local reference to VooDoo Doughnuts. The last clue sends them to the Finish Line at Pittoch Mansion. Neither team can get a taxi, but Nick/Starr succeed first. it is totally unclear how far back Ken/Tina really were. The magic of World Race Productions/CBS editing make it seem highly competitive, but was it really. Nick/Starr offer their taxi driver $70 to get them there first.  Host Phil Keoghan on the mat says "after 23 days, 5 continents and almost 40,000 miles, Nick and Starr you are the official winners of the Amazing Race." They won the $1,000,000 prize.  As Ken and Tina finish 2nd he pulls out the wedding rings they haven't been wearing and puts it on Tina's and his own left ring fingers. Tina acknowledges that the race has brought them back together. Andrew/Dan are not shown doing anything in downtown Portland. They may have been redirected to Pittoch Mansion. However, who cares?
 
I want to comment on the physical fitness levels needed to win this race. it appeared to be neck-and-neck in downtown Portland, where the tasks were on foot after they arrived at the Standard Plaza to get a clue. Both Nick and Ken appeared to be effortless and able to run all day. Starr in particular was shown dragging many times, which I am surer was done to fake us out. I will bet that Tina was dragging even more. They just didn't how it.
 
AR13 will rank high on my list of topnotch Amazing Races. After bumbling in AR12's casting, somebody did a much better job of selecting the teams. Mark/Bill, Sarah/Terence, and Toni/Dallas were all first-class competitors to join the Final 3 to make this an interesting and exciting season. CBS recently announced  that Amazing Race 14 will be viewed starting on Sunday Feb. 14, I will be watching. What about you?