by Victor Jih
Winner of The Amazing Race Season 14

This week on The Amazing Race, nine teams traveled to Phnom Penh (“Sean Penn”) Cambodia, where they received their “next assignment” at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, searched for the Hotel Le Royal where Jackie Kennedy Onassis stayed, chose to match silk scarves in a crowded Russian Market or to sell four helmets to motorcycling families at the Detour, summoned their inner “monkey” at a Roadblock, and then raced to Phil who was waiting at the Mat at Wat Phnom.  Zev and Justin were the first to reach the Mat, only to realize they misplaced one of their passports.  In a heartbreaking moment (reminiscent of Season 13), Zev and Justin go from first to last and are eliminated from the race.  As always, here are some random thoughts from someone who has been there before.
 
1.  STARTING TIMES
This week I decided to pay attention to the start times for the teams.  The first team left at 6:53 pm, followed by teams at 6:54 pm, 6:58 pm, 6:59 pm, 7:06 pm, 7:16 pm, 7:25 pm, 7:31 pm, and 7:32 pm.  In other words, the prior leg in Vietnam was super tight—with the first and last teams separated by a little over half an hour.  I always refer to these types of legs as the “fast legs.”  You can’t always tell from watching it on television, since every episode lasts an hour.  But in real time, a leg can take half a day or several days.  The “fast” or “short” legs are always particularly heart-pounding and stressful, because any slip-up can mean elimination.  When the teams are separated by minutes, one bad taxi driver, one bad mistake, or one wrong direction can mean disaster.  Of course, you can’t tell at the start of a leg whether that leg will be a “fast” or “longer” one; so the adrenaline is always pumping.
 
2.  AIRPORT DRAMA
In Vietnam, the teams have to jet to the airport in hopes of catching the next flight to Cambodia.  Everything seems to go smoothly until the airline ticketing agents tell Zev/Justin and Lance/Keri that there are no more seats available.  The next flight would put them behind an hour and a half (at least).  Given how close the teams were to each other the prior leg, you can imagine how high the tensions were.  After a commercial break, however, the ticketing agent said that there were seats that became available, and all of the teams were able to get on the same flight.  One note on airport drama:  it is always stressful but the only thing you can do is be irrationally optimistic and pray that you’re not the only team facing the issue.  We had plenty of airport drama during Season 14.  On the final stretch to Maui, for example, Tammy and I were the only ones without confirmed tickets on the last leg of the flight.  It was only by begging the ticket agent (after she told us there were no seats for ten minutes) that we were able to board and start even with everyone else.  Having airport drama work out doesn’t always work to your favor, however.  For example, Tammy and I waited by a China Southern ticketing desk for hours trying to get on the first flight to Guilin.  We were on another flight that was scheduled to arrive twenty to thirty minutes later (one that Jen/Kisha were on), but we desperately wanted to get on the earlier flight with Margie/Luke and Jaime/Cara.  Our patience paid off, and we are able to get on that flight.  But several airport/in-flight delays later, we actually ended up arriving in Guilin twenty minutes after Jen/Kisha did.  Ironically, if we had stayed with our prior flight, we would have gotten there first.  There are certain things you just can’t control.  Sometimes the best thing that can happen to a team is for them not to get their way.  We learned that repeatedly.
 
3.  BUNCHING UP
As a result of everyone getting on the same flight to Cambodia, all of the teams were bunched up.  I recall during many of the early seasons, fans and racers would get upset over the “bunch,” since all of their hard work from the prior leg no longer carries over into the later legs.  When we raced, Tammy and I took “bunching up” as a fact of life and frankly took comfort in that.  After coming in second to last in Romania, we looked forward to the “bunching up” as insurance against any disaster.  It does change the nature of the race, though.  Instead of running one long race, we thought of the race as eleven or twelve mini-races, with a likely “even” start each time.  You can take comfort in the fact that last can become first, but of course first can just as easily become last.
 
4.  THE LIE
After the teams locate the Hotel Le Royal and Jackie Onassis’ suite, they receive a clue which directs them to their detour options.  As Sam and Dan rush out of the hotel, they are asked by other teams coming in whether they found anything.  In the heat of the moment, Sam and Dan quickly “deny” finding anything in one of the most blatant lies ever (the acting there was about as believable as Maria and Tiffany saying they were homeless volunteers).  The other team instantly knows they are lying.  Sitting in the living room, it’s very easy to criticize the lie.  There’s absolutely no rational reason to do it, since it’s not going to delay anyone (it’s not like anyone will suddenly turn around and go somewhere else or get lost on their way up the elevator) and it’s only going to serve to make other teams distrust you.  That said, as a racer, I understand how the temptation to lie to your competition sometimes does overtake you.  In the competitive moment, everything in your body says “don’t help other people” even though it makes no sense.  I sympathized with Sam and Dan since my first instinct would have been the same, but simultaneously I recognize that following that instinct is dumb.  It is clear, though, that Sam and Dan have allegiances with certain teams and not others.  We’ll have to see how those alignments play out as the race continues.
 
5.  DETOUR CHOICES—COVER OR WRAP
The choices this week were “COVER” or “WRAP.”  In “COVER” teams have to sell four motorcycle helmets to a family of four (2 adults and 2 children) whizzing by on the street.  Using their powers of persuasion, they have to convince them to pay $10 for the helmets.  In “WRAP” teams have to find one of two scarf vendors in the crowded Russian market, obtain a distinctive scarf, then locate a woman wandering around the market wearing the same scarf.  As I explained last week, teams have to come up with a rational way to choose between detour options.  Each option usually has its pros and cons.  In “COVER” teams have to convince locals to give up money.  In “WRAP,” however, teams may find themselves in a potential needle-in-a-haystack situation where luck determines what happens to them.  I found it interesting that every team (except for Lance and Keri) chose WRAP.  If it were me, I’d probably choose WRAP too, since the loss of control and leaving everything up to luck seems dangerous.  Perhaps it’s the fact that both Lance and I are lawyers that we would have made the same decision.  I’m not sure my decision would have been the right one, though.  Some teams flew through the WRAP option.  It seemed like Sam and Dan found the woman instantly.  Ericka and Brian were super lucky and quick with this task as well.  Other teams struggled as they wandered the narrow corridors of the Russian market.  Hence, the fickleness of luck.  Structurally, this detour presented options very similar to our India choices (search for this random elephant in barrels of hay and dance in the streets to try to get money from locals).  In our season, though, most teams chose to beg for money and the team that chose the needle-in-a-haystack “luck” task fell behind.  So you can never predict what the popular or the right choice is going to be.
 
6.  MONKEY BUSINESS
After the detour, teams faced the roadblock.  This week, one team member had to “go bananas” and act like a monkey in three classical Khmer monkey dance moves.  I thought the scene was more creepy than funny, but I will have to especially call out Canaan’s performance.  Canaan clearly embodied the monkey better than any other racer, was more monkey-like than the “monkey master,” even as he was moving from one maneuver to the other.  After last week’s water-dragon-puppet-dance, I’m positive Canaan can add dancer to his long list of hyphenates.  In a more global note, I did like seeing how many teams took time to enjoy themselves this leg.  It was fun to see Lance and Keri take time to interact with the locals who bought the motorcycle helmets; it was fun to see Team Globetrotter dance their way to the Mat; it was fun to see teams enjoy the monkey-ing around.  Being confident, relaxed, and present enough to find humor in a stressful situation bodes well for these teams.
 
7.  TUK TUK OR TAXIS
The episode did not play this dimension up, but I think much of the race was affected by whether you choose to take a tuk tuk or a Taxi from location to location.  At the end, for example, I think Sam and Dan arrived at the mat second (even though they left first), because they were in a tuk tuk and Zev and Justin still had their cab-driver.  Similarly, teams that took tuk tuks from route info to detour to roadblock seemed to fall behind a bit, because those vehicles just travel more slowly.  I don’t know what happened this season, but I know in our season in India teams that took tuk tuks up to the Fort where the mat was lost a lot of time compared to teams that had taxis.  So one key strategic question for racers is what form of transportation to take.  Another key question is whether to keep the taxi that you have.  In general, we always considered that a good option (and it seemed to have paid off for Zev and Justin this leg).  Developing a good rapport with the taxi driver, who then helps you, and is there ready for every contingency helps speed things along.  Racers often don’t do it, though, because they’re worried about how much money they have.  If you recall, racers were only given $91 at the start of the leg in Vietnam.
 
8.  SMART MOVE OF THE WEEK
I’m going to give the “smart move” award to Zev and Justin, even though they were eliminated because of a bad move.  The “smart move” was getting their taxicab driver’s phone number.  I highlight this because it is something I never thought of doing in all of my preparations for the race, and having now raced, is something I clearly think is important to do.  A good racer needs to anticipate all of the different things that can go wrong, and to prepare for those contingencies.  Having the phone number for the taxicab driver they were using at least gave them hope in a horribly hopeless situation.  If Dallas had the phone number for the taxicab driver when he lost his passport and bag in Russia, he and his mom would have made the final three.  If Kisha/Jen and Mark/Mike had phone numbers for their cab drivers in Bangcock, both teams could have had their drivers meet them when they traveled onward without their bags.  So that was definitely a smart move for Zev and Justin.
 
9.  KEEPING TRACK OF YOUR STUFF
Even though I thought Zev and Justin were fantastic racers (they had a great relationship, communicated extremely well, were very level-headed, planned for contingencies, threatened to call the mothers of their cab drivers if they didn’t drive quickly enough), their downfall was their inability to keep track of their stuff.  For anyone who does not race, losing because you cannot hold on to a “piece of paper” (aka passport) seems like a silly way to go home.  But I will tell you keeping track of your stuff on the race is one of the hardest things to do.  Racers are given a black fanny pack to keep their belongings in, but throughout a leg you constantly stuff that bag full of hidden snacks, money, clues, envelopes, notes, directions, maps you get from hotels/tourist bureaus/etc.  Because you are afraid to throw away anything that later will prove to be important, you end up carrying ten thousand scraps of paper in that one little bag.  There were many times where Tammy and I couldn’t find our clue, the directions we wrote down, or our money without emptying and re-packing that blasted bag!  So to Zev and Justin—I feel your pain.  It could have been any of us.  Since Zev and Justin were eliminated, Sam and Dan become the winners of this leg.  Does anyone know what they won?
 
10.  MARIA AND TIFFANY
I think Maria and Tiffany chose wisely in becoming poker players.  They must be the luckiest racers in history.  We’re only three weeks into the race, and Maria and Tiffany have now arrived at the mat in last place TWICE, only to be saved once by non-elimination and once by a lost passport.  Either they are destined to win or they better worry karma will swing horribly the other way later in the race to restore karmic balance.
 
Next week we are in Dubai.  I am officially jealous.  Until then…

The Amazing Race airs Sunday nights at 8pm ET on CBS.

(Image courtesy of CBS)

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