Welcome to Pure Amazing Race

I think this is the best TAR 13 article I’ve read so far. It gives you some interesting insights on things to watch for and also some quotes from the TAR 13 cast.

“I love the fraternity brothers because they’re so young and such a contrasting team,” host Phil Keoghan recently told The Associated Press. “One takes his time to think things out. The other one loves to rush and go at a million miles an hour. There’s definitely tension between the two of them while they’re making decisions during the race.”

Another team competing is geeky best friends Mark Yturralde, 41, and Bill Hahler, 42. The Comic-Con treasurer and student aid administrator from San Diego have been pals for over 20 years and have auditioned for “The Amazing Race” since the long-running reality series’ third season. The superhero and gaming aficionados said they left their toys at home during the race.

“We’ve got really teeny backpacks,” said Hahler. “They are small. We wanted to make sure that there wasn’t anything to prevent us from putting that pack underneath the seat in front of us when we got on a plane. We didn’t want something to happen where we got delayed because of our luggage. We thought that would help us go faster.”

“We did extensive research on what to wear - what was lightweight and would help us move the fastest,” added Yturralde. “I think it was the longest I ever went without wearing a logo on my T-shirt. If you see me on the street, I’m usually wearing a Superman, Bizarro or Batman T-shirt on a constant basis, but we had to utilize more multi-use clothing for ‘The Amazing Race.’”

Married beekeepers Anita, 63, and Arthur Jones, 61, from Eugene, Ore., are the oldest - and perhaps most colorful - team on this season of “The Amazing Race.” Among the self-described hippies’ mottos: “Don’t worry, be hippie” and “The hokey pokey is what it’s all about.” Before the race, the Joneses worked out in hopes of keeping up with the other teams.

“We both tried to do some training, along the lines of going down to our little gym, but that was pretty much it,” said Anita. “We have an emerging farm, so we do a lot of work out there, splitting wood and taking care of the horses. We’re pretty physical, so we thought, ‘Hey, we can be in there with everybody else. It’ll be fun.’”

Ken Greene, a former St. Louis Cardinals and San Diego Chargers defensive back, now 51, will race with estranged wife Tina.

Starting at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the 13th season of the Emmy-winning reality competition (premiering Sept. 28 at 8 p.m. EDT) will follow the teams as they travel over 30,000 miles in 23 days to countries such as Brazil, Bolivia, Russia, India and Kazakhstan. It’s the first time the series visited the landlocked country lampooned by Sacha Baron Cohen in “Borat.”

“We shot most of that episode in the capital,” said executive producer Bertram van Munster. “People were a little afraid we were going to pull a ‘Borat’ on them. I told them we weren’t doing ‘Borat,’ but what happened there is very, very funny. It’s not easy to shoot in places like that because they practically have no television industry.”

Van Munster, who is currently scouting locations in Asia for the 14th season, promised the 13th season will include a series of firsts for the reality competition, including a mistake that ultimately prohibited one team from joining their fellow racers at the finish line, as well as a memorable first-ever stop for “The Amazing Race” in Cambodia.

“The teams have no idea how to get from Point A to Point B there,” said van Munster. “They don’t know the language. It’s very difficult to get through this country. They get so stuck, but they find so many fascinating solutions of how to get through everything. One of the things the teams do there is go to a real-life floating village. It’s insane.”

There’s a really interesting article talking with the hippie looking beekeepers who just finished running the Amazing Race. It seems like almost every running of the Amazing Race has to have their token “hippies” and TAR 13 is no different. I guess the big difference here is that these hippies have probably been hippies since the 70s.

This is an absolutely unique couple which looks like they’ll be really entertaining to watch. However, they almost didn’t get to go on the Amazing Race. The producers really wanted them, but had concern over there health. Here’s an excerpt from a story about Anita and Arthur Jones:

So how did these two find fame on a reality show?

The avid “Amazing Race” fans say it started with a video tape.

“The production assistant called and said ‘We can’t get your video off our minds. We just keep talking about it, but we really don’t think you can do it,’ ” explains Arthur.

So why not?

“Well, because most folks on the show are like 22 years old, and we’re kind of older,” laughs Anita.

So to prove themselves, the active duo made another video tape skiing in a downpour.
Their lifestyle didn’t hurt, either.

“I don’t know if they wanted the hippie thing,” Anita says. “I mean this is just our lifestyle. This is who we are, and they saw our video and they’re kind of going OK.”

Then, the couple also made some comments (although limited since the show hasn’t aired) about their experience running TAR 13.

“It’s like you’re in a twilight zone,” Anita says. “You’re just floating through as fast as you can, it’s just so amazing.”

“I think a lesson is that it’s not that dangerous out there,” Arthur says. “People sort of have this, well, you can’t go into these countries. Certainly there are war areas, but by and large people are helpful. You stop people on the street and ask for directions, people are more than willing to help.”

“You are under so much pressure and adrenaline that sometimes you say stuff you didn’t mean,” Arthur says, “but it’s just because you’re focused. Eventually, you have to come out of it with some forgiveness and understanding that we’re all human and make mistakes.”

Nah really? I can’t remember a single episode of TAR where someone said something they shouldn’t have said to the partner. Ok, most episodes include some sort of snide remark. However, the hippies are usually the exception. That might be a first for the Amazing Race: hippies saying something rude.

Of course, this is why I could never go on the Amazing Race with my wife. However, my brother and I would absolutely LOVE to go. I wonder if they’d let me live blog my experience on the Amazing Race. Now wouldn’t that be cool? Then, they could post my blog comments at the same time as the show is shown on TV.

Dear Amazing Race and CBS,
I can’t wait!!

Ok, I can, but this wait is just killing me. CBS and Amazing Race should never do this to us again. I love this show far too much to have to wait for it to come on TV. Did you hear me Amazing Race? Don’t keep your adoring fans waiting.

Yes, I understand that you’ve been on for 12 seasons and that this is the Amazing Race 13. That doesn’t mean you should deprive us any longer of our travels around the world.

I’m not sure you realize this, but let me let you in on a little secret my dear Amazing Race. Are you listening? Good. The secret is that for most of us watching the Amazing Race that’s as close as we’re going to come to racing around the world. Sure, we might travel to Italy once in our life or we might just happen to make it to Japan at some point, but most of us won’t be able to race around the world.

Plus, even if we did get to go to those places, we don’t get to do nearly as cool things as you get to do. Seriously, do you think that if I went to New Zealand that I’d be able to roll down a beautiful green hill in a mouse ball (or whatever that orb thing was called). What about sledging in New Zealand? Nope, my guess is I wouldn’t be doing that either as much as I’d like to in the very depths of my heart. By the way, New Zealand’s orb and sledging (I hope that’s the name) are still probably my 2 favorite activities on any adventure of the Amazing Race.

I know I’ve waited this long for Amazing Race 13 and it’s only one month and 10 days until the season premier of Amazing Race, but I’m tired of waiting. Since I know you can’t change that date. I’ll settle for this. Never make your adoring Amazing Race fans wait this long ever again.

Thanks Amazing Race. We love you!

With the season 13 debut of CBS’ The Amazing Race looming just around the corner (okay, Sept. 28), exec producer Bertram Van Munster slipped us a few clues about the upcoming globetrot.

• The race takes 23 days, covers nearly 40,000 miles, spans five continents, and features some far-flung locales never before seen on the show, including Angkor Wat, Cambodia and La Paz, Bolivia.

• The youngest team is a tandem of two guys in their early 20s. “They’re made for television,” Van Munster says. “They’re supersmart — and they make terrible mistakes.” A pair of recent divorcees in their late 20s also vie for the million-dollar prize. “They were left with some financial debt, so they really have a motive to run around the world,” he says. And once again, expect a serving of granola — this time with a husband-wife squad of 60-something Oregon hippies. “They’re the real thing,” says Van Munster. “They come right out of the ’60s. To a lot of people, it looks almost like they’re from a different planet.”

• As for the challenges, “We’ve really outdone ourselves in the department of outrageousness,” Van Munster declares. “We have a situation in Bolivia where we have the [contestants] go down a cobblestone hill on very, very primitive bikes, and it’s just the most hilarious thing you’ve ever seen in your life. It’s a truly bone-jarring experience.” (Another must-see detour: A by-train-or-by-bus scavenger hunt in Moscow. )

• One familiar thing actually did happen on this race: The producers didn’t predict the winner. Says Van Munster, “We’ve been wrong every time, across the board.”

by Dan Snierson

We’re just under 47 days until the premier of The Amazing Race 13. I know I can’t wait. It’s been much too long of a wait since season 12 of TAR. Here’s a few notes about TAR 13.

They started filming the 13th season of Amazing Race on April 22nd. And 6 different teams have been spotted. Filming was still going as of May 14, 2008. It is suspected that May 14, 2008 was the final day of filming, as the teams were seen back in the U.S.A.

CBS has also announced that The Amazing Race will be part of their new CBS HD Gallery at CBS.com where video from the new season will be presented in high definition online. Now they just need to offer the embedded video option so we can embed TAR episodes on Pure Amazing Race.

Here’s an Amazing Race (TAR) spoiler about the next season from the Toronto Star newspaper. It’s about one of the legs on the race (maybe the penultimate leg). There’s also a video showing one team running to the mat. I’m only going to post the link to the article because it is a bit long: The Amazing Race investigation
Note: The leg was not anywhere near Toronto, just in case anyone thinks that I’ve spoiled a location by mentioning the newspaper.