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TAR25: Misti Raman & Jim Raman "The Dentists"

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nosyrabbit:
The Dentists' Episode 9 Commentary

So happy, the cyclists are finally gone despite our many "missteps".

We start this leg by making a mistake I swore I would never make....again. Going into the race we swore we would think for ourselves and run our own race. However, in leg 2 we followed the cyclists lead on the punting challenge and ultimately had to do it twice because of not thinking for ourselves. This time we followed the surfers lead, assuming they had done their research and gotten the best flight, and ended up 40 minutes behind the rest of the pack. What the viewers haven't seen is how some of the travel agents have been borderline belligerent because of multiple teams asking the same questions and not trusting that they have gotten us the best flight. We have typically wanted to do our own searches on their computers and verify for ourselves before booking. This leg we just did the complete opposite and trusted Adam and Bethany had gotten the best flight. 100% our stupidity. Adam is actually very intelligent despite his portrayal as the ultra laid back surfer dude.

We arrived in Singapore, with the surfers, 40 minutes behind all of the other teams. When we got in our cab he took us to the wrong dock 15 minutes from where we were supposed to be. I don't think I have ever come so close to strangling someone in my whole life. Even though I knew The Save would burn on this leg regardless of the outcome I did not want to be last again. I also wanted someone to be eliminated. Fortunately for us Adam and Bethany ran into some issues with the authorities at the dock due to the cameras and we were able to catch up. There are constantly issues in any government facilities with filming and the cameras they use have a clock that runs even when it is not recording so the authorities always get uptight. We almost got arrested in a similar incident in Morocco.

After running a mile in extreme heat and humidity, drinking some coconut milk and then running another mile, it was on to the roadblock. Bethany knew what a wave house was and knew how difficult it could potentially be for the other non-professional surfer teams so they made the best decision they could by choosing the Fast Forward. I feel like the producers are typically extremely fair and would never alter any outcome but a surfing Fast Forward in a season with professional surfers is beyond ridiculous. It's also questionable whether or not Bethany could have completed the roadblock if she had chosen it so what better way to steer them away than a surfing challenge. Misti and I were waiting for a dentistry challenge in leg 11 and Robbie and Brooke were looking for a wrestling ring.

The clue for the tight rope roadblock said "Who wants to be a funambulista?". I knew there would be heights involved but had no idea what a funambulista was so I chose to do it. On the tight rope I was supporting a lot of my body weight on the upper rope because the lower rope was sagging so badly. I feel it just wasn't meant to support 230+ pounds. The upper rope actually gave way due to an equipment failure even though it was made to look like I just fell off by the way my comments were edited. It happened so fast that somehow I didn't even get scared. I guess it was just pure adrenaline overload. However, when they pulled me in and told me I hadn't done anything wrong and that the equipment had just failed my mind started racing. "OK, so these Australian knuckleheads couldn't put this thing together right in the first place, now they are adding extra buckles and they now have someone holding onto the rope (that's comforting) and I am supposed to go out there again. What if the safety fails this time? Splat!!!" I let my mind go there for about 30 seconds and knew if I kept thinking like that I would never make it. Somehow I cleared my head and forced myself back into race mode. We should have been given a time credit, but were not, for the amount of time from when I started the first time until the time I started the second time. However, we didn't bring it to the producers attention, they apparently didn't notice on their own and ultimately it was inconsequential in the scheme of things. We may have finished ahead of the wrestlers but if you are not first and not last it really doesn't matter.

We chose the crab detour because I knew that there would be no making up time on other teams in a challenge where you were basically a spectator and had to just sit through the cupping. The crab was boiling hot but we pushed through uneventfully and probably made up some time on the other teams. On a side note, the cupping may be the funniest thing I have ever seen on the Amazing Race

We chose not to U-turn anyone because we didn't know who had attempted the Fast Forward from the first group. We passed the Sweet Scientists at the entrance to the Marina Bay Sands hotel so we knew it wasn't them but we had not seen the wrestlers or the cyclists. In the event that the Fast Forward was so difficult that no one could complete it we wanted to leave the door open for Adam and Bethany to U-turn whoever the other team was and have a fighting chance. If we U-turned the cyclists and it was actually the wrestlers who had attempted the Fast Forward, the surfers would almost certainly be eliminated. Even though Adam and Bethany were who I felt were our biggest competition, we had made a pact in Oxford to help each other get to the final 3 (other than at our own expense) and I was committed to honoring that. If I had known the cyclists had attempted the Fast Forward we certainly would have U-turned them. I have been asked several times this week and have no idea why Robbie and Brooke did not U-turn the cyclists.

The merlions were uneventful for us although I am perplexed by the wrestlers deceiving the Sweet Scientists. I know they felt the Sweet Scientists had held out on them in Raffles Plaza but they could have potentially opened the door for the cyclists who were in my opinion a far stronger team than the Sweet Scientists. I guess that level of thinking never went on in their decision making process. Although it was made to look like the cyclists were close I believe they were 30 minutes or so behind. Not sure, I have been inaccurate with times before, but this is my best recollection.

Ultimately, the cyclists were eliminated and I have never been so happy to see a team go home. Not because of all the ugly, nasty comments they made about us, we didn't even know about most until they aired, but because they gave me race-mares every night. I felt like the cyclists were the third strongest team and for some reason I kept seeing them beating us. I was comforted when we conspired to double U-turn them and so relieved when they were eliminated.

And then there were four. Next leg...the Philippines. Will we continue to make dumb, costly decisions? Who will be eliminated? Tune in tonight at 8pm to find out.


#TAR25 #AmazingRaceFridays #TheDentists #TheSave #AmazingRace #TeamNoFun

David:
I really appreciate the blog things. Maybe Jim made it as a "winners insider point of view"? Just like: "How the winners saw their race from the very beginning"? IDK. They have some alpha-team vibe, but in a likeable way, except for when Jim gets arrogant OTT, but that is his way of behaving, so... I wouldn't like to see them getting the million.

RaceUntilWeDie:
Yeah, these recaps worry me. I HOPE it does not mean they win. I don't think Jim would like to recap a leg in which he got eliminated or lost the million dollars.

*I know there are teams who have done recaps and didn't win (Kym & Alli, Joey & Meghan...)

I wouldn't like to see them win, either.

Bookworm:

--- Quote from: nosyrabbit on December 06, 2014, 11:49:26 AM --- I feel like the producers are typically extremely fair and would never alter any outcome but a surfing Fast Forward in a season with professional surfers is beyond ridiculous.

--- End quote ---
PREACH

nosyrabbit:
The Dentists' Episode 10 Commentary
Although this leg ends in victory it definitely did not start the way we wanted it to. We decided to head to the airport and started with the slowest cabbie ever. Bad cab rides are just part of the race but unless there is entertainment value the audience never sees them. At the airport we located the only travel agent who assured us there were no seats on the Singapore Airlines flight. When someone looks me in the eye and tells me something I typically have a tendency to believe them. We actually booked our tickets before the wrestlers but the travel agent was apparently mistaken about the flight being sold out. What the audience did not see is that Robbie and Brooke were trying to book a flight on an airline that was prohibited for safety reasons and a producer and a security staff member pulled them out of line and stopped them. When I confronted them about it and said "I can't wait until we are about to make a fatal mistake and you stop us", the blank stare on their faces told me that they hadn't considered the implications. They were just trying to keep them safe but what they should have done is allowed them to book the flight, then tell them they couldn't take it and hit them with the appropriate time penalty. Ultimately it did not matter because the wrestlers were last anyway but the penalty would have delayed their start in leg 11.
When we arrived in Manila there was an equalizer anyway but those hours of being alone and not knowing where the other teams were was pure agony. We slept in the worst hotel you could imagine and all four teams started on level ground. We all made it uneventfully to the detour decision point and got our clue at the same time.
Amy and Maya started with a major mistake by not reading their clue. I used to watch and wonder how teams could make mistakes like that but until you are on The Amazing Race you just can't understand the pressure of the competition. Was it a stupid mistake? Absolutely. How many stupid mistakes have we made thus far? Too many to count. Oh, here comes another one....
I was able to get the sidecar attached to the motorcycle really quickly but obviously the shock alluded me. What made it really difficult was the way it was tucked behind the plastic cover. I didn't see it so I started looking at the most minute details. I literally was changing nuts because the colors did not match the display. Obviously the shock was staring right at me the whole time. I really felt like attention to detail would be our strong suit going in to the race but for the second time we got lost in the minutia and failed to see the big picture.
After the sidecar we had a long and convoluted course to get to the ox challenge. We were just minutes behind Adam and Bethany and actually caught up to them at one point of our trip. Our tricycle driver didn't know where he was going and we had to stop for directions multiple times. It's agonizing to have to keep stopping because every time you talk to someone you have to stop and wait for a release to be signed. Nothing is worse than standing on the side of the road getting a release signed and watching another team pass you by.
Fortunately we were able to get there without losing too much time but we allowed the Sweet Scientists to close the gap and they got there just minutes behind us. We were very lucky to find the clue in the mud as quickly as we did. The ox actually tried getting out of the rice paddy and when he did the plow got twisted. We had to disconnect the plow and reattach it. I decided to head back to the far corner to start a systematic pattern to cover the whole area as efficiently as possible. The path I chose cut right across the spot where the clue was and Misti actually stepped on it after the plow pulled it up.
The scientists found their clue literally seconds after we did. I knew it would be a foot race to the mat but what I did not realize is that Amy and Maya had not paid their tricycle driver. We had an easy run to the mat and to our fifth victory. Although this leg was a victory it was definitely not the way I wanted the leg to play out. Start with a travel mistake, screw up a detour, get lost along the way and pull out a victory due to luck. So frustrating to be 10 legs in and still be making stupid mistakes that could easily take us out. I feel like we earned our first four victories but this one was definitely a gift.
Can we pull it together or will we continue to unravel? Tune in tonight to find out.

‪#‎TAR25‬ ‪#‎AmazingRaceFridays‬ ‪#‎TheDentists‬ ‪#‎TheSave‬ ‪#‎AmazingRace‬

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