The Amazing Race > Racers Corner

Season 30 Racer's Insights

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Jen #TeamExtreme:

--- Quote from: maf on February 04, 2018, 02:05:12 PM ---Hi, I'm another one who greatly appreciate your blog. I love the peek behind the curtains as well as the insight in how you thought about the different elements. I also very much like to see strong teams racing, specially all female ones so you guys fit the bill perfectly.

And now I have a couple of questions as well.

First a small fill in a missing detail question. Which route did you fly from Marsielle to Prague?

Secondly a slightly more involved question. I assume there is some temptation to bend the speed limits a bit whenever there is a self-driving leg. And in earlier seasons we have seen racers get busted by the police for speeding. But I have heard rumors about production having some sort of device to deter speeding. I would greatly appreciate if you were able confirm this and clarify how that works.

--- End quote ---

Hi maf! Thanks for the support.

The first flight to Prague was Marseille > Barcelona > Prague. I believe the second flight was Marseille > Brussels > Prague. Those of us on flight #1 slept a few hours on the floor in the Barcelona airport. Unfortunately, our flight leaving Marseille was delayed about an hour, so it cut into our sleep time. From what I recall, flight #2 hunkered down in Marseille for some sleep since their flight through Brussels departed the next morning. It took some digging, but flight #1 was a Vueling flight from Marseille > Barcelona > Prague. They only offer this flight a few days a week. Sometimes it arrives at 10 am, sometimes at 10:35, other times at 10:45, which makes it difficult to search. (See attachments).

As far as the speed limits... Before the race we have a giant safety/security meeting. We were told the most dangerous thing that we would do would be self-driving. They're not lying. Safety is their number one concern, understandably. You don't realize how difficult it is to drive with a camera in your face (especially if it's dark out and their light is blinding you). The cameraman completely blocks your view out the passenger side window/mirror. He/she will always move if you need them to, but it's tricky...

This season, production put the power in the hands of the camera & sound guys/gal (there was one female on the sound crew this year, Ali, and she was RAD!!). The basic rule was that if they felt unsafe, they could tell us to slow down. They gave some general limits (no more than 10 over the speed limit on freeways, for example), and if we were violating the speed limit, our crew would warn us and tell us to slow down. Or, if they felt unsafe (even if we weren't speeding) they could tell us to slow down. If we continued to violate it, they'd give us a time penalty. This, of course, is a bit subjective. Driving with Indy Car drivers, you're probably not going to ever feel unsafe...haha! But for the most part, I think people stayed in line. There's certainly no more variance in speeding in a self-drive leg as there is to having a good/bad taxi in a non-self-drive leg.

Alenaveda:
Hi, Jen! Glad to have you here! After six legs you and Kristi are definitelty my fav team of the season.

Now..., before starting the race did you have a planned strategy or topics on how to approach the different difficulties you could face along the way? And if that was the case (and talking about the six legs aired) did you need to make changes or adjust it once on the race?

georgiapeach:
Thanks so much Jen! We love details around here. Our WIKImaster will be ecstatic to have flight confirmation!

We love self driving legs and are happy to see them again. Were you given instructions about needing to be able to drive stick pre-race as well this season? That has been variable in the past.

Jen #TeamExtreme:

--- Quote from: Alenaveda on February 05, 2018, 12:05:37 PM ---Hi, Jen! Glad to have you here! After six legs you and Kristi are definitelty my fav team of the season.

Now..., before starting the race did you have a planned strategy or topics on how to approach the different difficulties you could face along the way? And if that was the case (and talking about the six legs aired) did you need to make changes or adjust it once on the race?

--- End quote ---

Awe, thanks Alenaveda!! That means a lot. There are so many likable teams this year. We felt really lucky to get along with everyone. I know drama makes the show a bit more interesting, but selfishly, it was nice to not get mixed up in it!

Kristi and I watched a lot of the show before leaving. We would talk about different scenarios, who would do what Roadblock, etc. We're obviously both pretty physical, but with my history of knee injuries, we opted for having Kristi do more of the seemingly "physical" tasks. Kristi has a history of concussions, so her memory isn't quite as solid as mine, so we'd have me do the more mental tasks. This is of course based on very little information, so we did our best at assessing the location, not just how the question was phrased. So far, the Roadblocks we've each performed have been completely suited to our strengths.

The other thing we discussed was how hard it would be to be together 24/7 for 30 days! We addressed the fact that we'd probably have moments of complete meltdowns, screaming fits, f*ckups and more. Haha! Production has been been kind in not showing too much of them, though the bits that I've seen, sounded way worse in my head than they appeared in the show. We decided that we'd take nothing personally, that we were both there for the same reason, to be a kick-ass all female team, to make the F3 and become the 4th F/F team to win - some say this is insignificant because it's been done before, but it hasn't been done enough. We were serious about this goal and weren't going to let interpersonal drama get in the way of it.

Both of us have an insane competitive drive and focus, almost to a fault. We were caught off-guard about the "race-blind" phenomenon that makes you miss obvious details (like the perfect pour sign in the brewery or not getting a map in Iceland for a self-drive leg). It took a conscious effort to slow down and THINK before we started running/racing/driving. You can't even imagine the amount of adrenaline you feel during this race.

Also, the self-drive was much more difficult than we anticipated and we had a lot of it! The other piece that started getting to me going to Zimbabwe actually, was the amount that the "not-knowing-what's-coming" scenario would have on me. I would spend too much energy trying to anticipate what production had planned. It would drive me mad. We would research every detail of every place we were going before arriving and try to anticipate what was coming. Might have been better served doing a little less of that...

Oh, we also discussed U-Turns and Alliances. We decided that we would only use a U-Turn if we were in the back of the pack and HAD to use it. Otherwise, we didn't feel it was worth the risk of potentially making an enemy or at the very least losing the trust of our fellow racers. As far as alliances, we did NOT want to make any rigid alliances. I don't think there is a blanket right and wrong answer for alliances. I think a lot of it depends on the kind of racer you are, how strong of a team you are, what type of game you're playing, how you're seen by your competition, etc. We took the approach of forming genuine relationships with teams on the race. Trying to get to know who they were OUTSIDE of the race context. But we were always mindful of the conversations happening around us, the teams that spent more or less time together, and so on. At this point in the race a few teams had agreed about teams that they felt threatened by or didn't trust (not who you may think), so we definitely had some soft agreements in place.

Jen #TeamExtreme:

--- Quote from: georgiapeach on February 05, 2018, 12:12:29 PM ---Thanks so much Jen! We love details around here. Our WIKImaster will be ecstatic to have flight confirmation!

We love self driving legs and are happy to see them again. Were you given instructions about needing to be able to drive stick pre-race as well this season? That has been variable in the past.

--- End quote ---

It was strongly recommended that you know how to drive stick, but it wasn't a requirement. There was no test you had to pass... We also had to go and get an international driver's license (which I've never done before despite driving internationally quite a bit). Apparently, Jess doesn't even have a driver's license of any kind, so she was never going to be driving a vehicle during the race.

Both Kristi and I know how to drive stick, but I had a bit more experience than her. She also had a traumatic experience driving stick during a personal trip to France, LOL, so she was a little gun-shy. We we defaulted to me being the driver and Kristi handling the navigation, but occasionally switched it up, like leaving the Roadblock in Iceland when I got soaking wet and wanted to change in the car.

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