Topic: Student-produced version of the Amazing Race airs online

[puddin]

Student-produced version of the Amazing Race airs online and is equally amazing

article link

site link

[TARAsia Fan]

I watched part of the first episode and it's really done well. I'm impressed. This might help my TAR withdrawal.

[apskip]

Bravo to Ithaca College students who participated or were part of the production end of The Race! I have watched the first episode of season 1, 90 minutes in length, and I am ready to see more. However, I think it is worth doing just like Amazing Race Asia 1 was approached. Episodes were rationed so they lasted. Since the next telecast episode of The Race will be its Second Season, episode 1 on Sept. 17, I am going to do a recap below (DO NOT LOOK THERE IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT AND DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED) and will do others on Sept. 3, 10 and 17 before starting on the new season on Sept. 18

THE RACE, Episode 1 (special 90 minute)
Thomas Pardee is the host for The Race. He introduces the 6 teams:

Kate and Nick - friends, he from Long Island, she from Minnesota, with a known difference of opinion on his aggressive driving style

Kristin and Melissa - freshmen roommates

Neil and Rick - longterm friends

Joel and Jefferson - ?

Mike and Martha - good friends

Matt and Jeff - new roommates

The opening of The Race is around the base of a statue on campus (presumably at Ithaca College; after all, why would they go to Cornell?). Thomas explains that there will be no non-elimination legs in this Race, all of which will be in New York State (the shape of which is part of the logo). The first clue takes teams to the Whalen Monument, which I have subsequently learned must be in front of the Walen Center for Music. There, the next clue introduces the first Challenge, which is to Pop Every Balloon and bring all the pieces to a collection point near another statue. Teams are each assigned to a room full of same-colored balloons, which they pop and then pick up the plastic shreds.

The next clue introduces the second  Challenge, which is to drive to Captain Bill's Marina at Watkins Glen where the next clue is "close onshore at Seneca Lake". This is the first of several navigational tests which are the heart of The Race. Doing tasks does not tend to differentiate teams much with one exception when it is luck-based. However, driving tests ability to read a map, obtain directions from others and translate map information into real turns at the appropriate places. One team stops at home for their EZPass before heading on, which I believe was a smart move that paid off later. Teams get to the Marina in bunches, but Joel and Jefferson are quite a bit behind everyone else. Some teams have trouble discovering that the clue is inside the restaurant on the window sill. Joel and Jefferson get a lot of help from an anonymous voice who practically tells them where it is.

The next clue sends teams on to the 3rd Challenge, Pick and Patch in Stanley NY. It is a corn maze with 2 miles of possible paths. To demonstrate their value, the ladies wishing the alliance showed that they have a valuable map when the guys are clueless about how to proceed next and they invite the guys to follow them. The first 4 teams arrive close together and and all in the maze together. The finishing order from the maze was:

1. Neil and Rick
2. Matt and Jeff
3. Kristin and Melissa
4. Kate and Nick
5. Mike and Martha
6. Joel and Jefferson

The next clue is for the 4th Challenge, Institution of Martial Excellences in Pittsford NY. The top 2 teams agree en route to work together. On arrival one member must Break a piece of wood (looks easy and nobody has any trouble with it) and the other must do a Climbing Room in a maximum of 15 minutes. If you fall off, you must go back to the beginning of the part that you were in. If you fail to finish in 15 minutes you are given the clue. This one was tough and a few got through it quickly but most took most of that time. On the way, the #6 team was going 70 mph in a 35 mph zone and were very lucky to not get a ticket.

The next clue is to go to George Eastman House in Rochester, where all teams do is just get a clue to go elsewhere (I hate these in regular TAR!). This 5th Challenge asks one team member to eat at Nick Tahoe's Hots restaurant and th other to go to the House of Guitars, in whichever order. The first is to eat a Garbage Plate (there are several different types). The latter is the classic luck-based task which will have big winners and big losers, find a CD (there are probably only 6) with The Race logo scattered among 135,000 CDs at the House of Guitars. Eating went like this:

Martha 9 minutes
Matt/Jeff 11 minutes
Joel/Jefferson 12 minutes
Neil/Rick 28 minutes
Kristin 29 minutes
Kate/Nick - 15 minutes

In the CD task, look at this, keeping in mind that the second team member was allowed to help after 1 hour:
Kristin/Melissa 16 minutes (allowed them to catch up into second place)
Matt and Jeff 40 minutes (fast enough to keep them in first place)
Neil and Rick 1 hour 19 minutes 
Mike and Martha 1 hour 14 minutes
Kate and Nick 1 hour 15 minutes
Joel and Jefferson 1 hour 37 minutes (I bet that there was only one CD left and they were truly looking for a needle in a haystack)

The final clue takes teams to the pitstop at Letchworth State Park.

#1 Matt and Jeff were not allowed to check until after a 2 minute time penalty for not collecting all the balloon shreds was enforced
#2 Kristin and Melissa got here as a result of their lucky CD find.
#3 Neil and Rick were in the running for #1 most of the day but bad luck with tthe CD find dropped them down
#4 Mike and Martha arrived one minute before
#5 Kate and Nick
#6 Joel and Jefferson arrived in the rain and dark. they proved to be hapless all day and were deservedly eliminated. When asked what they had learned, they said they had a fun, productive day(at least compared to most college days). However, the trailer to the episode had outtakes of them sniping at each other that were really funny.

[TARAsia Fan]

It was Kate and Nick who got the EZ Pass that paid off in the end. I have to say this version was really done well and the music which was produced for this race was TAR-style that it also brought some drama to the episode. Joel and Jefferson were complete idiots. When you say right off the bat that you're going to win the race, somehow the racing gods will come back and get you in the end and Joel and Jefferson got bit.

Don't you think that the producers somehow decided to help Joel and Jefferson at Captain's Bil Marina? That was funny.

[georgiapeach]

While it won't be telecast until mid Sept, the first episode of Season 2 is online here if you can't stand the wait!

Season one got excellent reviews and I know season 2 has been eagerly awaited. Sadly for me, I can't join in the fun as Quick Time is dead to me until I can completely reinstall Windows....which prob will not be happening anytime soon! 

[TARAsia Fan]

I managed to save all episodes so if you want the first season in the same way you got TARA, Peach, let me know.

[TARAsia Fan]

Oh, and Kate and Nick finished the garbage plate in 15 minutes.

[apskip]

Ken, thanks very much. I have gone back and inserted that 15 minutes at the right spot. It is good to see that there are others vitally interested in such a well-produced Race. It promises to keep us from missing TAR12 too much through about the end of October and ARA2 whenever it starts. The timing could not be more appropriate with the weekly Amazing Race Asia 1 commentary just ended and Amazing Race Asia 2 many weeks off.

[apskip]

I wanted to get an idea of how much driving teams have to do in a leg of The Race, so I went to my Internet resources to figure it out. Here is a table fo the MapQuest estimated time and distance for each of the major driving segments for leg 1:

Start at Ithaca College 953 Danby Road, Ithaca NY                                                                                                                             Minutes    Miles

Captain Bill's Marina, 517 E. 4th St, Watkins Glen NY                                                                                                                              40         24.73

Pick'n Patch, 2205 Routes 5 and 20, Stanley NY                                                                                                                                   48         41.14

Institute of Martial Excellences, 2851 Clover St., Pittsford NY                                                                                                                  43         35.46

George Eastman House, 900 East Avenue, Rochester NY                                                                                                                       46         39.9

Note: I skipped the two short around rochester segments

Nick Tahou Hots, 320 West Main St., Rochester

Letchworth State Park, 1 Letchworth State Park, Castile NY                                                                                                                   94         68.53

That may not look all that much, but the totals for precise, accurate driving following directions teams did not have access to were over 271 miles and 210 minutes. That's a difficult day, with the stress of Challenges thrown in between the driving segments. It is clear that navigation skills will be the key to winning the Race. The team that does this best should win.

[apskip]

EPISODE 2 starts at Letchworth State Park, the "Grand Canyon of the East" (not really)

Teams pick up clues under a covered area, as it is still raining. There is no indication that there are doing so at times that reflect their finish from the prior day. The first challenge today involed Letchworth State Park, as teams have to answer 8 questions, each oen giving them one letter toward the clue.
Kristin and Melissa go to the Park Police office and they get access to that office's PC. They get 7 of the 8 questions answered quickly.
Mike and Martha go to a large park information board.
Kate and Nick go to the gift shop.
The 2 leading male/male teams both caucus and agree that they want to eliminate Kristin and Melissa from The Race today.

The answer to the word puzzle forms by the 8 letters is GLENIRIS, which is a specific area where teams have to count the number of Tea Tables. Teams then go to Little Falls (I'm not sure how) and get the clue that takes them on to Windsor Park, Elmira where they will search both sides of the street looking for the right section of this park.

On the the way through the park, Nick and Kate violate the park's 25 mph speed limit and receive either a ticket or a warning.

Arrival order at Elmira is Kristin/Melissa, kate/Nick, Matt/Jeff, Rick/Neil, and Mike/Martha. This is one of the most fabulous tasks of all time, painting a picket fence white like Tom Sawyer (becasue Mark Twain wrote the Prince and the Pauper in Elmira). Teams can paint one wicket, but must enlist a stranger to paint one befer they can paint another. It is sheer mayhem as strangers are recruited to be part of this painting effort. The next clue is to go to Bacon St. in Owego(the small town between Binghamton and Elmira, not the larger city of Oswego which is north on Lake Ontario with a SUNY branch) , which is reputed to be very difficult for even locals to find.

Teams arrive in Owego and do have a lot of trouble. Mike and Martha breeze into town and find someone who knows where it is after all the other teams have been misdirected or nondirected. They are marginally ahead of Matt/Jeff. Later Neil and Rick, Kristin and Melissa and Kate and Mike get there. The clue sends all to Hiawatha Island where they take a boat ride on the Susquehanna River before taking a path to find each of 5 artifacts. The checker decrees that neither Kristin and Melissa nor Kate and Nick have the arrowhead, so both teams have to return down the trail to find it. This is after Melissa had criticized Kristin for giving directional advice on getting to Lake Hiawatha to Mike and Martha, who were already at Lake Hiawatha and did not need it.

The final clue sends teams to the pitstop at Tioga County Courthouse back in Owego. The finish order was:
#1 Mike and Martha
#2 Rick and Neil
#3 Matt and Jeff
#4 Kristin and Melissa, less than one minute ahead of
#5 Kate and Nick, who are eliminated

This was a fun episode. Letchworth State Park was confusing and could have used some additional explanation from the host. Windsor Park was gem. Lake Hiawatha was really good theater.

[mswood]

Oh my god, this is actually very cool.

[Slowhatch]

I just finished burning and watching the Season 2 premiere. Very impressive  ; and the contestant mix easily betters some of the sorrier TAR mactor seasons.

[apskip]

THE RACE Episode 3  starts in Owego NY

All four teams are competing to not be eliminated today, with the top 3 going on to the following day's finale.

Challenge #1 is to drive to Binghamton 23 miles away and locate the Recreation Park carousel. It turns out that the Binghamton area (including Johnson City and Endicott) is the home of 6 antique Herschell carousels.  On the way there, the two male/male teams work together and Mike/Martha ask to join them. It looks bad for Kristin/Melissa.

Challenge #2 is find the other 5 carousels and bring back the red ribbon attached to the sign there. Each of the three allied teams goes to a different park. That way they can help each other with directions. Smart! Melissa is driving and tries to follow Matt/Jeff. They deliberately mislead her and get away, leaving her lost. I think Kristin/Melissa have tried drafting too often during the entire RACE and are now paying the price for it. The final park for all teams to get the next clue at is Ross Park.

Challenge 3 is to find the Hills Candle Factory in Fort Crain. There, they search thousands of jars for sale to find the ones marked Ithaca College TV on the label. This appears to be a luck-based task, but they are plenty of marked jars, so no team has real difficulty finding one. Kristin/Melissa are about 10 minutes behind arriving at the candle factory. Mike, Matt, Neil, and Melissa find them and the next clue sends them to Hibbardsville.

Challenge #4 is to get your picture taken with Big Norm at the Hibbardsville Mall. It turns out that the Hibbardsville Mall is just a farm building on a farm. Big Norm is the world's largest pig and you pay $2 honor system to take your picture with him. Kristin/Melissa are only 2 minutes behind arriving here. Teams now have to stay for 30 minuntes before they are released. The next clue sends them to Critz Farms in Cavenovia, where they will take the Evergreen Challenge and more.

challenge #5 The Evergreen Challenge is to find and bring back for verification of sprigs from a series of photos of various Chrsitmas trees (it looks like about eight types) that are on the farm. An expert tells teams that they either are right or made a mistake with each one they bring back. The order of finish was Mike/Martha, Neil/Rick, Matt/Jeff, and Kristin/Melissa.

Next is the classic luck-based task, Needle-in-a-Haystack. One member of each team has to search through 4 bales of hay for a needle. After one hour their teammate joined them, but it didn't help. No team found a needle in the allotted, which I don't know but it was multiple hours.

So, tiebreaker was used, the Pumpkin Carry. Team had 3 pumpkins and had to carve them open to get 25 seeds from each and carry them down a field shorter than 100 yards and back empty, alternating team member. Neil/Rick broke their knife and were handicapped by that in finishing. Order of finish was Matt/Jeff, Mike/Martha, Kristin/Melissa(good for them, finally out of last place), and Neil/Rick. The final clue is to East Syracuse DeWitt Town Hall for the pitstop. It is a neck and neck race for all 4 teams. Kristin/Melissa have to stop for directions, but later they get someone to lead them directly to Town Hall. However, it is a virtual 3-way tie at the finish:

Mike/Martha
Neil/Rick (what a comeback)
Matt/Jeff

Kristin/Melissa were less than one minute behind and were eliminated.

[apskip]

THE RACE, FINAL EPISODE

Since the last post in this thread is my Episode 3 recap, I am going ahead with this recap one day earlier than planned. We start in DeWitt NY.

The first clue sends each of the 3 teams to the Carrier Dome in Syracuse. Teams appear to be released in one minute intervals. Matt and Jeff state that they have visited one of their brothers recently in a dorm at Syracuse U. so that should give them an edge (it doesn't). Rick and Neil see the Carrier Dome on a hill first, with Mike and Martha close behind. Matt and Jeff are about 5 minutes behind. The next clue is available in the parking lot and it takes them on foot with one team member being blindfolded and led away and given a cell phone when they get there to contact their partner who is at the original spot. The partner has to navigate using their instructions and find them to get the next clue. This is tricky as they are on the fifth floor of a nondescript building about a half mile away. Mike gets to the right area at ground level and Martha spots him and guides him in and up. Rick and Neil are about one minute beind. Matt and Jeff make up time and are 2 minutes behind. The next clue is for Owen Orchard Auburn NY plus the first key for a future challenge.

Matt and Jeff now think they know where this orchard is, but they don't act on that and ask for directions like the other teams. Rick and Neil overshoot and find that it's "back on route 5." Mike and Martha arrive first and find that they have to find 3 golden apples but can ask bystanders to help them. They ask several and the little kids are particularly adept in finding (or already knowing, I suspect) on which trees the golden apples can be found. All 3 of their golden apples were found by kids. They get into a tractor-pulled cart and go back to the entrance. Rick and Neil started slightly behind and get also some helpful kids, but only one of their 3 golden apples is found by the kids. They can't find a cart, so they jog in with some loss of time. Matt and Jeff also used kids, who found one of their 3 apples. However, the tractor and cart were available to them when they needed to get back to the entrance.

The next clue sends teams to Cayuga Nature Center back in Ithaca (you know you're close to the finish line when you are back in the starting town) but they are also instructed to take 2 small bags of apples at Owen Orchard and have them available for the future. Cayuga Nature Center is one of those stupid just-get-a clue-to-go-somewhere-else tasks, although it does have a second key. Rick and Neil and Mike and Martha arrive together. The clue sends teams on to the Ithaca Farmer's Market where they are supposed to exchange one of their bags of apples for their next clue with one vendor.

Mike and Martha arrive first at Ithaca Farmers Market. They methodically ask vendors until they find the old lady who has their clue and give her the bag of apples. Rick and Neil are second and Matt and Jeff third. the next clue is a walking tour of the Planets, which is set up the Museum of Science in Ithaca and involves 9 separate stations representing each of the planets and the "center of the solar system" which is where the next clue is. Teams have to climb the fence at the Farmers Market to get the shortest route to the Planet Walk. Rick and Neil grab the lead. Mike and Martha go astray at a school. Matt and Jeff continue to be last. Rick and Neil finish their 9th planet when Mike and Martha have only 5. They they get a third key and have to solve a Commons Puzzle. A tracing ties together the keys they have been given to indicate the railroad tracks at their feet. There is an arrow on the map which points haphazardly in a direction. In that direction at the edge of a circle are the names Ithaca Falls, Cascadeville Creek, and Beebe Lake. Rick and Neil can call a taxi, but they must tell it where to take them. They choose Cascadeville Creek. When they get there, there is no clue box, so they reroute to Ithaca Falls. Mike and Martha saw them just before they finished solving it, so it was wasy for them and they made up time. They elected to go to Cascadeville Falls, then to Beebe Lake, finally to Ithaca Falls. Matt and Jeff weree behind but they chose Ithaca Falls. Even so, they arrived there third. Ithaca Falls is where the final clue box was. It sent teams back to the Ithaca College campus for a final challenge.

Teams had a board similar to chess but smaller. They had to arrange 16 puzzle pieces so that the 4 sides match up with all adjacent pieces. It sounds easy but isn't because they had to work through a lot of combinations. There were some false starts where teams thought they had solved it. It was not clear who was going to win, although Matt and jeff had much less time than the other two teams. Rick and Neil barely edged out Matt and Jeff in solving the puzzle, then could not lose the short footrace to the finish line. Mike and Martha appeared to be about one minute behind.

[apskip]

While others are getting all worked up over Survivor China and Kid Nation, I have started watching THE RACE 2, which premiered last night on Ithaca College TV, channel 16 is you happen to live in Ithaca NY. Their programs' live webcast, requiring REAL Player only to view, is supposed to be accessible over the Internet, but I could not successfully connect to it. The alternative is to wait until their Video-on-Demand is available. It requires Quicktime, which can be downloaded for free. The show is on Wednesday nights at 930pm, so it is not clear how fast after that they will have the episodes up, but I expect pretty fast. I have decided to post reviews on Saturdays starting in 48 hours. Since the first episode of THE RACE 2 was already available, I will certainly be able to meet that goal; for future episode, time will tell.

Here is a link to The Race 2:

The Race 2

[apskip]

THE RACE 2, episode 1

This second version starts on the Ithaca College campus once again, this time with 8 teams:

Hal/Matilda - brother/sister from Oxford England

Sadie/Geniola - rommates

Daniel/Jeff - from an a cappella group

Kristiyan and Nick - a Bulgarian and his American roommate

Jon/Jenna - longterm friends from Scranton PA

Drew/Vanessa - a team put together at the last minute from 2 strangers

Dave and Matt - from a comedy group

Nick and Chris - drniking buddies from PA

The starting line is at Stewart Park at Cayuga Lake. The clue sends teams to a bridge around the lake. This is probably the single most interesting task I have ever seen on any Amazing Race-equivalent because teams are challenged to think and invent. There are 8 marked barrels floating near that bridge. Each team must take a set of materials provided and use them to make a fishing line strong enough to hook their marked barrel, haul it in and capture their car keys inside it. A few teams catch on fast and do really well. The others learn from watching the fast teams, as those complaining about how impossible it is seem to figure it out after seeing their competition succeed. The first team to hook a barrel, Dave and Matt, hooks the wrong barrel and get some other team's keys and then use a spare key of their own. I was sure that when they checked in at the pitstop whey were going to receive a stiff penalty for this, but the RACE 2 producers missed it in the correct time frame or decided not to act. 

The next clue takes teams on to Beebe Lake, where they will find their next clue near the waterfall. Dave and Matt get there first and, heedless to the lack of parking, decide to park their car in the street. It turns out that a Cornell University bus route goes right by there and they have blocked the next 2 buses. Police are out lookign for them as they find the clue and manage to slip out of town unnoticed. Next is a DETOUR, Alpaca Antics or Maple Madness. In Alpaca Antics drive 34 miles and then herd alpaca into a marked pen with a long wand. Maple Madness is going 28 miles and answering the question Which of You Wants to go for a Ride?, which is the Soapbox Derby kind. The course is short and deceptively looks quite easy, but the steering has to be treacherous. It takes almost nothing to cause the derby racers to go off course and into hay bales. Those who succeed at this do so by going very slow at the start; one or two actually use reclined footpower to bring the racer across the line. At this point, Hal/Matilda were going quite slow. However, Chris/Nick may have had one too many the night before; they far behind.

The final clue sends teams to the Broome County Courthouse, Binghamton. The finish order is:

1. Nick and Kristiyan - who did Alpacas
2. Dave and Matt - who did Alpacas   (Note: it is clear that the first two teams hate each other; there was interaction on an expressway)
3. Jon and Jenna - did Soapbox
4. Sadie and Geniola - did Alpacas
5. Hal and Matilda - did Soapbox
6. Daniel and Jeff - did Soapbox
7. Drew and Vanessa - did Alpacas
8. Chris and Nick - did Soapbox

The next clue was given out and Nick and Chris were eliminated. No loss there. It won't belong before Hal/Matilda join them, as they are congenitally slow.

I liked this episode. It ran less than one hour, unlike the first episode of The Race 1, which was 90 minutes to introduce a smaller number of teams. That forced this episode to be quite limited in scope. It looks like The Race 2 will have another 5 episodes, which is fine by me. 

[apskip]

The Race 2, episode 2

First, please note that ICTV has fixed their live broadcast over the web, so you can watch future episodes Wednesday nights at 930pm using REAL Player. The other alternative is the after-the-fact webcasts discussed previously. A link to both is provided by going either to my link a few posts earlier or to puddin's link that starts this thread.

This episode started in Binghampton after a short rest period. Teams received their clues as they checked in to the pitstop for the prior leg. When allowed to open them, teams find out that they must go to Gary's U Pull It auto junkyard in Kirkwood and locate 3 specific parts, a Mercury hubcap, a Dodge wheel, and an interior roof panel from a third model. Nothing extraordinary happens there except that Matt and Jeff arrived first and put glue and gunk on the envelopes and clues for the other teams, which was pretty nasty.

The next clue takes teams to a store named Old Odd and Under back in Binghamton's Antique row area. The clue sends teams to 2 different antique dealers and teams have to guess which of 3 items is the most valuable twice. That means that each team has a 1/9 chance at getting both guesses correct in a consolidated answer sheet, which is judged by a Historian. That means that this is almost totally a luck-based task with wide variations in outcome expected. The correct answers are Weather Vane and Portrait of a Girl.  Any combination other than that is wrong, but teams are not told exactly what was the cause of being wrong. They have to guess again to take another shot at it.  That causes teams to zero in on the correct combination by trial and error, sometimes using up to 6 tries to do so. Two teams (Daniel/Jeff and Hal/Matilda) get none right. Most teams guess one of two correctly on their first try. No teams guesses both correctly on their first try. On their second try, some teams are narrowing in.

Jon and Jenna get it on their 2nd try to take the lead. Matt and Dave were right behind them after requiring 3 tries. Sadie/Ginalola got it after their 4th trip and finished that task 3rd.

Next teams went to a bridge to retrieve a clue. It gave them 3 sets of shoelaces, which had to be exchanged for the shoelaces of 3 people. The color schemes on some of the shoelaces or specialty type of them made them unpopular, which cost time for the unlucky team that inherited them.

The final clue sent teams to the pitstop at the Pub Diner. finishing order there was:

1. Jon and Jenna
2. Matt and Dave
3. Sadie and Ginalola
4. Drew and Vanessa
5. Daniel and Jeff
6. Hal and Matilda
7. Kristiyan and Nick

For the second week in a row, a Kris and Nick team was eliminated, this time because of trouble with the antiques. Hal and Matilda were barely better. Their slowness did not eliminate them this week as I predicted, but it is only a matter of time.

This week's task were very lackluster. Juding antiques is not something that interests most college students and they did not do well at it. Finding auto parts was kind of dumb in that it did not significantly differentiate teams. The shoelace task was the only one which had real life to it.

[apskip]

I now have had the opportunity to view this episode both ways, Live Webcast on Real Player and On-Demand on Quicktime. I vastly prefer the quality on Quicktime, so there will be no more Wednesdays at 930pm for me.

THE RACE 2, episode 3

This episode takes place on a rainy day in the Binghampton area. We learn that Jeff and Daniel are SUNY-Binghamton students, which they believe will give them a big advantage. We'll see. I have not previously been aware that any racers were not from Ithaca College. Could there be any Cornell U. students lurking on other teams?

The first challenge to is obtain 50 empty cans or bottles with 5 cent deposit value and take them to The Can Man. This was a wonderful challenge since it tested the ingenuity of the teams. Jon and Jenna got their clue first at the Park Diner and proceeded to ask the proprietor if he had any empty can or bottles in the trash. He did, 73 in fact, so Jon and Jenna took them and foreclosed any other team from doing that (one actually thought of it and tried).
Matt and Dave try dumpster diving, but after not too long they go to a local Giant supermarket and buy low-priced soda cans.  Sadie and Ginalola were diligent at dumpster diving and came up with the requisite number. Drew and Vanessa went dumpster diving for a long time, then thought about buying soda but didn't do it then; by the time they actually came back to a 7-11 type place to buy soda they were in last place. Jeff and Daniel used their local area knowledge to get some large trash bags full of cans, but it took a while. They thought they were going to be in first, but when they arrived at The Can Man they found out they were 5th. Hal and Matilda continue to not impress me, but they bought soda relatively quickly and got themselves into 4th place.

The next clue was Where's Gordy. Teams had to drive to Ostenengo Park, which is quite large and find an individual who had a red and black zipper plus blue and white shoes. His name is Gordy and he had the clues for each team. This could have been interesting in theory, but in practice the order out of The Can Man was exactly maintained. Dave and Matt had a lucky break when a park policeman who pulled them over decided not to ticket them for driving on the sidewalk.

The final clue sent teams to the Owego Fire Department. This was a no-brainer and again the order was exactly maintained, except that Sadie and Ginalola got into 2nd place. The finish order was:

1. Jon and Jenna
2. Sadie and Ginalola
3. Dave and Matt
4. Hal and Matilda(who were at the Fire Department buildings a long time before they figured out the correct entrance)
5. Jeff and Daniel
6. Drew and Vanessa were eliminated. I liked them as a brand new team that was functioning well together. I was sad to see them go.

[apskip]

The RACE 2 Episode 4

Wow! Stupendous! What was intended to be a normal 45 minute episode of The Race 2 had so many fireworks that it became a 90 minute episode instead. We start in Owego with the interlude between episodes 3 and 4. Dave and Matt, in an effort to throw the other teams off, pretend to damage their cars and pull other pranks to prevent the other teams from getting a good night's rest. Needless to say, they solidify their persona non grata status with the other 4 teams.

Challenge #1 takes place at the Owego Fire Training Center. Teams drive there and locate the fire truck(it's hard to miss in the open). The clue has to be found on the truck, which gets progressively harder from the first to last team. One non-claustrophobic team member has to don fireman's gear, go into a smoke-filled building, navigate through tight spaces to find a dummy and bring it back to the entrance. The other team member has to hook up the couplings for the hose connecting the water main to the fire truck. The couplings are easy and don't take long. Nobody has serious trouble with the navigation inside the building except Sadie(or maybe it was Ginalola, i'm not sure). This was not a well-designed task because it made the rich get richer. Jon and Jenna's lead got larger as all the teams behind Sadie and Ginalola were held up until that team could finish because there was only one building accommodating one person being tested at a time.

The clue sent teams on to the Sa-Na-Na Loft Monument. Teams had to figure out that this was in the Evergreen Cemetery and go there. It was not easy to find even for those with directions. Once there they had to find this monument known locally as the Indian Girl Monument. They then found a clue box with their next clue.

The next challenge was to spot a waved banner in town from the Scenic Overlook adjacent to the Monument. This requried an eagle eye becuase the sign was about 2' x 3' and the distance was about 2 miles.  Once spotted, you have to drive there to pick up your next clue. This was difficult and could have resulted in a change in relative position, but it didn't. Jon and Jenna spotted it first and drove in and parked so that other teams could not see their vehicle when they went to get the clue. Later, Sadie and Ginalola and Hal and Matilda did the same. Daniel and Jeff and Dave and Matt were almost in a tie in picking up the next clue and they were in a tie in getting to the following cluebox.

Next was the ultimate challenge, probably the best task I have seen in reality TV. Teams had been sent to the Tioga County Administration building, which had murals of 12 townships in the county embedded in the brick facing of the building. Inside the entrance a map showing the county was posted. There was a list of 11 questions which could answered using the map and some arithmetic  to eliminate that number of townships. The trick was to correctly identify the remaining non-eliminated township and then drive to the place in that township shown on its mural, where the pitstop would be.

Jon and Jenna started first and had 2 done by the time Sadie and Ginalola and Hal and Matilda arrived. They agreed to collaborate. Later, Daniel and Jeff joined them also. That left Matt and Dave on their own as well as in last place. The other teams were conspiring to get them eliminated. Once Daniel and Jeff and Dave and Matt arrived and the collaborative group had only finished 9 eliminations, then there was only one small map and there were 10 individuals wanting to simultaneously attempting to use it. It was a situation certain to cause chaos and that did occur. There was pushing and shoving and nasty behavior and claims and counter-claims. However, I blame the producers. What did they expect? There should have been 5 maps. Anyway, teams were separated and then each team got 2 minute increments to use it.

First to go was Jon and Jenna. They were down to a choice between Waverly and Candor when Jenna stated that it was Waverly. They told the other 3 teams and left. Those teams saw them go in the wrong direction for the direct route to Waverly (17C West), but they did not know that Jon and Jenna were taking parellel 17 to Waverly, which is 20 miles(Note: I would have taken 17, a superhighway that is only 1 mile longer). Sadie and Ginalola, Hal and Matilda, and Daniel and Jeff nevertheless started on 17C west to Waverly. Dave and Matt narrowed it to Waverly, Candor and Newark Valley, but felt they had to take a risk and get going. They chose Candor, which was only 10 miles away. The 3 teams travelling together decided halfway to Waverly that they had been tricked by Jon and Jenna(they hadn't, but it would have been a mistake to continue to Waverly) and that revised math calculations indicated that they should have gone to Candor. They turned around and went there. Jon and Jenna went all the way to Waverly and discovered that it was not the pitstop. They turned around and went back to the Tioga County Admin Building to see where they had gone wrong. They decided it should have been Candor or someplace else and started for Candor.

The first team to arrive in Candor was obviously Dave and Matt. However, they asked 2 people at a grocery store about the old barn that they were trying to locate. Neither knew and they left just before a third person said "it's just a half mile down the road on Mill St." They were that close, but one had been pressuring the other that Candor was the wrong choice. They went on to Newark Valley, which is about 15 miles away by road(and 4 miles as the crow flies) to the Living History Museum. They found nothing there and decided to return to Candor. The group of 3 teams got into town. Two went one way. Hal and Matilda turned around and took the correct route and ended up first. Daniel and Jeff and Sadie and Ginalola were essentially tied for second. Jon and Jenna asked as they came into town and were directed straight to the Old Barn and finished fourth. Dave and Matt were last and their elimination from The Race 2 will certainly not be lamented by any of the other teams or by me.

I was impressed by the increased energy I saw from Hal and Matilda and by the spunk of Sadie and Ginalola. I still think Jon and Jenna are the classiest team even though they are now in last place.

[TARAsia Fan]

I've been downloading S2 for later viewing. I did see the premiere episode and I'm impressed how much the production improved from the first season. Having quickly scrolled past apskip's recaps of the other episodes (and I'm sure they're very thorough), I feel Dave and Matt are going to be really villains in the race. I was hoping for their elimination right from the get-go. I enjoyed the first season and the guys at Ithaca College should be proud of what they've done from what I've seen of S2.

[apskip]

THE RACE 2 episode 4 (although the producer refers to it as Finale part 1)

We start in Candor at the Old Barn. Jon and Jenna are 25 minutes behind the other 3 teams. The first clue sends teams to the Side Hill Goat Farm on Spencer Road.

Challenge 1 is teammates holding hands until they locate a feamle goat with a specific numbered tag, then they can break and one must then milk a cup full. A small boy offers advice to those who ask for it since he is an expert. Hal and Matilda are not very fast. Daniel and Jeff are fast. Sadie and Ginalola are lightning fast. Jon and Jenna are very fast. They appear to be about 15 minutes behind at that point.

Challenge 2 is to drive down Spencer Road and find thte only operating flax field in New York State. The proprietor demonstrates how to make bundles of flax and put them into a proper formation of 10. Each teammate has to do 5 hands full of flax. Jon and Jenna miss the field and lose time as they have to come back to find it.

Challenge 3 is to get to Gino's Pizzeria on The Commons in Ithaca. This would be a great challenge if all the teams were from Ithaca College. However, since Daniel and Jeff are not it is highly discriminatory against them. One can argue that they had the advantage in Binghamton since they are SUNY Binghamton students. I will say that in an earlier episode it did nto matter so much. Sadie and Ginalola get behind Daniel and Jeff for a long while and do not pass them so they will not be followed. I think the most significant thing about this challenge is that Jon and Jenna talk about their radar detector. I have no doubt that they used one and that Jon was driving wasy over the speed limit. There is no other way that they could have made up the amount of time that they did. They arrived at Gino's only 5 minutes behind.

Challenge 4 is a winner! It is to deliver 3 pizzas from Gino' s to local addresses. It turns out to be the same 3 addresses for all teams. To watch how they approach this was fascinating, but again Daniel and Jeff were screwed as they did not know any of the local roads and everybody else did. Daniel and Jeff had to get detailed directions from Gino's and that took precious time. The order arriving back at gino's for the next clue was:

Jon and Jenna (who were extremely knowlwedgeable of local roads and took the lead)
Sadie and Ginalola (who could not figure out how they lost first place)
Hal and Matilda
Daniel and Jeff

Challenge 5 was just to drive into a parking garage in The Commons  at Seneca and Cayuga and go to the top deck for the pitstop. This took maybe 3 minutes. The finish order was the same. Daniel and Jeff were eliminated due to the hometown advantage.

The producers should either not have non-Ithaca College students in the competition or they should carefully examine the advantage inherent of challenges in and around Ithaca. They should also develop and enforce rules aginst speeding!



 

[makz3d]

I just finished watching 1 and 2.  They were very good.  I just watched the final of Race2 and it was great.  The suspense at the end wondering who was going to win was heart pounding.  The race to the finish line was very exciting.

Thank you for furnishing the link and the reviews for each episode.

[apskip]

THE RACE 2 FINALE

This terrific episode starts on top of the same parking garage. All three teams get the clue to get to the TCAT bus #30 at Green St. in Ithaca, which isn't far away. They all make the 430pm bus and have a puzzle to solve from an "Open on the bus" envelope. The solution to the letter transposition puzzle is first worked out by Hal and Matilda. It is: Go to Willis Straight Hall on the Cornell University campus. Hal and Matilda are foolish to share their solution with the other teams. All get there about the same time. Sadie and Ginalola and Hal and Matilda  find the clue box outside while Jon and Jenna are looking inside and taking an extra 5 to 10 minutes to find it. However, once they do, Jon and Jenna distinguish themselves with hustle. Neither of the other teams has a second gear, so Jon and Jenna slowly catch up throughout the final challenge.

The final challenge is to take 4 pictures of the Cornell U. Campus and use them to find the ribbons waiting at the site depicted by the pictures. This is a particularly good challenge since Ithaca U. students spend little if any time on the Cornell U. campus (although I would guess that Sadie and Ginalola have the highest probability of doing so). All teams had to ask the local students for help. Hal and Matilda fall further back as Jon and Jenna surge ahead. At the finish, Jon and Jenna narrowly edge out Sadie and Ginalola.

The final twist is a good one. Get back to the Ithaca U. campus and to the observatory where the FINISH LINE awaits. Remember that their cars are a long way away, so the challenge is to convince someone to drive them. This is complicated by the fact that it is a Sunday and students are returning to the Cornell U. campus from Spring Break. They are typically not interested in leaving the campus again. Jon and Jenna get someone while Sadie and Ginalola get a person in an office to get her car out of a parking garage. Jon and Jenna are not as knowledgeable of the route back as Sadie and Ginalola, but it doesn't matter. The head start they had was enough. I believe that if the car Sadie and Ginalola rode in did not have to come out of a garage they would have won. Hal and Matilda were a distant third. Thomas Pardee, the host, got a face full of cake as the staff celebrated at the finish line.

I thought that The Race 2 on the whole was excellent reality television. I am looking forward to The Race 3.

[bandergrove]

Hi, I'm Pete Berg, the producer of The Race and The Race 2.  I stumbled across this post and just want to thank you all for watching the show!  I really love reading your comments.  I devoted about a year of my life to doing two seasons of The Race, so it really means a lot that people are watching it and discussing it online.

Also, a HUGE thank goes to apskip for writing up the recaps!  I just read all of them, and it was very interesting to hear your take on the challenges and contestants.

Unfortunately, there's probably not going to be a Race 3 because I graduated from Ithaca College in May.  The Race was my project -- I was the producer / director / lead editor, and I planned all the challenges and coordinated everything.  Nobody else has stepped up to take over the show...understandable, considering I put in about 8 hours a day on The Race, on top of being a full-time student and didn't even get academic credit for it.  I'm hoping eventually somebody at ICTV decides to make another reality show, but I can't make any guarantees (cross your fingers!)

But this doesn't mean you've heard the last of me heheh... I've recently moved to Los Angeles and I'm currently working on an all-new reality tv concept that I want to shoot and release online.  The end goal is to create a pitch series so I can try to sell the concept to a network or cable channel.  I haven't posted any info about it yet, but when I do, it'll be on my website: http://www.peteberg.net

Anyway, just wanted to say thanks for the feedback!

[Slowhatch]

I've recently moved to Los Angeles and I'm currently working on an all-new reality tv concept...

It looks like you picked the right time; if the strike lasts more than a month or two everybody will be eager for new (non-scripted) ideas.