‘Amazing Race’ 13th season: The final lap … and why taxis matter

If you decide to go on “The Amazing Race,” there are two things you need to realize: You can be in the best shape of your life, but if you don’t read the clues or get a decent taxi driver, you are doomed.

Last night was the finale of the 13th season of “The Amazing Race,” and yet again, it was the team with the best taxis that made it to the finish line first.

The three remaining teams going for the cool million were brother-sister Nick and Starr, who won many trips from Travelocity for their first-place wins, the estranged couple Ken and Tina and the bumbling frat brothers Dan and Andrew, a.k.a. DAndrew.

Everyone left Moscow on the same flight and traveled 5,000 miles to Portland, Ore., where they had to take a taxi to a nearby adventure camp. Dan and Andrew got one of the worst taxi drivers in history who didn’t seem to know where he was going. Needless to say, Dan and Andrew never caught up throughout the hour with the two other teams.

Nick and Starr were the first to leave the airport, but their taxi driver had a bit of a time trying to find the location. But Ken and Tina struck gold and reached the camp first for the Detour. All three teams opted for the “High and Dry” challenge in which each member had to climb a 30-foot tree, walk across a log and then jump to a trapeze and get half of the clue.

The clue led them to the Bridge of the Gods, where they took a zip line 2,000 feet to an island where they got their next clue. Ken and Tina were the first to reach the island, where their next challenge was a memory quiz.   Each team had a board filled with 10 clues — one for each lap of the race — and the contestants had to race through 150 clue boxes to find the photo that matched the clue.

Though Nick and Starr were the second to arrive at the island, they were the first to finish the task.

Their next clue took them across from the Portland Building downtown to the Standard Building, where a green dinosaur sat in the window. That clue took them by foot to a nearby food court where they had to find the kiosk that sold Russian food. The cook gave them a clue to go to nearby doughnut shop called Voodoo Doughnut. From there, they had to get a taxi to the finish line.

Nick and Starr and Ken and Tina were neck and neck at Voodoo Doughnut, but it was the competitive brother-and-sister team that got the first taxi and made it to the finish line and the $1 million. Ken and Tina came in second. And the estranged couple had an emotional moment when Ken surprised Tina with their wedding rings. He put her ring back on her finger, and they shared a tearful embrace.

And finally, Dan and Andrew showed up, coming in third and proving that, despite mistake after mistake, perserverance paid off.

Reached Monday morning, Nick, 23, and Starr, 22, were happy as clams, though they admitted they hadn’t received any of their booty from “The Amazing Race.”

“I guess the only change in my life is this sense of safety,” says Nick Spangler, “as far as money goes as well as an incredible, fun, best-friend relationship with my sister.”

“We’re 14 months apart,” says Starr. “We’re so close in age, we didn’t like each other. We are really blessed for it.”

Since completing “Race,” Starr, who was a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, graduated from Texas Christian University and moved to New York. She lives with Nick and works with autistic children. “I would love to stay in the entertainment industry, ” she adds. And Nick is an actor in the musical “The Fantasticks.”

Starr is still seeing Dallas, of the mother-son team Toni and Dallas. The two became close during the race.

“When we got back from the race, he called me and said, ‘We spent 30 days together, come and see me,’ ” she said. So she traveled to the Silicon Valley where he lives. “Our first date was actually sky diving, and he asked me to be his girlfriend, and we have been ever since. The distance is difficult, but we grew up 10 minutes from each other [and] we never ran into each other. But because he lives where I grew up, I go home all the time, and I would say we see each other once a month.”

Ken, who is a distributor of a supplemental-nutrition drink, and Tina Greene, who runs an executive search firm, report that they are still very much together since the race concluded.

“Ken actually packed everything up and drove 43 straight hours, only stopping for gas, to move to Tampa,” she says.

Ken says it was difficult to put their problems out in public.

“I think it was difficult for us and difficult for our families,” he said. “We knew we were laying ourselves out there when we signed up for the show. But we felt like maybe we can help other couples who had issues and weren’t ready to give up. We are glad we took the risk.”

“I’m a really private person,” added Tina. “A lot of my extended family and people who work for me didn’t know I was separated and didn’t know the intimate details. It’s been really hard for me, but like Ken said I did believe it was worth it. I can tell you from the comments that we had from our website and e-emails — the fans have been unbelievable. Everywhere we go, people grab our arms and say, ‘Please tell us you’re back together.’ ”

Frat brothers Dan Honing and Andrew Lappitt don’t think they were just lucky coming in third — they played a sharp game.

“I think what got us through is that Andrew and I are different strengths,” says Dan. “We are good at different things. Our decision making would be really good. … Every physical task we had blew away everybody. I was the fastest guy on the race, beat everyone on the foot race. … And the wrestling thing, I did it in one try. I wish there were more physical tasks and we would have won. I wish people would talk about that along with our mistakes.”

“Many people … would say are we going to keep making mistakes,” says Andrew. “Dan and I thought we made great decisions. If our mistakes were so bad, we wouldn’t be in the race that along.”

“Isn’t that the point of the game?” adds Dan. “To make less mistakes than our opponents. When people say, ‘They are so lucky,’ then they don’t have a true concept of what the race is all about. We are the third best time of the season — you can’t argue that.”

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This entry was posted on Monday, December 8, 2008 at 11:18 am by Susan King and is filed under Amazing Race. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.