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When we dismounted the bus, all we saw were windmills. Everywhere. Not the Don Quixote, European kind – the clean energy kind… the kind we knew could really only be found in one place in the LA vicinity:

Palm Springs.

We knew where we were. Hopefully the others didn’t.

Palm Springs. The desert. Someone forgot to tell the sun.

It was one of the coldest days of the year in Southern California. The wind was whipping, there was a light drizzle, and that great ball of fire in the sky was fighting a losing battle against the cloud cover… but the adrenaline rush starting to course through everyone’s veins was enough to counter the elements.

Creature comforts have no place on The Race. We knew the second time around they would make us earn it, and we were ready.

We moved to another part of the wind farm and walked past a field of paper airplane-looking things which were clearly meant for us… meaning there would be a challenge at the starting line again, just as there had been our 1st season when a team had been brutally eliminated right at the starting line.

The ever-rising tension leapt up a few more notches as we lined up in front of Phil and took our places for the big moment. After 4 days of seclusion it was nice to finally lay eyes on Phil, who held the key to our release.

Phil is The Race, and The Race was about to start.

“It’s nice to see you guys,” Phil said, giving us all the once-over. “Are you ready for this?”

We assured him we were. He looked around.

“All of you have been through this before. Unfortunately – for various reasons… misspelled words… untimely pee breaks… lost passports…”

As he said each of these things he looked over at the people he was talking about – first Big Easy, then Jen, then me. I bowed my head in shame, remembering the incident and taking responsibility one last time, then put it behind me once and for all.

“…For various reasons, none of you managed to go home with the 1 million dollar prize. This time, one of you will.”

At that, we all let out a cheer.

“When I say go,” he continued, “You will NOT run to your bags. Instead, you will run into that marked field over there and bring me what I need. When you bring me what I need, you will receive your next clue. The first 8 teams to do so will be on the first flight to your first destination. The last 3 teams will be on the second flight, which is scheduled to land 90 minutes later.”

90 minutes. An eternity on The Race.

The tension managed to find new heights.

“IN ADDITION,” Phil went on, always full of surprises and happy to be so. “The LAST team to bring me what I need will face a DOUBLE DETOUR – meaning the 1st detour you encounter along the way, that team will have to do both sides of it.”

OUCH.

So whoever got the answer to this first challenge last was basically U-turned right out of the gate. As history showed, U-turns are not easy to come back from, so that sounded almost tantamount to elimination… but anything can happen on The Race.

“Yes. That’s going to be tough to come back from,” he said, reading our minds.

“And that’s not all…” Phil kept going, clearly enjoying it now. “I also have some good news. The FIRST team to reach the 1st Pit Stop will be awarded an Express Pass.”

A murmur of excitement passed through us – like Dorothy had just told us she found the Wizard.

“For those of you who don’t know, an Express Pass is basically a get-out-of-jail-free card that allows you to skip a challenge whenever you’d like… a nice thing to have if you ever find yourself falling behind the pack. I bet some of you would like to have that, am I right?”

We all nodded like kids wanting dessert. Express Passes had only just been introduced on The Race the season before, but we all knew how huge they could be in this game.

I looked at Zev beside me, shivering just a little less than I was.

“You ready?” I asked him.

“I think so,” he said. “But I need to pee again.”

“Hold it.”

“Ok.”

We gave each other a pound.

“DBL,” Zev said.

“DBL.”

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