November 18, 2004
Iceberg Sinks ‘Race’ Menches
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Eleven teams. Thirty days. One-million dollars. Zero bagels. That is what 32-year-olds Avi Scheier and Joe Rashbaum tried to face as one of the teams on the sixth season of the around-the-world reality show "The Amazing Race."
"Race" teams are given clues telling them where to go and what tasks they must perform. At the end of each episode, the last team to reach the "pit stop" is eliminated -- the first team to cross the finish line at the end wins $1 million.
This season, Rashbaum had a goal beyond the money -- he planned to be the first kosher guy in reality TV history: "I'm committed to staying kosher even in these foreign lands under these extreme conditions."
Scheier, who teaches in Brooklyn, and Rashbaum, an ad man who lives in Ventura, have similar upbringings, brains, logic and physical ability. The makings of a great team.
Unfortunately, Rashbaum will never find out if kugel is served in Karachi -- the "high school buddies" were eliminated in the first leg (which took teams from Chicago to Iceland) after choosing to search a 7 miles of icebergs for a small buoy and getting turned around on the way to the pit stop.
One team that chose the other option -- scaling a wall of ice -- were L.A. personal trainers Adam Malis, 27, and Rebecca Cardon, 29, who landed in seventh place.
The formerly dating couple met at a spinning class (she thought he was gay) and say they are complete opposites. While Cardon is social, outgoing and spontaneous, Malis, who sported a faded Jewish singles cruise T-shirt in the first episode, isn't.
"My biggest fear is that Adam and I will kill each other and will not be able to finish the race because we will be dead," Cardon said.
Let's hope this team doesn't need to communicate with the natives too much.
"[I speak] a little Hebrew, but somehow I don't think that will come in very handy on this race," Cardon said.
"The Amazing Race" airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on CBS.
