Introduction → Leg 1 → Leg 2 → Leg 3 → Leg 4A → Leg 4B → Leg 5 → Leg 6 → Leg 7 → Leg 8 → Leg 9 → Leg 10 → Leg 11 → Leg 12
Leg 15.06 – “I’m stackin’ it!”
The Race in Russia continues as teams learn their next destination is the historic city of Kostroma!
To get there, all teams will take a taxi to Jadricha Station to catch a train via Jaroslawi-Glanji to Kostroma, arriving at 4:13am.
Once in Kostroma, teams must make their way to the Museum of Wooden Architecture. But they will find HOURS OF OPERATION! It opens at 8am.
Just beyond the gate though, they will see a Double Yield Board waiting for them once the museum opens. They must check in there before taking their next clue.
Here at the museum, each team member must choose a matryoshka doll and then search among hundreds of nesting dolls in five separate houses to find the four smaller dolls that belong to the ones they’ve chosen. Once teams have completed both matryoshka dolls, they receive their next clue.
Teams must now make their way to Kostroma Town Square for their next clue. And that clue reveals the Detour: Boil or Build. Teams will head to the Kostroma Old Railway Station and choose between two tasks from Russia’s native tradition.
In Boil, teams must fill an outdoor bathing kettle to the marked line and light a fire beneath it. Once the judge is satisfied, teams will strip down, jump into the tub and submerge themselves for 10 seconds to receive their next clue.
In Build, teams must stack all the firewood from a pile in a marked area using traditional methods. Once the woodsman is satisfied and their stack is stable, teams will receive the next clue.
This is also the Trigger Point for this Leg of the Race. If any team who chooses the Build Detour has their stack of wood fall over two or more times, the U-Turn or Yield will be activated on the next Leg.
After the Detour, teams must make their way to the North Hope Sled Dog Center in Kotkishevo Village. Here, teams will find the Road Block: Who is ready to mush and grab?
For this Road Block, teams must ride a dog sled and guide their new friends through a slalom course through the forest. Along the way, teams must grab 10 flags hanging above the course. If teams fail to grab any of the flags, they must do one penalty lap around the course for one missed flag and then wait out a five-minute penalty for each missed flag after that first.
After the Road Block, teams must head to Ipatiev Monastery for their next clue.
Also known as the Hypatian Monastery in the 18th century, it was here that a copy of the Hapatian Codex, an important source of historical data for the Rus’ people, was rediscovered in the 18th century. For this task, teams must choose a page from the Hypatian Codex written in church Slavonic language and translate it to English. Once their page is correct, they will be given the next clue.
And that clue tells teams to make their way to the Pit Stop on the frozen Volga River.
The first team to check in here will win P200,000 courtesy of Shell V-Power Nitro+.
The last team to check in here WILL be eliminated.
“Director’s” Commentary
So definitely an almost fully recycled Leg from TARAu3. It’s definitely the kind of Leg that would hurl possible Filipino teams out of their element. Any snow-filled Leg would be new and different for a Filipino team who may not be well traveled, if at all.
Anyway, this Leg was basically a last minute inclusion on this route to pair with the Veliky Ustyug Leg. Definitely lots of train and on the road travel, but that’s just the logistical gymnastics we’ll have to navigate to make these two Legs work.
First, the original Nation vs Nation task with the nesting dolls is instead an individual team task here, which should make things much more frantic and exciting. Especially with nine teams still, we hope it would be chaos with teams running around the small areas at the same time. The Yield right before the task should add some drama as well since all teams will be waiting at the gates before running over to it.
The Detour is recycled and unmodified from the original. The Road Block is a little more challenging than the original, but more a recycle of TAR17’s similar Road Block.
The only new task for this recycled Leg is the last translation and transcription task which is more a recycled TARPHDME task than typical TAR task in general. Wikipedia scouting revealed that info about the codex and so needing an extra one for this Leg, it’s a simple task to stage.
Finally, the Mat on the frozen river was great so we’ll keep that.
Overall, it should be a great Leg for Filipino teams to run.