Auditioning for the Amazing Race

Recently a new momma, Angela, joined our play group and we clicked instantly. She is new to the area (like me!) has a rambunctious baby boy (like me!) and has a weakness for reality television (like me!). We bonded quickly over our mutual boy-mom-ness, new-kid-in-town-ness, and Reality- TV-super-fan-ness. 

When the Amazing Race broadcasted that they were holding open auditions on April 18 in San Francisco, Angela got together with a long time friend of hers and planned to try out. They had matching outfits and a whole bit planned to grab the producers’ attention. However, her friend had to back out at the absolute last minute so I volunteered to go in her place. Of course I warned her that I would make the worst Amazing Race teammate ever because:

1) I am afraid of literally everything. Heights. Water. Eating bugs. Basically everything the race requires. 

2) I would surely need to stop at least once an hour to use the potty since I have the world’s smallest bladder. 

3) I can’t drive a manual. 

Still, Angela was kind of out of options on such short notice so she allowed me to complete her twosome for the audition. We decided to go for the whole ‘stay-at-home-mom’ team angle. 

We arrived at the Marmot storefront at 8 AM where auditions were being held from 9-2. There was already a line wrapping around the block and it was clear that some people had camped out over night. 

However at 9 AM the first 250 teams in line were handed a number and told that they would try to see 70 teams an hour so to come back around when it was nearing your team's time to be called. We were Team 187 so had about 2.5 hours to just wander the city before reporting back at around 11:30 to wait our turn. 

Angela grew up in Central California but spent a good bit of her adult life in the Bay Area so has a local’s knowledge of San Francisco. She was the perfect person to show me around. Jon and I took a trip to San Fran before moving to Aberdeen (and before having a baby) and we loved the city. Since living in the Bay Area we have only gone into the city with Forest twice and both times were sort of disastrous with traffic so we have been too intimidated to venture there again. 

Going with Angela made the city seem so much more accessible. First she took me to the Four Seasons which is where she and her hubby got married. Then we walked to The Ferry Building to get some yummy baked goods, get a view of the bay, and of course use the public potty (just giving her a taste of what running the race with me would be like!). 

By the time we walked to the water and back it was about time to report back to Marmot. We found our place in line and got to know our fellow line-mates and just enjoyed having uninterrupted adult conversations until we were called in to the store. We underestimated how long we had to go because we ended up not getting called in for our interview until 12:45 or so. 

There were 3 camera crews working and each team was given about 60 seconds to give their pitch and answer any questions. We got a little nervous watching the teams in front of us who were super prepared with rehearsed bits and even rap songs. We sort of went off the cuff but Angela has a super bubbly and bright personality so she compensated for my wall-flower-ness. We were asked where we were from, how we knew each other and how we would manage to leave our toddlers for filming. Then we were told to ‘sell ourselves’ in 30 seconds which is where Angela took over:) 

We aren’t really expecting a call back but it was really fun nonetheless. If nothing else, I got to spend some good girl-time wandering San Francisco on a beautiful Saturday morning which is not too shabby. 

Unfortunately we had to rush home as soon as we finished auditioning because Jonathan needed to head into the city himself for a Giants game that night. 

I wish we could have stayed in the city for a toddler-free lunch but we will just have to go back another time. And who knows, maybe we will get up to 4 weeks of girl-time as we race around the world for a million dollar prize. You just never know! I may or may not have added weight to my bar in Body Pump this morning just in case I'm going to need to run through an airport with a giant backpack on my back in the near future. Fingers crossed!