'The Amazing Race 10' "marks" Dustin Konzelman, Kandice Pelletier

After weeks of strong performances, beauty queens Dustin Konzelman and Kandice Pelletier hit a rough patch and finished last in The Amazing Race 10's tenth leg. However luckily for Dustin and Kandice, they were fortunate enough to finish last during one of the Race's pre-determined non-elimination legs, resulting in the beauty queens becoming "marked for elimination" but still surviving to compete in the competition's next leg.


Sunday night's broadcast of The Amazing Race 10's eleventh episode began with the competition's four remaining teams departing the Great Patriotic War Museum, a Kiev, Ukraine World War II memorial that served as the Race's ninth Pit Stop. As they left the Pit Stop, the teams received clues instructing them to fly nearly 3,000 miles to Ouarzazate, Morocco. Once there, they would have to drive four miles to Antiquittes Du Sud, a local antique shop. After selecting one of four good luck charm necklaces, the vendor would give the teams their next clues.

Despite leaving the Pit Stop eight minutes ahead of Dustin and Kandice, the ninth leg's second place team, former drug addicts and models Tyler Denk and James Branaman were the second team to reach the airport -- a move that initially looked significant when Dustin and Kandice managed to book the last two tickets on a Kiev to Milan flight that, assuming the beauty queens could then make a tight connection in Milan, would get them into Casablanca (Morocco's largest city) at 3:00PM that afternoon.

However once the rest of the teams arrived at the airport, viewers learned that Dustin and Kandice's coup wasn't much of a coup at all. Although the Milan flight would get them into Casablanca at 3:00PM, the only Casablanca to Ouarzazate flight wouldn't leave Casablanca until 10:55PM. The nearly eight hour period gave all three of the other teams plenty of time to instead take a Kiev to Paris flight that, after taking one of two different Paris to Casablanca connecting flights, still got them into Casablanca early enough to make the late evening Ouarzazate flight. Adding insult to injury, Dustin and Kandice also missed their connecting flight in Milan -- a move that caused them to arrive in Casablanca only moments before the Ouarzazate flight began boarding.

Despite being the first team out of the airport and hiring a taxi to lead them to what was apparently an "open all night" antique shop, Dustin and Kandice -- who, until their taxi driver pulled over lost, initially also had both Tyler and James and dating couple Rob Diaz and Kimberly Chabollao blindly following them -- ended up being the last team to find the shop.


Instead, it was single moms Lyn Turk and Karlyn Harris -- who as the only team that ended up on the later connecting flight to Casablanca, had used their extra three hour layover to buy and study a road map of Ouarzazate -- that were the first team to find the antique shop. After picking one of four good luck necklaces that they would have to bring to the leg's Pit Stop, Lyn and Karlyn received a clue instructing them to drive six miles to Atlas Studios, a famous Moroccan movie studio backlot, and a warning that a Yield marker was ahead.

After picking up their clue and heading to the movie studio backlot, Lyn and Karlyn ended up driving back past Dustin and Kandice, Tyler and James, and Rob and Kimberly, who were all still parked on the side of the road waiting for Dustin and Kandice, now since long abandoned by their taxi driver, to get directions to the antique shop that Lyn and Karlyn had just left. Even after abandoning Dustin and Kandice and managing to find the shop on their own, the idea that Lyn and Karlyn could possibly have been the first team to find the shop didn't even seem to occur to Tyler and James and Rob and Kimberly. "The Blondes were here [before us] 'cause there's two left," Kimberly incorrectly commented after she and Rob became the second team to retrieve their necklace and clue.

Although Lyn and Karlyn were the first team to reach the movie studio backlot and Dustin and Kandice once again got lost on their way to the studio, the moms weren't able to fulfill their openly stated goal of yielding the beauty queens -- unlike the all-night antique stop, it turned out the movie studio didn't open until 8AM. The next morning, the development proved especially ironic when Lyn and Karlyn lost the four-way mad scramble for the Yield marker and were instead yielded by Dustin and Kandice, the third team to reach the marker.

As Lyn and Karlyn waited out their Yield time, the rest of the teams participated in the leg's Roadblock, a task that required one member of each team to accompany a professional charioteer in a high-speed chariot race around an outdoor course and make laps until they could pull down two color-coded flags that were suspended above the course's starting line.

After completing the Roadblock, the teams received clues instructing them themselves 26 miles to the town of Idelssan. Once there, they would have to find Cafe Pirgola, a local cafe. Although their Yield delay meant that they weren't able to begin the Roadblock task until the other three tasks had already departed, Lyn and Karlyn managed to move back into third place when Rob and Kimberly once again encountered car trouble (a flat tire) during their trip to Idelssan.


Once the teams found Cafe Pirgola, they were presented with the leg's Detour options, "Throw It" and "Grind It." "Throw It" required the teams to travel four miles to a pottery shop. Once there, they would have to use local pottery wheels to create two properly made pots. "Grind It" required the teams to travel four miles to the North Africa Horse Ranch and Olive Farm. Once there, they would have to use an olive mill to grind 77 pounds of olives and then properly pack the crushed olives into pressing sleeves. Both Detour options only had three workstations, a restriction that meant that should all four teams choose the same Detour task, one team might have to wait for a workstation to become available.

Despite the fact that there were only three workstations available, all four teams decided that since the olive farm was on their way back into Ouarzazate and crafting pots might require some actual skill, they would do "Grind It." Although all three of the other teams had ended up driving back past a still broken down Rob and Kimberly on their way to the olive farm, Rob and Kimberly ended up being the third team to reach the Detour location when Dustin and Kandice -- clearly having a bad navigation day -- once again got lost and drove miles past the farm.

As the last team to arrive at the olive farm Detour location, Dustin and Kandice were forced to wait until one of the other teams completed the Detour task -- a development that Lyn and Karlyn, still upset about their earlier Yield delay, took great delight in. After completing the Detour task, the teams received instructions to drive 25 miles to a nomadic Berber camp located off the side of the main road to Marrakech, the city from which Morocco derived its name. The remote location would serve as the Race's tenth Pit Stop.

All four teams arrived at the Pit Stop in the same order in which they left the Detour, with Tyler and James -- who had to return back to their vehicle to retrieve their good luck necklace -- beating Lyn and Karlyn in a footrace that allowed them to be the first team to reach the check-in mat. As the leg's first place team, Tyler and James each won a Palm Treo 700P and year's worth of Sprint wireless service.

Knowing that Rob and Kimberly had also already checked in by the time they arrived at the Pit Stop, Dustin and Kandice -- openly denying that "bad karma" had anything to do with their bad day -- approached the mat expecting to hear that their Race time had come to an end. However once they reached the mat, Phil greeted them with the words that last place racers always love to hear -- "Dustin and Kandice, you are the last team to arrive... and you're a having a good day because this is a non-elimination leg... you guys are now marked for elimination. You need to arrive first at the next leg because if you don't, then you will incur a thirty minute penalty."