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The clue said we could not take any public transportation to the piers, so Chris and I took off running. This was our strength over the other competitors – our athleticism. When we got to the piers, my heart sank. There were a hundred piers and all of them were municipal. The Fairbanks incident shook my confidence a bit, and I didn't want to make another costly mistake. It was going to come down to who guessed right. We started smack dap in the middle. We discovered after a few piers that the actual Municipal Pier was the last one on the end in the direction we were heading. Bingo! About 100 yards out, we took the biggest blow you could possibly imagine – Wil and Tara had made it there ahead of us and were leaving the pier with their clue. They were going to gain at least five minutes on us. At that stage, that's an eternity. As we made it to the box – I knew it was the last clue because it said go to East Fort Baker and cross the finish line – my stomach twisted in knots. For the first time since this whole experience began, I told myself that second place was good enough. That's all I could do to keep going. When we pulled away from the pier – our cabbie had no idea where East Fort Baker was – the higher powers intervened for the last time. Wil and Tara had not been able to get a cab and were just hopping in as we pulled around the corner. That competitive fire roared back to life as I told our driver to "follow that cab." All we had to do was follow Wil and Tara. It was a scene straight out of the movies. There was new life.  Chris and Alex in Rio. Just a few days back, I said to Chris that if we were close at the end, and it came down to a foot race, we'd finish as champions. Well here we were, neck and neck with our opponent. Wil knew we were following them and tried to throw us off the trail. He stopped his cab and got out trying to dupe us into believing we had arrived at East Fort Baker. We didn't take the bait. Wil made a critical mistake. By getting out of his cab and running several hundred yards hoping we'd follow, it gave me an opportunity to ask people where East Fort Baker was. A tractor-trailer driver on the side of the road told us it was the first exit off the Bay Bridge. Armed with that we were off. Just as we were about to exit, Wil and Tara's cab zoomed in front of us. They appeared from out of nowhere. To add to the frustration, a mini-van got between our cab and theirs. We were trapped on a one-lane road behind the slowest driver in America. Wil and Tara started to pull away. That sinking feeling started to settle in again as I had no idea how much distance would need to be covered once we got out. We came around the bend and saw an empty cab. It started to dawn on me that we could actually be fighting for third place. We hadn't seen Blake and Paige for a while, and they could be sitting at the finish line waiting for us. We jumped out of the cab without paying and tore off along a path. Adrenaline coursing through my body pounded in my ears. My lungs were screaming from all the running. Fatigue was finally settling into my legs as my muscles burned. All that went away when we came around another bend and saw a hill in front of us. At the base of the hill were Wil and Tara. Chris and I looked at each other; we knew we had it. We only had to make up 300 yards. There was no way Tara was going to beat us up that hill. This was it. On the other side of that hill was the finish line. Wil was first to crest the hill followed a few steps behind by me. The next person coming over that hill would determine which team would end this crazy journey as the winners. All the other teams were there cheering, and when Chris appeared ahead of Tara, they erupted. As I collapsed on the mat, Chris soon after, I knew my life would be different. Right then and there, I knew this would a defining moment in my life. It's amazing the difference between finishing number one and number two. We were these two hurricanes blowing threw the world; eyes wide-open thinking nothing could stop us. Winning The Amazing Race has opened some doors for me, but it was just a short time later that I was sweeping floors in a production company in Jacksonville. My legacy will not be Alex Boylan, winner of The Amazing Race. It will be Alex Boylan creator of his own destiny. Ryan Bernstein's best work develops during long runs while training for Marathons. His runs yielded several short stories and articles for various online magazines, a novel – It's Karma, Dude – and an original, single-camera sitcom based on his screenplay Rolling. He lives in Sherman Oaks, California.
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