Ed DeCleva

Love the race and really wanted to give it 5 stars, but major changes/improvements are needed. Producers, please consider the following: 1. Introduce more of the teams. Lighten up on all the time spent on the USA teams. Share the love and give other teams some airtime! 2. Prior to race start: Briefly explain the qualification standards for entering the race; show a board listing all the teams and respective nationalities; and briefly explain how starting positions are established. 3. Show topographical profiles of the race segments in addition to plan views. 4. Show temperature and relative humidity from time to time - give us more of a sense of what the teams are experiencing at different places/times. 5. Show the positional status of the teams across the course at some sort of sensible frequency, such as every 12 or 24 hour period. 6. Stop it with the constant rehash of any given team's personal or medical challenge - giving us, the viewers, countless "I'm really old", "I have ALS", or "I'm doing this for reason X", really is unnecessary. Nothing against the players here. I'm a disabled vet myself, and I feel inspired by anyone's story of the challenges they face and what they do to push themselves to be just as strong or stronger than they once were. But I don't need to hear it every single time I see a particular team. Once or twice is enough. Thank you producers, support staff, and, most of all, athletes. I hope another series is in the works, and I hope the producers make some much needed improvements. I'll give it another chance if another competition airs. But I will not watch it through if the same problems persist.