Oh, the agony! Baltimore-bred Fran and Barry Lazarus were eliminated from CBS? “The Amazing Race” this week, leaving area fans wondering where it all went wrong.
“Luck just was not with us,” said Fran, who called The Examiner Thursday from New York. “We knew we were finished.”
They were one of 11 teams picked from 18,000 applicants for the ninth season of the hit CBS reality series that follows pairs on a race around the world. The team that completes the full distance of the race first wins $1 million.
The Lazaruses first spotted each other at the City-Poly Thanksgiving football game and Victory Hop in 1960.
“We both grew up in Pimlico and went to Pimlico Elementary 223, but did not know each other then. I lived on Beaufort Avenue, and Fran lived on Levindale Road,” Barry said.
The couple eventually married, had children and retired to Colorado, but that has not stopped family and friends in Baltimore from rooting for the “home team.”
“I never watch television, but since they have been on ?The Amazing Race,? I have watched it religiously every single week, and could not wait till the next leg of the race to see what would happen next,” said Pikesville resident Barbara Stadd, who has known the couple for 41 years.
Stadd, noting that Fran is a breast cancer survivor, said she thinks the Lazaruses were so popular because of the determination and positive attitude they brought to the race.
“After talking to them this morning, I was more upset than they were,” Stadd said.
She said the couple should be particularly proud that they came in first place on last week?s episode, the only “old couple” on the show to ever accomplish such a feat.
Their journey ended in Perth, Australia, which, like Baltimore, has a harbor. “Some of the beautiful harbor views and eating seafood” reminded them of their hometown, said Fran.
“The worst part of the race was having to bungee jump,” said Fran, who jumped 240 feet into the Corinth Canal in Greece.
As the last contestant to jump, Fran?s nerves almost got the best of her.
“The longer I stood there, the more petrified I got. I quite frankly closed my eyes,” she said.
Despite their untimely elimination, Fran and Barry have fond memories of their global adventure, particularly when they got a chance to “smell the roses and try and take in the scenery.”
“Just walking hand in hand in Red Square looking at the Kremlin and St. Basil?s Cathedral was amazing,” Fran said.
Would they do it again?
“We would do the race again in a heartbeat,” she said. “The stress was unbelievable, but we loved it.”
Fundraising with
The Lazaruses
The Rosenbloom Jewish Community Center in Owings Mills will hold a $10-per-person dessert with the Lazaruses at 7:30 p.m. May 14. Proceeds will be split between the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and the JCC Early Childhood Education Library. For more information and to make a reservation, call 410-356-5200, ext. 302.
