Aspiring Lawyer From Newark On Reality Show, 'Great Grass Race'

NEWARK, NJ — Newark native Karima Spates is about to embark on an intrepid, 3,000-mile race from Los Angeles to New York. The strange part? The 44-year-old Rutgers University alum will be doing it on a lawnmower.

On Friday, a six-team, three-month cross-country race will kick off, marking the debut of a reality show dubbed “The Great Grass Race.”

The contestants will be riding 5.5 mph Craftsman T110 lawnmowers, and in addition to Spates, include a movie buff from Bloomfield, a martial artist from San Francisco and a mother of three boys from Oklahoma. They’ll be forced to plot their own courses across the country while “wheeling and dealing” for food, shelter and gas.

Learn more about the new series here, which will stream on Menace Vision.

According to Menace Vision spokespeople, the news that their mother would be racing a lawnmower across the country didn’t really surprise Spates’ three sons, Quran, 23, Kahlel, 19, and Khahir, 14.

“My sons are laughing at me, ‘Now what are you getting into? You don’t want to be an astronaut anymore?’” she said.

Spates said that ever since she was a little girl, she's been "competitive and glamorous" in equal measures.

"I’m always in makeup and eyelashes," Spates said. "Even if I’m home and I’m going to cook, I need to look pretty."

But what about spending months on the road, during the summer?

“I’ll still be able to put on makeup ... it gives me extra energy,” she said.

Spates initially aimed at becoming a psychologist, seeking to combine her love of "perceptive listening" with her passion of helping her community. But the goal of becoming an attorney bloomed during a senior year criminology class at Rutgers.

According to Spates, the instructor, a Black judge, selected her to be the prosecutor in a mock trial.

"I thought, that’s me, that’s my personality, always having that tongue, quickly seeing things in context, judging what’s right and wrong," she recalled.

The road ahead won't be easy, Spates admitted. For example, she won't be looking forward to asking strangers for help with food, gas or shelter.

"Usually people are asking me for help," she said. "I’m not always good at asking."

Yet in the end, Spates said she’s confident that the people she meets during the race will open up to her.

"It’s a heart thing … you show people what’s in your heart in the way you talk, the way you treat people," she explained. "Not so much what you have on, or who’s your team — it’s the last impression that you leave with somebody that stands out more than anything."

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