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TAR 16: Monique Pryor and Shawne Morgan--Moms/Attorneys

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georgiapeach:
Oh I am going to miss them!!  :'(

Deadbolt Interview:

Trading Amazing Horses with Monique and Shawne of The Amazing Race
by Reg Seeton
 
 

 With three legs now complete on The Amazing Race 16, The Amazing Race teams had to race their way through Chile en route to Argentina. This week saw the amazing mom/attorney team of Monique Pryor and Shawne Morgan hit the mat in last place to become the third duo to be eliminated from The Amazing Race after Monique got tied up in a lasso Roadblock that set them back behind the other Amazing Race teams.

Although Monique and Shawne gained ground, the two were put to the test with a choice between two different horse related tasks, "Horse Sense" and Horse Power", both of which required quick Amazing Race decisions, efficiency, and physical strength. Although Monique and Shawne didn't give up, it all came down to time and which Amazing Race team could get to the mat first in front of The Amazing Race host, Phil Keoghan.

The morning after the third leg of The Amazing Race, we jumped on the line with Monique and Shawne for a post Amazing Race update on their experience and journey on The Amazing Race.

THE DEADBOLT: Was it awkward watching yourselves on TV?

MONIQUE PRYOR: At the beginning it was awkward. We were looking for ourselves a little more but it was awesome. [laughs] We were happy to see it. Actually, it was pretty funny, because we knew what we were thinking at that moment. Then to have everybody on pins and needles waiting to see what happened and getting texts, people updating their Facebook status with "Why couldn't you guys last longer?", that was pretty awesome watching it with our families again. It was great.

THE DEADBOLT: So what was going through your minds during the lasso task?

SHAWNE MORGAN: Lord, please let me do this. I was thinking I didn't want to lose focus, that's why I was just calm and I could just hear Monique. I could hear her and she's like, "What do you want me to do?" And I'm like, "Just pray with me." That's after being out there for awhile, watching teams come and go, but I didn't want to lose focus. I think throughout the race, it's just like we have to run our own race and we can't let other things distract you, like, "Oh gosh, what time is it? How long?" or start panicking.

I was just like, "We're going to do it. I don't care how long it takes, we are making this happen." But after I did do it, to see that once we got to the detour to see that so many of the other teams were still there, that was the nature of the race. At any moment you can catch up and we saw that throughout the race. So you know people were like, "Oh, we were done." But like at any moment that just running it, we saw how you could catch up and still be in the race. That's why it was important for us to just continue to hustle the entire race while we were in it.

THE DEADBOLT: Do you think the rope challenge gave an unfair advantage to the cowboys?

MONIQUE: [laughs] My eight year old daughter thinks so. She said, "Mom, it's not fair. They lasso every day, it wasn't fair." What I told her is that everybody comes to the race with some advantage. Brandy could speak fluent Spanish and I ran track. So I knew if there was a sprint challenge, I was going to be the first person there, especially after I sized up the teams. Shawne has great upper body strength, so you come to the race with certain advantages and the cowboys lucked out.

THE DEADBOLT: Would you say that was the turning point for you guys, or was it something else?

SHAWNE: No, because we knew we were still in the race. And after that, we were out in the field. More so, as we were doing the horse challenge with those wooden horses, they were so awkward and heavy. To have to carry it back - you had nine chances to get it between the goals - and we're like, "Okay, no need in tiring ourselves out at six if you know you're not even close. Let's be strategic about this and take it back each time." So we thought we weren't going to be close enough. Physically, that was very grueling. But at some point, we were just like, "Wait a minute, the sun is going down. It's cold. Let's try to move to the next challenge and at least give it a try." We wanted to make sure we gave it a try. We didn't give up. That was so key for us throughout this experience, we were not giving up without a fight.

THE DEADBOLT: If you had won with "Horse Power" first, do you think it would've made a difference?

MONIQUE: The clues are so vague and you're not sure what you're choosing. In particular, for this challenge, the challenges were so far apart that it was hard to tell exactly what we were doing. But Shawne and I knew we were in the race to experience it as well. So we saw the horse thing and we thought, "Oh great, we're going to ride a horse." We had dealt with the Llamas and now we're going to ride a horse. So that was exciting as well and we didn't want any one team to have an advantage over us. So that's why we chose "Horse Power". We didn't know we had to walk a mile in cow dung to get there, but that's why we chose that one.

THE DEADBOLT: At what point did you guys know it was over?

SHAWNE: Never, until we walked up to the mat. If you look at my face, I'm thinking, "No, no, no, no," because you can never tell with Phil. So I'm thinking, "Hey, maybe this is a non-elimination." We kept hustling and, like we said, we weren't giving up. So, we're like, "This is still our race. We can still be in it." We knew even before we started the race, we are not giving up. It was just one of those things and it happened to be an elimination leg. But we were proud of ourselves for not quitting, that was key for us.

THE DEADBOLT: So what did that teach you both? Was that the message you took away?

SHAWNE: It taught us about who we wanted to inspire, our children. That was first and foremost. We were like, "Oh my gosh, we can't wait for them to see this," because we wanted them to see, "Hey, at least try and do something different." That was the big key message. I do a lot of mentoring with other moms in terms of growing an "at home" business. Monique is also partnered with moms, she has an online magazine for moms. So our thing was that we wanted to continue to inspire women, particularly moms, to know that, "You know what? We're moms but we can still have our lives and we can have businesses and we're attorneys second.

Our thing was, let's step outside of the box. I enjoy practicing mom but now let's do something else. We're like, "Hey, we had to take a risk to start a business and then to start another business." I was thinking about what else could we do next. When we saw the race, that's what it meant for us. We were like, "However far we go on this race, let us at least be inspirational to somebody." To see that we got it is so very awesome. I'm just so humbled by the positive comments. Not just from moms who were like, "You guys have shown us we can definitely do the things we thought about putting on the back burner. Why not today?" So that's been awesome. From dads, that's been great to hear how they've been able to relate with their families. That's been a great experience.

THE DEADBOLT: Was there anything we didn't see that you guys wished got aired?

SHAWNE: Yes, that the travel time was just huge. Not only travel but running, too. There were some points where people would see us huffing and puffing but they didn't see the scene before where we were actually running through woods or rough terrain. We ran two miles with a heavy backpack on and we were running up hills. And the fact that Monique and I had a lot on point, where people were like, "We don't see you." Interestingly enough, we had moments where we were leading and showing others where to go. So that was awesome. We're just proud that we were able to endure it. That was huge. The running I think was the thing I'd definitely say they should have shown more of.


http://www.thedeadbolt.com/news/107180/monique_shawne_amazing_race_16_interview.php

slayton:
Thanks for the interviews.

After reading a few of Monique & Shawne's interviews, I'm surprised that I haven't seen anybody ask them about how close one of them came to getting kicked in the face by a cow or about the earthquake in Chile.

georgiapeach:
Buddy TV Interview:

Exclusive Interview: Monique and Shawne of 'The Amazing Race 16'
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
 
 Another bad way to end your run on The Amazing Race: get stuck in a particular task and see every other team pass by you. That's what happened to "mompreneurs" Monique and Shawne: they got stuck in the Roadblock in Argentina. But, in their usual fashion, they never lost hope, and finished the rest of the tasks without grumbling or arguing. That gets a plus point for me.

I figured you do a lot when you're a mompreneur, so it took me a while to talk to Monique and Shawne--but finally, we got to talk about their run on the race, their childrens' reactions, and that Roadblock.

First off, how and when did you meet?

Shawne: We met in college in 1990. We were in the same sorority.

How did it feel being in second place during the first leg? Surely you didn't see that coming...

Shawne: We knew we were in the top group because we could see when we arrived at the right houses that there were other teams that arrived before us, that couldn't find their house to paint. What you didn't see on TV is, we had a pretty good lead at various points of the race.

Monique: Before our cab driver got us lost we knew we were in about fifth place. What you didn't see was everyone trying to follow us.

Shawne, how long did it take you to finish the Roadblock?

Shawne: I can't say how much time it actually took me to do the lasso because I was just focused on completing it, whatever it took. My main goal was never to focus on the other teams because I didn't want to get distracted.

Monique, you seemed helpless after watching Shawne struggle with the lasso...

Monique: I did feel helpless, but I was so proud of Shawne. She was so focused and did not get rattled. She never let them see her sweat. I was so proud of her.

Despite the delay in Argentina, you both still ran a pretty solid race. What do you think did you do differently?

Monique: It's hard to say what we could've done differently. What many do not realize is that the game is part mental. Who knows, if we would've chosen horse sense first we may have gotten confused like the other teams did.

Another thing that struck me the most was your strong faith, as seen in both the cable walking and lasso-throwing tasks. How did your faith power you through the race?

Monique: Shawne and I constantly relied on our faith to get us through. There were so many acts of God's intervention that you didn't see. Each time we came to a place we needed direction we asked God for his help.

Shawne: There were other times when we had "little angels" helping us in various cities, like Chile (we are still praying for the people there) and we had these lambs on Isla Margarita that really led us to the clue box the entire way--that was beautiful!

Monique: When we arrived at the paint challenge and saw the other teams walking around for hours, we asked God to send us a sign, to lead us in the right direction. Right after the prayer, this tourist couple walks towards us and told us exactly where to go. We had to follow a trail to find the clue to get to the llamas. Once again, we said, "Lord, show us the way." That's when a herd of sheep led us directly to the clue box. They actually looked back at us as if to say, "hurry up and follow us!"

Shawne: With all the running, weather and driving conditions we knew it was God that led us. Even though we didn't win the race we are already seeing the positive effects of us being on the race. We received so many emails, calls and messages from other people who have commented on how positive we carried ourselves and constantly encouraged one another even when it got hard. While we wanted to inspire moms and others to challenge themselves, it's been really inspiring to me to continue to move forward to help other women and families who are looking to earn additional income through my wellness business.

Did you get a chance to bond with the other teams?

Shawne: We bonded with Jordan and Dan, Mike and Louie--we formed the East Coast Alliance. We had fun times sharing together! We also bonded with others like Steve and Allie, we got along with everyone and enjoyed hearing people's stories. The ECA definitely formed a connection!

I'm sure your children watched the race with you. What were their reactions after seeing what you did in those three legs?

Shawne: Our kids absolutely loved it! We all watched the race together as a family on Sunday nights, so they were so excited about their mommies being on, and they are so proud of us!

Monique: My children love The Amazing Race. They often play with their dad in the back seat of the truck saying "go Daddy go!", pretending we are in The Amazing Race. They were so excited to see their mom on TV. They received a lot of attention from other kids at school. While watching the third episode my four-year-old was so upset that we were losing. She said, "mommy, I liked the show when you came in second, better than this one."

What was your favorite part of the race?

Shawne: Seeing all the beautiful countries and seeing all the beautiful people in different countries who were so excited about us running through their neighborhoods and so ready to assist us, knowing that we are amongst a very select group chosen to run this race. It's been an awesome, once in a lifetime opportunity!

Monique: Although I was doing the race to fulfill a dream, a main goal of ours was to be able to inspire other mothers to continue reaching for their goals. As mothers, we sometimes put our families before ourselves and we want mothers to remember the women they were before they became mothers: vivacious and fun-loving and adventurous.

What have you been up to after the race?

Monique: I continue to be a voice for working women. I have an online magazine for working mothers called momsextraordinaire.com. There, we act as a resource for working mothers who advise on everything from their next career to the best diapers and where is the next sale on a pair of Prada shoes.

Shawne: I'm still running my business--my hair business is keeping me busy, especially with all the exposure from TV and my wellness business has also picked up since I team up with other moms to help them earn income from home.

http://www.buddytv.com/articles/the-amazing-race/exclusive-interview-monique-an-35002.aspx

River:
Sad to see them go...I liked them :'(

David:
Well, I hope we can have more of these teams soon... They made me the first three episodes enjoyable--- sniff.

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