Portsmouth native to debut on 'Amazing Race'

Drinking blood, eating crickets and climbing high-rise buildings aren't appealing endeavors to most. // But Portsmouth native Shawne Morgan got an adrenaline rush each time she watched contestants perform the challenges on CBS TV's "The Amazing Race."

Now, she will get her shot at the action.

On Sunday night, Morgan's dream will become reality - or rather, reality TV.

She and her friend Monique Pryor will compete against 10 other teams in a 40,000-mile race around the world, using their wits and courage to try to finish first and nab $1 million.

The race will span five continents and eight countries, including Chile, the competition's first foreign destination. There, contestants will encounter "one of the most daunting" obstacles in the series' history, show promoters say.

The challenge is exactly what Morgan and Pryor, both mothers, attorneys and entrepreneurs, had in mind when they beat out some 30,000 reality TV hopefuls.

Adventure is nothing new to Morgan and Pryor, who spent the summer of 1994 in a study-abroad program in Nairobi, Kenya, where their friendship blossomed. They also lived together in Brooklyn, N.Y., after law school and became business partners.

"We worked hard and played hard," Pryor said of their single days. Since then, they have traveled together many times, often with their families.

"We're both alpha females," she said.

The race gave the friends, both 39, a chance to capitalize on their strengths, said Morgan, who now lives in Bowie, Md.

"Shawne has no fear - and she's very resourceful, like MacGyver," Pryor said. "She can rub two sticks together and make a four-course meal. She even managed to find ingredients to make spaghetti sauce in Kenya."

It also gave them a chance to try something new, Morgan said.

Show fans since its debut in 2001, Morgan and Pryor sent an audition tape to its producers two years ago.

It showcased their everyday lives, mostly in "regular mom get-up," said Morgan, who has two children.

"We were rolling tape with kids in the background, lots of children," she said. "The toy room was a mess. It was chaos."

Subsequent footage showed the women at a ball in formal attire.

Morgan believes casting agents liked the balance the women have achieved as "mom-preneu rs" and attorneys.

Morgan's parents, Portsmouth residents Ronald and Deborah Steele, weren't surprised when their daughter told them she was going to be a contestant.

"Shawne has always been a focus-driven person," Deborah Steele, said. "She told us at 9 years old she wanted to be an attorney by the time she was 25. When she was 25, we were at the Brooklyn courthouse watching her being sworn in."

Morgan graduated from Chesapeake's Indian River High School in 1988, where she was homecoming queen and student body vice president.

Her childhood friend, Great Bridge resident Neco Hinton, said of all the people she knows, Morgan was the most likely to end up on "The Amazing Race."

"I told her, 'Next thing, you'll be running for president!' " Hinton said.

Hinton said Morgan was always a go-getter.

"Once we were late to a basketball game and we couldn't get in the main gym door," Hinton recalled. "Shawne came up with a plan to sneak in through the boys' bathroom. And that's what we did. I never would have done that on my own. Shawne was fearless."

Ronald Steele joked that he was mildly disappointed that Morgan did not choose him as a teammate.

"I guess she figured I'm older and she had a better chance to win with Monique," he said.

Filming of Season 16 has concluded, but cast members are bound to keep the race's results and details confidential until the final episode airs.

"My kids keep asking me what happened, and I tell them 'you'll have to wait and see,' " Morgan said. "They watch the promos on CBS.com over and over and over."

The race kicked off in Los Angeles. CBS commercials depict contestants coaxing llamas, walking across a high-wire, and attempting to "fly" over water with some sort of hang-glider.

To build her physical endurance, Morgan stepped up her workout routine from one hour three times a week to 1-1/2 hours, five days a week, and added swimming and more strength training.

One of the toughest challenges was facing the unknown and giving up control to the show, Morgan said.

The hardest part, she and husband Clif, said, was their inability to communicate during the race.

If she's the winner, Morgan said she'll use her winnings to pay off law school debt, help her grandparents and buy real estate.

Her motivation, though, had nothing to do with money and everything to do with her children.

She wants them to live free of limits.

"I want my kids to know that mommy dared to do something different," she said. "I never want to have regrets - no 'shoulda, coulda, woulda.' And I want to

leave a legacy for my children and my children's children."

Lia Russell, (757) 222-5829, lia.russell@pilotonline.com