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In the Heat of The Amazing Race with Team Lance and Keri
by Reg Seeton
 As
The Amazing Race 15 picks up steam and narrows
the field overseas, The Amazing Race teams found
themselves in one of the most innovative, affluent
yet blistering hot cities in the world, Dubai.
Although Dubai proved to be an amazing challenge
on its own, with The Amazing Race teams riding
to the top of the soon to be tallest building
in the world, the Durj Dubai hotel, Meghan and
Cheyne claimed the fast forward on a Formula 3
race track while the rest of The Amazing Race
field also battled it out in the desert in a search
for water before encountering snowmen at an indoor
ski slope.
The 5th leg of The Amazing Race 15 proved to be the toughest for engaged couple Lance Layne and Keri Morrione who, as they admitted, became "directionally challenged" when they couldn't navigate the highways of Dubai to catch up to the other Amazing race teams. As a result, Lance and Keri became the latest team to be eliminated from The Amazing Race when they hit the mat in front of host, Phil Keoghan.
Shortly after their elimination, we hopped on the line for an exclusive chat with Lance and Keri to find out what went wrong, how Dubai was a roadblock on its own, and why Lance and Keri had such a hard time not only with directions but also making The Amazing Race work to their advantage.
THE DEADBOLT: So what was it about the highways in Dubai? Was it the signs or was it the adrenaline that got to you guys?
LANCE LAYNE: It was a little of the adrenaline in the sense that we missed that first grouping and getting in the airport. Everyone is on an even playing field and there are factors that hold you up in the airport. And certainly getting in that second grouping was a huge disadvantage in a lot of respects. It eliminated us from the fast forward and pretty much put a sense of urgency - at least on us at the time - that we got to get a little advantage over these other four teams. I made a call to get the car first and freaking ran in the wrong garage [laughs]. And all of those bastards came out and they were long gone. What you can see from the episode was pretty much a lot of the teams kind of caravanned around together, which was smart because anyone left alone was probably in trouble.
THE DEADBOLT: Since you're such a competitive guy, how would you have played it differently?
KERI MORRIONE: We should've gotten directions. The other teams got directions first.
 LANCE:
Yeah, we should've kind of played it a little
more safe on the second group. If I was in the
first group, I would've at least challenged
Meghan and Cheyne. I mean, for the life of me,
I don't understand how you give the fast forward
to a team and then Meghan sits there crying
like it's so awful. You know, like they're in
so much distress. It makes no sense. I mean,
what are you crying about? Are you crying because
no one came to hang out with you?
THE DEADBOLT: Keri, in what ways does your relationship become a roadblock itself on the race?
KERI: You know, the thing that hurt us in the beginning was we weren't really functioning at the level of the team we could be had we competed in anything together. And we really don't argue that much. But we knew our personalities are different and the way I handle things versus the way Lance does, you can see a complete opposite. I turn very calm and he turns very high-strung. And the fact he's high strung stresses me out.
The fact that I was too calm stresses him out. So getting into the grove, it took us until Cambodia to get there and those first few legs was really challenging. It was hard on the relationship. We were bickering, we were trying to understand each other's perspective. If we had been more on the same page then - But again, it's something that now we know. We worked through it and put it behind us and we don't have to worry about that anymore.
LANCE: I was definitely a one man band when we kind of started out and I just never had a female teammate before. So it just was different.
KERI: I don't think Lance has ever had a teammate before, ever ...
 LANCE:
[laughs].
KERI: ... he works independently in life and he didn't know how to be part of a team and participate together.
LANCE: [laughs] That's not true.
THE DEADBOLT: How much of a concern was the heat, especially in the desert looking for water? Did they warn you? Was there any prep?
LANCE: You know what? It was probably the only leg - This is the first time they actually gave us water. It was amazing. Yeah, they actually did, because it was so hot. And we were so screwed in Cambodia and Vietnam, because I dropped water bottles on both legs and that was 100 degrees in Vietnam. We were like delirious by the end. But this was the first one. You had to realize how tough it was going to be that morning when they told you they were supplying you with water. It was like, "This is going to be bad."
KERI: Yeah, 130 degrees is really no
joke.
THE DEADBOLT: So what was the most difficult thing for you guys on the entire race beyond Dubai?
LANCE: It really was just trying to get to the point where we were functioning as a team. Physically, it didn't overwhelm us. Mentally, it definitely was a lot more than I thought it would be. I mean, I kind of thought, "Hey, they're going to get us up in the morning, give us a nice breakfast, put some make-up on us, tell us what to wear." But people definitely don't see [that]. All they see is a line drawn on a map going from one place to another. They don't see what goes on in between. They don't see how the show tries to wear you down. Everyone was put in situations where they were worn down even before these legs even started.
THE DEADBOLT: Well, what do you think it was that you guys couldn't make work to your advantage on the race? Was it the chemistry, like you said in the beginning?
 KERI:
You know, towards the end, it's too bad what
happened in Dubai happened in Dubai because
we knew we kind of had a turning point, or almost
in Cambodia, and we became a stronger team.
LANCE: Yeah. I mean, it's funny. Even though that was our eliminated leg, it was actually, communication wise, one of our better legs. But we made the mistakes we made and that was it. Every time we got to the challenges, we were great with them. But getting from A to B sometimes was the problem.
THE DEADBOLT: Well, I've heard two different stories from the previous interviews I did with the others. But was it you or Brian who broke the stick shift? We've heard some stories that someone broke a stick shift.
LANCE: [laughs] Well, for my legend, I'd like to say it was me. I'm surprised they didn't show it. And the funny thing is, Brian actually confessed to me that he had done it. Of course I didn't even know for sure if I had done it or not. But in all of our defences, it was the most bizarre stick shift you've ever seen. It was like you pressed a button and it went in drive and I've never seen a car like that. Yeah, it was a funny clip and I'm surprised they didn't air any of it.
THE DEADBOLT: Is there anything about your time in the race that you wished we saw that didn't get aired?
LANCE: You know, I was toned down a
little bit on some episodes. There were probably
some things I did. I did decapitate the snowman's
head with a kick.
THE DEADBOLT: [laughs] I was going to ask you about that.
 LANCE:
Yeah, I did do that. That was actually the second
time they showed on the show when I asked her
again, because we actually had decided to -
She wouldn't clear us and kept telling us our
snowman was too skinny and ours was more of
a New Wave fit snowman. I actually took the
head off of it and then we went to do the other
detour and realized that one would be miserable
and ran back and Keri was able to secure the
head back on.
KERI: I think, too, the first two legs we did really good at the ducks.
LANCE: Yeah, they showed nothing of her doing the ducks. She was the only girl that did the ducks.
KERI: And we really functioned well as a team. We ran up and down the line of people and kept them together. And we asked for directions and there was a lot of team-work going on there and it would've been nice if people saw that side.
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