Meghan Rickey and Cheyne Whitney almost lost the final leg of “The Amazing Race” after a mix-up sent them to the wrong location in Las Vegas, but the dating couple’s quick thinking and teamwork led them to certain victory.

The team from San Diego, who met in elementary school and have been dating for the past five years, beat out runners-up Sam and Dan and Brian and Ericka to take the million dollar prize.

“It’s kind of an unreal feeling,” says Meghan, of arriving on the mat in first place. “Especially since Cheyne and I have watched every single season, we’ve seen this same thing so many times so when it was actually us, it was just very surreal.”

“But we really took every leg at a time and up until the final leg it was don’t get eliminated, and the last leg we were racing for first place so however it turned out, it was our race to lose,” says Cheyne.

The final stretch of the race had teams racing around Sin City, visiting the Graceland Wedding Chapel, rappelling down the side of Mandalay Bay, becoming a part of a Cirque du soleil show and counting a million dollars worth of poker chips.

Meghan and Cheyne were in first place heading to the poker chips challenge but incorrectly had their taxi driver take them to the Venetian instead of the Monte Carlo, when the clue asked teams to find Monaco’s most famous casino.  

“You can just as easily lose it as you can win it with something like that. Going to the wrong hotel, I think might have pushed us to go even a little bit faster at those chips because we had to come in and catch up … but yeah, it’s scary to think that little mistake could’ve cost us the entire race,” says Meghan.

Arriving last at the challenge, Meghan and Cheyne worked quickly to catch up, with Meghan finding the chips as fast as she could and Cheyne counting them.

“We got in there and the other teams got a little frazzled because we showed up … we really stayed focused. I’ve played a lot of poker so I know how to stack chips, we were making chip stacks three times taller than the other people,” says Cheyne.

Working well together didn’t just pay off in the final leg, but throughout the entire race, and both Meghan and Cheyne know it’s one of the reasons for their success.

“Before running the race we said we don’t care about the cameras but let’s just work together well. If we get frustrated or if we get mad at each other, that’s going to be our undoing. I think that’s often the way it is and we’ve known that from watching previous seasons so we tried to keep a cool head the whole time,” says Cheyne.

“You have to expect there’s going to be plenty of situations where you can potentially fall apart – that’s what the race is about and we knew that coming in. We were realistic and we said, when those situations arrive … we just need to be calm and not blow up at each other because that’s just going to be counter-productive,” concurs Meghan.

It didn’t mean the race wasn’t without its tense moments – in particular during the leg in Sweden. In a dynamite challenge, where teams had to fill sandbags for their bunkers,  Meghan told Cheyne he wasn’t working with her. And then later when they arrived at a grueling Road Block where teams had to unroll hay bales to find a flag, a frustrated Meghan took on the challenge, when Cheyne’s physical strength would have been an advantage.

The couple says it was amusing to watch these scenes play out on TV.

“It was just kind of funny watching us the whole time when we would get freaked out or stressed out or start arguing with each other. It was totally entertaining but we never totally lost it and I think that was definitely one of the many secrets to our success,” says Cheyne.

It’s not something all the other teams – including third-place finishers Brian and Ericka can say, as her frustrations often forced them to take longer to complete a challenge.

“They were a great team but Ericka’s just a little bit fiery and as she says, ‘Chocolate has meltdowns,’” says a diplomatic Cheyne with a laugh.

Since returning home, Meghan and Cheyne have had the difficult task of keeping their win a secret. Cheyne, however, says he’s loved every minute of it.

“It was fun for me to keep the million dollar secret and tease people,” says Cheyne.

“On the other hand, I hated it and it was very difficult,” adds Meghan. “The million dollars will change our life and it’s the craziest thing that’s ever happened to us and we couldn’t tell anybody about it so it was very difficult for us to keep that secret and go to work and do our daily lives and routines.”

The couple plans to make some investments, buy a house and possibly start up a business venture with fellow race competitors Brian and Ericka.

But money aside, both Meghan and Cheyne says being on “The Amazing Race” has been invaluable for their relationship.

“Every single challenge we accomplished I think it made us a lot more close, especially crossing the finish line together. It’s something we’ll never forget and something really special that we went through together,” says Meghan.

“Our strengths and weaknesses really balance each other out well,” adds Cheyne. “We’re a great team, on and off the playing field.”