The strain is beginning to show on the faces of the 19 Australian and New Zealand celebrities taking part in the inaugural Anza Challenge as they near the end of their 1300km race around New Zealand.
The transtasman event started on Sunday in Auckland and involves teams of sports stars and celebrities running, rowing, cycling and sailing around the country in a race for national pride and to raise vital funds for charities on both sides of the Ditch, including the Halberg Disability Sport Foundation.
The teams included Black Sticks hockey player Gemma Flynn, paralympian cyclist Nathan Smith, Olympic gold medal rowers Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan, world champion cyclist Alison Shanks, former All Black Marc Ellis, former rugby league player Laurie Daley, former Wallaby Wendell Sailor, Olympic cyclist Shane Kelly and Olympic champion rower Dan Noonan.
Alison Shanks said it was a great event for a really good cause.
''The Kiwi team is 100% behind the work that the Halberg Disability Sport Foundation does to help physically disabled Kiwis get into sport.''
The challenge culminates in simultaneous public runs in Auckland and Sydney on Sunday.
Every participant will be time-chipped and these will be combined with their celebrity team's results to determine the inaugural winner of the Anza Challenge.
