Wanaka multisport guru Keith Murray (52), wife Andrea (50) and sons Charlie (18) and Craig (16) will contest New Zealand's top adventure race, Godzone, in their home town next year.
Between February 27 and March 7, 60 teams of four people will race non-stop over seven days in and around the Lake Wanaka region, navigating their way through a course that will involve mountaineering, hiking, kayaking and mountain biking.
When it was announced Godzone would be on their back doorstep, the boys hit their parents up to enter as a family team - initially eliciting a lukewarm response from their father.
''I really thought I was done with all that pain and suffering but Andrea was keen and it was too good an opportunity to do it as a family to pass up,'' he said.
The Murray parents are accomplished athletes with a string of racing successes to their names both in New Zealand and abroad.
Keith, a GP with an interest in occupational and sports medicine, moved to New Zealand in 1986 from his native Scotland.
He began his racing career here soon after and won the country's premier mountain running event, the 60km Kepler Challenge through the Fiordland National Park, five times.
Shifting his attention to multi-discipline racing, he won the two-day section of the Coast to Coast in 1992 and 1993, before stepping up to the Longest Day in 1994 and winning in 10hr 34min 37sec, a record that still stands.
After meeting Keith in Hawaii on a windsurfing trip in 1988, American-born Andrea only momentarily stalled her racing career after having their first child, Charlie, in 1996.
The next year, she competed in her first Coast to Coast, winning the women's section in 12hr 9min 26sec, a record which also remains unbroken.
The Murrays did not let the birth of their second son, Craig, slow them.
They began racing together in the Eco Challenge events.
Andrea was the sole female, racing with her husband and two other male team-mates.
Far from being the weakest link, Andrea showed immense strength to help the team to victories in Australia and Patagonia in the late 1990s, Keith said.
''I have total confidence in Andrea's abilities, and she is very strong, not only physically but psychologically.''
She also had the advantage of being accustomed to the sleep deprivation that hounds adventure racers, through being a mother to their two young boys.
''Andrea and I remember hallucinating quite wildly while racing, at times,'' Keith smiled.
With parents of this athletic calibre, it is no wonder Charlie, Craig and sister Fiona (13) are budding stars.
Mountain biking, skiing and running are their main individual pursuits, and as a family unit, there are always adventures to be had.
''We've had lots of family trips where we've been rafting [including a recent trip down the Grand Canyon], kayaking and hiking, so they are all really skilled,'' Keith said.
Earlier this year, University of Otago engineering student Charlie made his adventure racing debut in the Godzone race held around Kaikoura, placing fourth with his team.
Craig attends Mt Aspiring College in Wanaka.
It will be his first multi-day adventure race but he has competed in a number of shorter adventure and multisport races, including winning the national schools adventure race, and has also won national titles in mountain biking and skiing.
At the age of 15, he placed third in the Routeburn Classic mountain running race.
The Murrays moved to Wanaka from Christchurch two years ago, partly to escape the earthquakes and partly to indulge their love of the mountains.
