Celebrity Chef and Endurance Athlete

South African endurance athletes David Grier and Braam Malherbe arrived home in time for Christmas 2006, having spent four months covering around 5 000 kilometres and some of the harshest terrain on the planet to become the first people in recorded history to run the Great Wall of China from start to finish, in one go, on foot. (As the largest man-made structure, the Great Wall runs across nine Chinese provinces).

By taking a direct route along the massively undulating "spine of the dragon," Grier and Malherbe also became the first people to personally measure the length of the Wall, popularly thought to be 5 000 kilometres long. Their findings, currently being verified, will be presented at a gala dinner in Cape Town in February.

Miles for Smiles

Their epic endurance test, sponsored by pharmaceutical company Cipla Medpro, formed part of the Miles for Smiles Challenge, an annual event in which extreme sportsmen and women help raise money for needy youngsters.

Grier and Malherbe crossed the officially recognised end point of the Wall, at Shanhaiguan, on 15 December after four months of running, climbing - and sometimes crawling - for around six hours a day across relentlessly treacherous and weather-pounded terrain.

Their mission, David said, was not only to inspire South Africans to "give the gift of a smile to children born without one". It was also to to show South African children, including their own, that "everyone can do anything if they put their mind to it."

At the same time, the two middle-aged fathers raised money - and created invaluable publicity - for Operation Smile, a non-profit volunteer medical organisation that provides free reconstructive surgery to children and young adults suffering from facial deformities such as cleft lips and palates.