10 Ten Endurance Competitions

Translated as Marathon of the Sands, this is a six-day, 150-mile run across the blazingly hot southern Moroccan Sahara. Runners must carry all their own supplies on their person. Canadian runner Robert Kent, writing in the National Post, described the potential dangers as follows: "Things that are pretty evident like, scorpions, snakes, camel spiders, unbelievable heat, total exhaustion, crappy food, crappy sleep, filth, crippling blisters and other injuries, and those nasty stomach issues." If that doesn't make you want to sign up, like now, Kent also describes hearing about a Brit participant "whose feet were blistered so bad that when he crossed the finish line he was flown back to Europe by helicopter to have a skin graft on both his heels as he was right down to the meat."

The next Marathon des Sables will take place from March 27 to April 6.