The Marathon des Sables, or Marathon of the Sands, is a six-day, 240km kilometres (150 miles) endurance race, run across a section of the Sahara desert in southern Morocco.

Runners have to trudge over sand dunes and carry their own food and supplies on their backs in a race which is the equivalent of five and a half normal marathons. The exact route is not revealed to runners until the day before the start to prevent people getting any practice.

The marathon was founded in 1986 by a Frenchman, Patrick Bauer, who had trekked for some 300km (186 miles) through the Algerian Sahara two years earlier and whose desire to share this experience evolved into today’s race.

Remarkably only two people have actually died on the course, but the Marathon des Sables has already acquired a catalogue of almost legendary stories of survival.

In 1994, Mauro Prosperi, a police officer from Rome, got lost in a sandstorm and wandered several hundred kilometres off course (to Algeria).

He managed to live for the next nine days on a diet of boiled urine and dead bats. He lost over 13kg (30lbs) during his ordeal but returned to Morocco to race twice more.  Visit the official site for more info, or the website Dreamchasers Events, the official race organizer for the American, Canadian and Australian runners.