You can win it, but you can't beat it. You can catch it, but you can't tame it. The FNB Desert Dash is more than an endurance mountain bike race, it's a wild beast that lures you, challenges you and allows only a few to stay on its back. It's a 369km, 24 hour fight between human and nature, body and mind.

Starting in Windhoek the route climbs the Khomas Hochland up to a level of 2000m above sea level. You'll pass through beautiful scenery with scattered thorn trees and high savanna grass, the only spectators kudu, springbuck and the odd oryx staring at you in the red African sunset. Navigating the sharp twists and turns of the descent, at one stage dropping 700m in only 10km, will be made even more difficult by the cold and darkness of a moonless night. The next day brings challenges of its own. Temperatures can soar up to 50 degrees Celsius while you cross the arid, rocky monotomy of the Namib Desert. The finishing line is in the quaint coastal town of Swakopmund. With the cold Atlantic Ocean on one side and the red sand dunes of the desert on the other, the town itself summarizes the extremes of this race.

The 8th edition of the FNB Desert Dash will be held on 13 and 14 December 2013. Have you got what it takes? Can you cope with the distance and weather conditions?

Remember, come prepared ...