For most people, running a marathon is a daunting prospect. For Israeli businessman Matan Greenberg, even that distance is no longer enough.
In April 2027, the 44-year-old South Florida resident plans to take on the Marathon des Sables Legendary, a grueling six-stage race covering approximately 250 kilometers (155 miles) across Morocco's Sahara Desert.
Competitors must navigate deep sand, punishing heat and difficult terrain while carrying their own food and equipment. They sleep in communal desert camps, recover as best they can and set out again the following day.
The event, first held in 1986, is among the best-known multiday endurance races in the world. The 2027 edition is scheduled for April 2-12, with six competitive stages spread over seven days. The race is open to runners and walkers, but completing it requires substantial preparation and resilience.
For Greenberg, who runs several businesses while raising three children with his wife, Merav, the challenge extends well beyond the desert. It is also about how far someone with a demanding career and family responsibilities can push himself, and what happens when personal ambition begins to compete with everyday obligations.
An unlikely path to endurance sports
Greenberg did not grow up training to become an elite athlete. His involvement in endurance sports developed later in life, driven by curiosity about his physical and mental limits.
Over the years, he says he has completed two full Ironman triathlons, several half-Ironman events, a 10-kilometer open-water swim, a 50-kilometer ultramarathon and a HYROX competition in the professional division.
An Ironman consists of a 3.8-kilometer swim, a 180-kilometer bicycle ride and a full 42.2-kilometer marathon, completed consecutively. HYROX, meanwhile, combines running with a series of demanding fitness exercises.
Matan Greenberg completed two full Ironman triathlons
(Photo: Courtesy)
(Photo: Courtesy)
Greenberg's athletic pursuits are an unusual addition to a schedule already filled with business responsibilities. He is involved in ventures spanning health care, real estate, technology and commerce.
He says endurance sports have changed the way he approaches difficulties, both in competition and outside it.
"Sports taught me that the body is capable of much more than we think," he said. "In most cases, the mind is the first to give up. When you learn to deal with fear, pain and doubt, you discover abilities you never knew you had."
That philosophy will face a particularly difficult test in Morocco.
What makes the Sahara race so demanding?
Unlike a conventional marathon, which typically takes place on paved roads and is completed in a single day, the Marathon des Sables requires participants to sustain their effort over successive stages, with limited opportunities for recovery.
Runners and walkers carry their food, clothing, sleeping bags and other required supplies. Organizers provide drinking water at designated checkpoints and tents at the overnight camps.
One of the race's toughest stages can cover approximately 80 kilometers (50 miles), forcing some competitors to continue through the night.
The accumulated fatigue can be as difficult as any single stage. Blisters, dehydration, muscle soreness and inadequate sleep can turn distances that once seemed manageable into major obstacles.
And even experienced endurance athletes cannot be certain how their bodies will respond to several consecutive days in the desert.
For Greenberg, completing the race would mark another milestone in a growing list of personal athletic achievements. He also hopes to join the Israelis who have finished the event in previous years.
But he has decided to make the experience about more than the final result.
Turning an endurance race into a documentary
Greenberg plans to document his preparations and participation in a feature-length film produced in collaboration with Lotus 7 Films, a South Florida-based video production company.
For now, Greenberg is preparing for a journey that will take him far from the routines of South Florida and into one of the world's most demanding environments
(Photo: Courtesy)
The project is intended to follow not only the race itself but also the months leading up to it, including training, injuries, recovery and the complications of preparing for an extreme sporting challenge while maintaining a business career and family life.
Rather than presenting only the achievement of crossing the finish line, Greenberg wants the film to examine what it takes to pursue a demanding goal when failure remains a real possibility.
"I don't want to make a film about a man who runs 250 kilometers through the desert," he said. "I want to make a film about someone who decided to attempt something that seems impossible and what happens to him along the way."
That distinction could prove important. Endurance documentaries often build toward a dramatic finish, but much of the experience takes place far from spectators and cameras: early mornings, repetitive training sessions, setbacks and decisions about whether to push harder or rest.
The film will also explore the pressures of pursuing a personal goal that requires considerable time and energy, particularly for someone with professional and family commitments.
The producers hope eventually to reach an international audience through streaming services and film festivals. No distribution agreement or release date has been announced.
The decisions that shape a life
Greenberg is also working on a book titled "Split Second," which explores the role of individual decisions in shaping the direction of a person's life.
The central idea is that a choice made in a brief moment — whether to begin something difficult, continue despite setbacks or confront a fear — can have consequences lasting years.
He sees parallels between endurance sports and the challenges of managing businesses or raising a family. Both, he believes, demand consistency, patience and a willingness to tolerate uncertainty.
Yet the parallels are not always straightforward. Training for an extreme endurance event involves making sacrifices, managing physical risks and finding room for personal goals alongside responsibilities to others.
Those tensions are among the subjects Greenberg intends to explore in the documentary.
For him, the goal is not simply to show that determination can lead to athletic achievement, but to examine the choices and compromises involved in pursuing something difficult.
A lesson for his children
Although the Sahara race will be an individual undertaking, Greenberg says his family is central to his motivation.
As a father of three, he wants his children to understand that success does not necessarily depend on natural ability or exceptional talent.
"I want my children to grow up knowing that you don't have to be the most talented, the strongest or the fastest to succeed," he said. "You need to believe in yourself, work hard, stay consistent and not be afraid to fail."
It is a message he hopes will resonate beyond his family, particularly with people who have postponed personal ambitions because of work, responsibilities or doubts about their abilities.
Whether Greenberg completes the race remains to be seen. Even with extensive training, the desert presents variables that competitors cannot fully control.
There is also the possibility that the experience will prove very different from what he expects, something his documentary project could capture as it unfolds.
For now, Greenberg is preparing for a journey that will take him far from the routines of South Florida and into one of the world's most demanding environments.
And while the finish line remains his immediate objective, he says the broader purpose is to encourage others to reconsider the limits they have placed on themselves.
"If one person watches this film and finally decides to pursue a dream they had given up on, then as far as I'm concerned, the film will have succeeded," he said. "Because ultimately, this isn't a story about running. It's a story about the possibility of making the impossible possible."