Hailing from the highlands of Kingskettle, Scotland, David Cowan is a 46-year old kilt enthusiast, who along with 135 other competitors, will take part this week in what has been called (and for my money, unequivocally is) the world’s most dangerous race – The Jungle Marathon.

The Jungle Marathon takes place in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil, also it is not a marathon. It’s a 222 kilometer race that spans seven days in Jungle with competitors encountering “poisonous snakes, venomous tarantulas, hungry jaguars and even deadly plants.”

They have armed guides that are on hungry jaguar detail at night.

In the jungle, It gets down to around 80 degrees fahrenheit at night. There are swamps filled with blood sucking ticks. And finally, those jaguars – they’ll straight up digest your kilt, for serious.

Cowan told the Scot publication The Courier that he was inspired “When I watched the marathon on television I saw people having to be fitted with drips and be carried away.” That is a compelling image, if you’re a lunatic.

The race kicks off Sunday. Here’s hoping Cowan can find a nice machete holster to go with that kilt.

Fife man jets off for extreme jungle race (The Courier)