Outside of a triathlon, the best way to test a person's endurance is to see how long they can listen to a radio play-by-play of a triathlon. Take on a real challenge with today's Groupon: for $45, you get an individual athlete registration to Kendra's Race 2012 (up to a $110 value) on March 31.

Named after Kendra Chiota Payne, whose memorial fund benefits from the race fees, Kendra's Race pushes athletes through a 19.5-mile sprint-distance triathlon course over sea and land, with the intermittent aid of personal velocipedes. After a brisk half-mile ocean swim invigorates race-ready muscles, the triathlon transitions to a 16-mile bike loop before riders dismount their pedal-ponies and book it on foot the 3 miles to the finish line.

The picturesque race offers athletes plenty of distraction from their burning muscles and runner’s-high-induced hallucinations with all the natural bounty of the California coastline. Racers pedal along stunning Goleta Beach and through UCSB's breezy campus, then, peering through the waterfalls of sweat cascading over their brows, take in views as they pound the pavement along the UCSB Lagoon and past yardage-marking eucalyptus trees. At the finish line, top finishers receive their awards and the rest of the tuckered-out racing masses receive bragging rights and at least one obligatory spouse-provided foot massage.