It's been a while since we've heared anything from Brian Townsend, but apparently it's not because he's been chillin' out at some beach or something like that. Believe it or not, but the American high stakes poker pro has been training day and night for an upcoming Sahara Desert Race and therefore had very little time to spare for poker.
Townsend is doing the race together with a friend who tried to convince him to take part already 2 years ago. In total, the two friends will be running 156 miles over 5 days through the extremely hot Sahara desert - starting October 28 in Egypt. Below are parts from his latest blog post:
I am doing this race with my good buddy, Deyl Kearin. He first told me about this race two years ago. I remember looking at him and saying that he was insane for even considering it. Then four months ago I went to him and said we should do it, so that's how we ended up here. For those who don't know, this is a 5 day (technically 7 days but you only run 2k-10k the final two days) 156 mile race through the sahara desert where you carry everything but your own water.
Obviously running 156 miles in the extremely hot Sahara desert isn't going to be easy - especially if you're a poker player by trade! However, Townsend has been taking this task pretty seriously as he described his training with the following words:
Today I ran 20 miles in 3.5 hours. 7 miles were to Jericho beach in Vancouver and the remaining 13 were going up and down the same 3 mile stretch of soft sand beach over and over. The girls playing volleyball thought I was insane, but I guess I am kinda that weird running guy now. I have been wearing a 20 pound pack to train but lightened the load to 15lbs today.