Baby, Game Show, Naked Nike, My life is awesome.
First of all- meet my new niece, born yesterday. Denali Sol Benton. Goddamn, cool name.
Denali Sol Benton - 6 pounds 10 ounces
Training wise- I taped an episode of a game show this past week that involves insane obstacles courses, lots of mud and water, and big balls. I don’t know how specific I’m allowed to get, so I’ll just let you know the air date when I know it. I will say this though, marathon running may not have been the best preparation for most of the events, but I did have endurance enough to definitely work in my favor. Also, I wear mud very well.
Me after playing in the mud.
I’d like to get into some more extreme racing. I think after the High Desert 50K, I’m a bit bored by traditional road runs. I’m thinking of doing the Big Sur mud run next month, and maybe participate in a few Xtera trail races. As of now, I have no future marathons or ultra’s in the near future. I’m considering doing the Avenue of the Giants in May though.
I auditioned for a Nike ad this morning. If I get the gig, I’ll be shooting a 2 day commercial running naked. I’m pretty sure my Mom hopes that I don’t get it. I think they’ve done a commercial like this before. I’ve been trying to find it online with no success yet. Let me know if you know what I’m talking about.
Musicwise- Got the master. I’m working out a few kinks with the CD cover. I did a photo shoot last week with my friend Brandon Nicholas and I really like a lot of the pictures, but I haven’t found one that I like enough for a cover… We’ll see.
Brandon is also the one shooting the Impossible Love music video in a few weeks. I love his ideas and I think the video is going to be pretty sweet. Stay tuned for more updates.
Here’s some pics from last week’s shoot:
How bad ass is that piano?
Anyway- I’m hoping to have the CD’s all set to go out for duplication within the next day or two. Don’t forget to buy it for insanely cheap and not steal it. Also – I’m planning to do some giveaways of some tracks in the beginning, so keep an eye out on this blog for more details.
Music Video
I met with my friend Brandon Nicholas yesterday to discuss doing a music video to one of my songs, Impossible Love. We did some really great brainstorming and have a pretty cool idea of what to do. This will be my first music video. It looks like we will be shooting in mid-March! So soon!
He’s also a talented photographer, so I talked to him about my CD graphics. I pulled up the draft of the cover I had been working o, and since it had been a few days since I’d seen it, I saw more clearly what was wrong with it. First off, the photos are lovely, but I look boring. It’s like a beautiful picture you’d hang on the wall, but maybe not the most suiting for a rock/pop album. Anyway- Brandon and I are doing a photo shoot in the next few days which meant I went shopping last night. 
Note to self- for music videos, photo shoots, and gigs, if you need clothes- Forever 21 is the way to go. I haven’t been there since I was 16. They have lots of really fun stuff and everything was pretty inexpensive.
Still thinking about taking up Parkour. There are classes out here every Thursday night for beginners, but I’m to shy to go alone I think.
Also- maybe tennis lessons?
EP Mastered
I’m pretty close to having this project finished. Getting a guitar player was a bit of a riot. Originally my cousin Jim was going to play, but as the deadline for the final mixes got closer, I ended up putting up a note on facebook asking my guitar playing friends who had time over the next day to record a song for me. It worked out pretty well. The credited guitar player on the album will be my good friend Dylan Foley (also in Captain Pablo. Dang, I’ve used 3 Captain Pablo members for this project). Anyway, I’m happy with how it sounds. I’m having second thoughts on the album art, which if there’s anytime to have second thoughts, now is it.
I’m meeting with my friend Brandon tomorrow to talk about doing a music video. Hopefully it won’t leave me completely broke, but I would like to have a video to release soon after the songs are out.
This Friday I’m playing at Room 5. I’m looking forward to the show. I really like the room but have never played it. I haven’t played out much at all since starting to record actually. It will be nice to get back in the groove of it.
I’m looking into booking agencies right now. Thoughts? How does one get in contact with someone at these agencies without it being considered “unsolicited”?
I wrote the beginnings of a new song tonight. If I still like it tomorrow then I’ll finish it and play it the show this week.
I’m considering picking up a new sport. Maybe Tennis? Or Parkour?
Mardi Gras Marathon
I should post about this before I start to want to update on other things more.
Last Sunday (Feb 1) was the Mardi Gras Marathon in New Orleans, LA. In my training plan for the last 6 months, I planned to use the momentum from my 50K in December to PR in this race. Instead, I spent the last 2 months recording songs and being a terrible athlete while being a productive musician. So instead I ran like, 25 miles a week so I wouldn’t get fat while I listened to headphones in a dark room all day…. *sigh*
I should have learned from doing this race last year never to do this marathon again. I think that the half-marathon, which is held at the same time, is absolutely worth doing. It’s a lovely course that starts at the Superdome, heads into the French Quarter right as they finish rinsing the puke and urine from the sidewalks, heads up St. Charles to Audubon Park, which is lovely, and back down St. Charles and back to the Superdome. This is a relatively pretty and entertaining 13 miles with fairly impressive crowd support for a city that has taken a major hit with it’s population and tourism over past 3 years.
The second half of the marathon is a nightmare.
You spend about 3 miles running to City Park. These 3 miles aren’t terrible. They aren’t scenic, at all, but there are still some supporters hanging around to keep you somewhat motivated. It’s the 6-7 miles around City Park that make me want to die. You’re running the perimeter of a park for about an hour (or more) looking at the same park. The problem with this is that City Park took a pretty bad hit with Katrina. What used to be a beautiful park with A: People and B:Lots of Oak Trees is now abandoned and naked. It’s ugly. It looks neglected, and for someone who once enjoyed City Park during it’s glory days, it’s 6-7 miles of depressing.
Also, due to the road work, you spend a good chunk of the race running on this funky unfinished road that is basically some sort of wire grid filled with concrete? Ouch.
I give the race a B- for me. It doesn’t help that instead of eating like… foods I’m used to eating and stuff, I spent the previous 4 days vacationing at my Dad’s house eating every variety of cookie and cake and filling every meal with Jambalaya. The day before the marathon was my brother and his wife’s baby shower, in which I consumed about 2 pounds of cheese. So when I couldn’t poop on Sunday morning, who’s to blame? Oh well. Totally worth it.
So Sunday morning pre-race poop didn’t work out well. Also worth mentioning (aren’t you glad I’m writing about poop?) is the volunteer from hell before the race started. I arrived with my brother’s girlfriend (Robin) about 40 minutes before the start time. We were trying to find a place to go to the bathroom. We found a porta potty that was locked up and then heard an announcement that the bottom level of the Superdome was open for the use of restrooms. We got down the first level to find chaos and stupidly long lines. Outside there were about 4 or 5 porta potties with a line of about 50 people. We figured at least we could see the end of that line, so we committed to it. Little did we know that there were in fact about 20-30 other porta potties, but we couldn’t see them and there were no signs. So finally, Robin and I get to the front of the line. This volunteer starts yelling at all of the runner’s in line that this was the “Volunteer” line only and that the “Runner’s toilets” were “that way.” She then tried to force everyone out of the line and bring them to the end of another line that stretched out for an additional 50 people. I, of course, do not move. What I *wanted* to say as she got super pissed, was that hey- our race starts in 5 minutes. I’d be more concerned for the volunteers if I saw a line of 50 nervous volunteers about to poop their pants. I’m sorry, but you just don’t have the same urges as the other 6000 people here and regardless, we will ALL be gone in 5 minutes and you can use all of the potties. But instead I said, “I know you’re just trying to help.” Robin and I both got to *go*. Ah, the mini-dramas of Marathons.
But it was to no avail because Katelyn ate too much cheese.
Race start and finish area at the Superdome
Anyway. The first half of the race rocked. I ran Galloway style with my reps being 8 minutes run 1 minute recovery, drink, eat. I used the Luna Moons for food and drank water. The Luna Moons are pretty good, but still stick to your teeth which is a pain. Anyway, My pace was pretty strong. I came into the 10k mark at 52 minutes and finished 8 miles in 1:10. I got to the half point feeling comfortable at around 1:55. I was planning to finish at about 3:50 at this point. The moment I started the second half of this race I felt like shit. I think it was mostly mental because I ran this course last year and knew how boring it was going to be. However, I didn’t start to slow until the park. My god, the GI issues I was having was just not right. I mean, I felt great, then suddenly really awful cramps, and as soon as I took my recovery, they subsided until I started running again. I stopped to *go* twice, both trips were of minimal success.
post-race potty with little success
At 22 miles in my muscles started to spasm a little. I was probably a little dehydrated, but nothing major, just enough to be a pain. My Dad jumped in with me at mile 23 and ran those last 3 endless miles back to the Superdome.
Mile 25ish with friend of the family Justin helping to cheer me on.
I finished in 4:15 and had the most awesome breakfast afterwards. That’s really the only reason I do these stupid things – the t-shirt, the medals, and the gigantic celebration breakfast.
Recovery was fast. I was ready to run by Tuesday (but didn’t until Thursday). I’m not sure when my next race will be at this point. I’ve got some other stuff to train for…. stay tuned 
I did however get really stupid blisters. Seriously, no toe was spared. I almost never get blisters. I have since retired those running shoes.
The best post-race shoes ever! (topsiesonline.com
Also- update on the EP soon. It’s sounding great and I’m psyched. I love working with Corey more than most people love most things
Also Also- I bought the domain name MusicandLSD.com so eventually, that will be the new web address for this blog. I have to wait until I have the $20 to give to wordpress in order to route it.
ok. g’nite
