Katelyn Benton

This Saturday, October 31st, is my first 100 mile ultra-marathon. I’m feeling overall pretty good, though a little nervous. I’ll be running in the desert just outside of Phoenix.

The race starts at 6am on Saturday morning. If I have cell reception, I’ll be tweeting updates throughout the day. You can follow me here – http://twitter.com/KatelynBenton

Or you can track me at the race website. I’m number 534. http://www.javelinajundred.com/webcast/live_results.html

Wish me luck.

As of right now, the forecast for next Saturday in Phoenix is a high of 73 and a chance of showers. PERFECT.

* crosses fingers *

I am less than two weeks away from running my first 100 mile length ultra-marathon. I’m feeling good about the last 6 or 7 weeks of training and if I handle my taper right, I should be going into Javelina without injuries and eager to run.

I’m trying not to concentrate on the things that are worrying me about the race. I have a list of concerns, but all I can do is try and stay positive and take care/listen to my body.

I just got back from a 3 week stay in Los Angeles and am now in Colorado until I fly to Phoenix for the race next weekend. The back and forth leaves me a bit disoriented. I’m not sure who exactly I am or what I’m doing and this race seems to be the only thing in my life right now that I am feeling in control over. I’m not sure how I’m going to feel when this race is over. I hope I can find my North soon and start to feel a little more balanced.

Speaking of balance, I got this Power Balance bracelet this last weekend that makes me feel like I have super powers. It made me nauseous the first half hour I wore it, but I did notice an immediate improvement in my balance.

Ultra-runners lost for 72 hours without water

September 1, 2009, Nashville -  Singer/songwriter Katelyn Benton walked away from the Just Plain Folks Awards in Nashville last weekend with the Best Music Video award for her song “Impossible Love”.

The Just Plain Folks (JPF) organization was founded by Brian Austin Whitney and currently represents over 50,000 musicians from 163 countries, making the JPF Awards the largest award show in independent music.

Whitney felt the music made by the “other 98%” of the music world often ignored by the mainstream televised music awards shows deserved its own recognition. After all, “We’re all in this together” states the organization’s motto.

“I’m very honored that Impossible Love was chosen as Best Video. This seems to be a very fitting award for the nature of this project,” says Benton. “Just about all of the materials and talent that went into making this video were donated. We pulled this together on a budget of roughly $400 and a group of very talented and generous people. This is a success for everyone involved.”

Heading the video’s creative team was director Brandon Nicholas, who at only 24-years-old operates Aurora Features in Los Angeles, CA, which just finished shooting the feature film Desert Son.

“Impossible Love” is one of the five original songs featured on Benton’s latest EP, Once, which was released in Spring 2009. Once is available at www.digstation.com/katelynbenton. See the Impossible Love music video and get more information on Katelyn Benton including tour dates at www.KatelynBenton.com or www.myspace.com/katelynbenton.

Maybe not my most glamerous moments, but certianly a lot of fun.

I’ll be on ABC’s WIPEOUT tonight! Check your local listings for air times.

Also, I’m having a “WIPEOUT” sale on my CD. Only for the next couple of days I’ll have my CD available for just $3!! You can get it here – www.digstation.com/katelynbenton

The cast of tonight's episode. I'm right in the middle of this picture (right in front of the guy in the orange sweatshirt.

Me after the first round

This past weekend I ran my very first 50 mile ultra marathon. First of all – the video Blog. Enjoy!!

Now, take a look at the elevation map.

First 25 mile loop

Second 25 mile loop

Looks more like a ski slope than a trail race! Because of the way May and June went, I came into this race knowing how under-trained I was, but didn’t doubt my fitness and my mindset and that’s truly what made the difference. This race was a gigantic success. I felt comfortable, I was euphorically, stupidly happy, I had no nutrition issues, no GI problems, no dehydration or nausea, what a positive experience. I may go as far as to say this was one of the most wonderful days of my life. Knowing I was under-trained actually took a lot of edge off of the race. It was like a day long moving picnic with beautiful scenery and I happened to also be running.

Near the end I was having a hard time with the downhills. At mile 47 I had to stop running the downhills. As you can see from the elevation map, the last few miles are at a pretty steep grade going down. The last segment of the video where it shows me seeing the finish was taken about a mile and a half out of the finish. It took me close to an hour to do that last mile and a half because of the steep downhill. I’m glad I had my headlamp! When it got dark at the end, it was still challenging to stay on course with the headlamp.

It’s been 3 days now and I feel great. My quads are still a little sore, but no big deal.

Ultra marathons are the best.

Check it out!! My music video got nominated for a Just Plain Folks award! Looks like Brandon and I will be going to Nashville in a couple weeks.