Elizabeth Clor's Blog

I chose the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon as my fall goal race because it is a fast course with
historically good weather. At the age of 46 (almost 47) I believe that I am “peaking” in my running career, so I want to run fast courses to see what kind of lifetime marathon personal best I can achieve.
I had run the Indianapolis Monumental half marathon twice, setting a PR there in 2019. I ran the marathon in 2017, and had a monumental bonk. I was registered for this race last fall, too, but I ha...

I may have just set a PR for longest time away from my blog. And it's not a good PR. Life has been rather hectic lately, so I will give the highlights of my last two months. 

Leg Wounds
In mid-August, I scraped my leg on a moving box shortly before my long run. It hurt briefly but I quickly forgot about it. On my run, lost my HOVER Air self-flying camera in thick brush near a trail. I tried to

retrieve it, but quickly realized it would not be possible after stepping into the brush. The next day, I...

One might assume that a late August 5K in the Washington DC area would be warm and humid. But
amazingly, the Donut Dash last Sunday was 58 degrees with low humidity. It must have been among the coolest mornings this area has ever seen for August 31. 

The weather was so good, I'll start out with my personal weather scale. The race gets a 10 out of 10. There was almost no wind, and while I usually consider 58 warmer than ideal for racing, it was perfect for a shorter distance, especially since I wa...

With the World Marathon Majors becoming increasingly harder to get into, the influencer bib debate seems to have escalated. There aren't a ton of controversial topics in the amateur running world, but when they arise, I like to address them.

I'll provide an overview of why this is so controversial and then break down the three different parties responsible for these influencer bibs: the marathon itself, the sponsor, and the influencer.

The Debate
Social media content creators, more commonly called ...

I ran my annual Firecracker 5K today. I have run this race almost every year since 2010, with my course PR being 20:28 from last year.

If I am in good shape, I usually try to set a course PR. It's always hot, hilly, and measures 3.17 on my watch, so it's not a good comparison to a Turkey Trot or other 5Ks I run. But it's a great year-over-year comparison. 

Background
With the move, my training took a back seat so I ran some less-than-stellar 5Ks earlier in the season. I ran a time of 21:04 in mid-M...

After much drama surrounding our move date, we finally moved into our new home. We've now been here for about six weeks, and here are my first impressions. 

Walking to everything
We chose this location because it was walkable but we continue to make discoveries about just how walkable it is! Within a one mile radius we have over 20 restaurants, a movie theater, a grocery store, three smoothie places, a Starbucks, two homemade ice cream places, a track, a UPS store, a post office, and two of my fri...

Last night I ran the Tracksmith Twilight 5000 in Washington DC. Normally I run 5Ks in the morning on the road, and I refer to them as "5Ks". This was a 5000 meter race on the track at night. It bore little resemblance to the 5K I know and love, even though the distance was the same.

Why I Registered
I was a pacer for this race back in 2022 and I really enjoyed it. The idea of racing a 5K on the track at night in the summer was completely unappealing to me, but I figured it would be fun to help som...

Exactly 20 years ago I attended my five-year college reunion at the University of Virginia. My college roommate, Lisa, and I shared a hotel room and she was looking through the program. 

"Elizabeth, there's a two-mile race tomorrow morning," she said. "Why don't you do that?"

"2 miles is shorter than I usually run on the treadmill," I replied. "I was planning to run 5-6 miles on the
gym treadmill tomorrow morning."

"Yes, but wouldn't this be more fun?"

"I suppose I could run on the gym treadmill aft...

Just five days after returning from Boston, I flew overseas to Paris for a business trip. I don't often blog about my job, but I am the Chief Marketing Officer of a technology company. The company where I had worked for five years was acquired last October by a global business based in France. We have offices in the United States, but none of them in my area, so I am 100% remote. 

At the end of April, we had a two-day executive committee meeting in Paris. I flew out on Saturday evening, slept on ...

I just completed my 5th Boston Marathon in Boston! (I have to say "in Boston" because I also ran the virtual marathon in 2020 which was not physically in Boston). Previous races were 2016, 2018, 2022, and 2024. 
I started a tradition of doing the even years even though I have qualified every year since 2018. But last year's race was so exhilarating that I didn't want to skip a year before returning. One of the reasons why I initially didn't want to run Boston every year was to have the opportunit...