Elizabeth Clor's Blog, page 13

Boston Marathon: Canceled!

Earlier this week, the B.A.A. announced that it would cancel the marathon and instead have a virtual race. This did not come as a surprise to most people, myself included, as no large sporting events have returned yet. The cancelation did not affect me in the sense that I wasn't planning to run in September, but it did upset me.

Boston Marathon Expo 2018Initially I believed that all of the cancelations and postponements were an over-reaction. We knew very little about the virus, so why would we c...

Mother's Day 4-Mile Virtual Race

On Friday morning, I ran the Mother's Day Virtual 4-Miler, put on by Potomac River Running (=PR=). This was the first race I registered for as a virtual race, as opposed to registering for a real race and then having it turn into a virtual race.

=PR= sent out medals, bib number and race shirts about a week in advance of the race. We were told that we could run the race at any time on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. We could run it anywhere we chose, except for the official race course that had...

I ran 90 miles this week. Here's what I learned.

After running 26.2 miles on Monday to commemorate the Boston Marathon that never happened, I proceeded to run a 90-mile week. The idea to run 90 miles in one week came from my coach. The idea to start it off with a marathon was mine. Together, we make a crazy team!

Why run a 90 mile week? With no races on the calendar, my coach thought it would be a good way to challenge myself and also discover what I was capable of. I wasn't trying to make any fitness gains. In order to do that, I would have...

Heartbreak and Hills: The Virginia Boston Marathon

3:09am, April 20, 2020.

I am awake. I am still. Calm.

I am not in the Ritz Carlton Boston. I'm home. "The Ritz Clorlton" I think to myself, as I get up to go to the bathroom. I believe myself to be well hydrated, so having to go to the bathroom at 3:09am is not a surprise. With only one eye half open, I reach for the toilet paper. I realize I have pulled too hard and too much will come off the roll. I roll it back some and then tear it off. Just five weeks ago, I wouldn't have thought twice...

Running Shoe Review + Sports Bras: adidas and Brooks

I recently had the opportunity to add four new running shoes to my rotation. RoadRunner Sports has been gifting me a new pair of shoes each month in exchange for sharing them with my Instagram followers. They did not ask me to formally review these shoes on my blog, but I enjoy reviewing shoes, so I am going to do that anyway.

RoadRunner sports also sent me two new sports bras. I will review those at the end for the pure love of reviewing gear! I will be reviewing:
The adidas Adizero Adios 5The...

Virtual Cherry Blossom 10-Miler

This morning, Greg and I ran the Virtual Cherry Blossom 10-mile race. The race was canceled due to the coronavirus, but they offered a virtual option. The virtual option allows you to run 10 miles anywhere and submit your results to the race. On Tuesday, they will publish the results on their site.

I wore my bib from 2017
Initially, we were planning to run this race on the W&OD trail with our friend Amber. She's the one who ran the 10K with me a few weekends ago. But she lives in Maryland,...

Coronavirus Timeline: A personal day-by-day recap

Because I use this blog as my journal, I wanted to document the timeline of the events that have unraveled over the past two weeks. As I have said many times before, the primary audience for this blog is me and my future self, but I think others might find this timeline interesting as well.

I am not trying to be a reporter or a historian; I am trying to capture my own personal experience in the midst of this apocalyptic time. I'll start with Wednesday, March 11 because I last addressed this...

BYOB: Bring Your Own Bib

When you really think about it, it doesn't take much to have a race. You really don't need t-shirts, medals, chip timing, age group awards, online race results, course certification or any of that. Sure, all that stuff makes the races feel important and celebratory and they are important, but they are not essential.

What do you need:
At least two runnersA measured courseSomeone timing the raceThink about two children: "Race you to the end of the street?"  "Sure, Kelly can be the judge!"...

Coronavirus and the Boston Marathon

Today, the New York Road Runners (NYRR) announced that its half marathon, which was scheduled to be held on Sunday, March 15, is now canceled. The New Bedford Half Marathon in Massachusetts was also canceled due to fears of spreading the novel coronavirus. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles marathon was held as planned last weekend.

Nearly all large races occurring in March and April have announced that they are closely monitoring the coronavirus situation and are working with health officials on the...

The One City Half Marathon: The Royal Treatment

This morning I ran the Newport News One City Half Marathon. I had never run this race before, although last year, Greg ran the full marathon. He had a good experience (fast course, good organization, etc.) so I figured it would be a good race to target as my spring half.

Running in the Elite Field
As a master’s runner (40+ years of age) I qualified to run as part of the elite field by having run a previous half marathon faster than 1:35:00. The benefits of running as an Elite were:
A free race...