Elizabeth Clor's Blog, page 7

Chobe Game Lodge: An Elephant Paradise

For those of you who follow me more for the "Racing" and less for the "Stripes," the racing posts will resume once I am done documenting my stripey journey in Africa. It's important that I write about it while it's fresh in my head so I can remember as much as possible about this trip of a lifetime. 

When our light aircraft landed back at Kasane airport in Botswana, it was time to collect the luggage that we checked. Greg couldn't immediately find the checked baggage slips and I was wondering how...

Leroo La Tau: A Zebra Paradise

This post a continuation of our trip to Africa. See my previous post about how we got here.

Zebras in the backgroundThe next stop on our African adventure was Leroo La Tau in Botswana. Our light aircraft landed on the air strip and we were immediately greeted by Metal, who would be our guide for the next three days. This location was extremely remote. Metal drove us in a safari vehicle to the lodge on a bumpy, sandy road. (Thank goodness for Dramamine!)

Leroo La Tau had been recommended by our tou...

Africa: Victoria Falls

Our first of four destinations was Victoria Falls. Similar to how Niagara Falls have a United States and a Canada side, Victoria Falls can be viewed from Zambia or Zimbabwe. We stayed on the Zambia side and did not cross over to Zimbabwe. This would have required purchasing an extra visa, and we were only there for a very short amount of time.

We picked this location not because of the falls, but because our hotel had zebras roaming freely around the grounds. I had been following Avani Victoria F...

African Safari Adventure

My number 1 goal for this year was to go to Africa and return home safely. And that goal has been accomplished. Greg and I were in Africa from August 7 to August 19. We visited South Africa, Zambia and Botswana. In this blog post, I am going to summarize some general topics that might be helpful for those seeking to go an African safari, as well as the pre-safari preparations. I will write a separate post about each of the places we stayed.

Booking the Safari
We booked this trip in 2019, a year in...

Heart rate, hills, and other stuff

I'm officially done with my 5K racing season and have moved into base building for my fall marathon. I ran four 5Ks this spring/summer and their purpose was mainly to get my running heart rate back to "normal" after Covid had made it abnormally high for months.

Heart Rate
My resting heart rate was elevated for about 2-3 months post Covid, and my running heart rate was elevated for about 5 months. I got sick in the middle of January and recovered at the end of January. From January-May, my running ...

Firecracker 5K Report: STRENGTH!

Sometimes in racing, things work out better than expected, and that was true for me today!
I ran the Reston Firecracker 5K, which has become an annual tradition for Greg and me. We ran the inaugural race in 2010 and most every race since. One reason I love running the same 5K year after year is to see improvements and set course PRs - even in the heat!
Since 2010, I have run this race every year except for the following:2012 (mono)2013 (stress reaction in shin)2016 (mono)2018 (mono)2020 (we did th...

Running Home with Michael Wardian

Exactly 14 years ago, in late June of 2008, I met Michael Wardian for the first time. He was attempting to break the world record for the fastest treadmill marathon and I was there to support him. My friend Michael Hayden had introduced me to Mike and we went to the event together. Details about that day are in this blog post. I was creating videos long before Instagram Reels were even invented!

Fast forward to last weekend, I once again found myself supporting Mike Wardian. (There were definitel...

Lawyers Have Heart 5K: A Muggy Slug

I ran the Lawyer's Have Heart 5K in Georgetown, Washington DC this morning. I have a very long history with this race. It used to be a 10K, and now they have both 5K and 10K options. It was my first race ever back in 2005 (unless you count the 2-miler at my college reunion). I had a streak going every year from 2005-2012, but then a beach trip came up in 2013, which ended the streak.

I ran the 5K most recently in 2017, back when I had been solely focused on the 5K for months. That season, I was a...

Guest Post: Greg's Vermont City Marathon

Please enjoy this guest blog post written by my husband Greg!
Choosing Vermont City
I ran the Rehoboth Beach Marathon in December. At dinner that same night, Elizabeth was already asking which one I wanted to run in the spring. She and I are different in that way – I wanted to continue reveling in my recent accomplishment, whereas she wanted to know, ‘what’s next?’. More than once we’ve had similar conversations where my answer is, ‘I’m not ready to think about that yet’.
However, on that particula...

Vermont City Marathon: Pacing Greg

Yesterday morning I ran the Vermont City 2-person relay, which enabled me to run the first half of Greg's marathon with him. 

Greg chose this marathon because he wanted to experience a new city/state, and he wanted a late Spring marathon, having run Rehoboth Beach in December. Even though I am not a certified coach, Greg and I agree that I am qualified enough to be his coach, so I created a training plan for him. I have been his coach for his past 4-5 marathons, and it has worked out well in the ...