Elizabeth Clor's Blog, page 9

UCAN vs. Maurten for Marathon Fueling

In my long quest to find the optimal fueling solution for my needs, I have found Maurten and UCAN to be the products that work best. How are they different? Can they be used together? Let's discuss. 

Disclaimer: These products work well for me, but each runner has unique needs. This review is based on my personal experience.

Maurten Products
I have tried all of the Maurten fueling products. They have 2 types of gels and 3 drink mixes. There are no flavors:

Gel 100Gel 100 Caf 100Drink Mix 160Drink Mi...

2022: A Shaky Start

This is my 500th blog post! And it's the first blog post of 2022.

The year is off to a shaky start. On New Year's Eve, I had some major digestive issues that left me feeling

January 5 snowy runquite fatigued and unsettled. So when it came time for my annual New Year's Day race, I made the decision to run it as tempo run, not a full-out race.

New Year's Day 5K
I didn't write a blog post about this race because it wasn't really a "race" for me. Greg and I were planning to leave for our vacation in Mex...

Marathons & Mandates: A New Era of the Sport

I'm going to tackle a controversial topic: marathons and their vaccine requirements. 

Last November, the Boston Marathon announced that all runners for the 2022 race must be fully vaccinated. Other marathons, like New York City, have made similar announcements. 

2021 Races: Vaccines not Required
For the large 2021 marathons, the vaccine was not a requirement. Participants must have either shown vaccination proof OR tested negative for Covid-19. A May 2021 article in the New York Times stated:

"The m...

Christmas Caper 5K: Chill but not too chilly

This morning I ran the Christmas Caper 5K in Washington DC. This was a low-key race with no chip timing and about 80 participants. This race has an accompanying 10K, which I ran last year, setting a PR. (This was the PR I just beat in my Turkey Trot). 

Because this race is so low key and I consider myself to be in the "off season," I wasn't overly excited about this race. It wasn't like the Turkey Trot where it was a tradition with hundreds of runners, a big awards ceremony, lots of SWAG, etc. So...

Guest Post: Greg's Rehoboth Beach Marathon Report

I'm very excited to share my first-ever guest blog post!  This post is by my husband Greg, blogging about his experience at the Rehoboth Beach Marathon last weekend. He's an excellent writer and makes some insightful points about the challenge of running a marathon. Enjoy!

My Running Journey
Because my running journey is mostly unknown to this audience, I’ll provide a brief introduction. I started running in 2008 to combat the weight gain that came from not being in my early 20’s anymore. Running ...

Pacing Greg at the Rehoboth Beach Marathon

I had the pleasure of pacing Greg for the first few miles of his marathon last Saturday! He ran the Rehoboth Beach Seashore Marathon in Delaware. This course currently holds my marathon PR from 2018, and Greg wanted to experience it for himself. 

Rehoboth Beach, DEPeople have asked us if we typically do the same races or different races and the answer is that it varies. Sometimes, like in the case of the Two Rivers Marathon or the Wineglass Half Marathon, we run the same race. Other times, he run...

Running for PR Pie

Yesterday morning, I ran the Ashburn Farm Turkey Trot 10K. This race offers both a 5K and a 10K and back in 2019 I ran the 5K. Prior to 2019, I had run the Virginia Run Turkey Trot 5K every year since 2006, but they decided to discontinue the race in 2019 due to lack of volunteers. So, this was my first ever Turkey Trot 10K, as I had always run 5 in years past.

I chose the 10K this year because I felt like my endurance was strong from the marathon training, but my speed was lacking. Even though I...

On Being an "Influencer"

I don't like the word "influencer". I don't think of myself as someone who influences other people. I like to share my stories and express my opinions. It does feel satisfying when that's helpful to others, but selfishly, I simply enjoy putting myself out there. I prefer the term "content creator" or simply "blogger". But at some point, someone came up with the term "influencer" to describe people on social media with large followings. And now we're stuck with it!
I wanted to write a post that br...

Spontaneous Marathon: Marshall University

I did something crazy and ran my marathon a week earlier than planned. Instead of running the Richmond Marathon, I ran the Marshall University Marathon in WV. Why?

As I posted about in my training recap, I have felt crappy during most of my training runs mostly due to the unseasonably warm and humid weather. Each run felt harder than it should have for the paces I was running, and I didn't have any "breakthrough" workouts. Usually in every marathon cycle I have a workout where I PR something.  Ma...

Richmond Marathon Training

Things have kicked into high gear since the half marathon two weeks ago. The mileage has increased, the workouts have gotten longer, and the weather has gotten warmer! After a divine 4 days at the end of September with crisp, cool weather, the first half of October has been unseasonably warm and humid, by about 10-15 degrees daily. The marathon is four weeks away and I am just now starting to feel like I might be ready by then!

I typically choose a later fall marathon so I don't have to do long r...