What Does Claire Bowen Like to Do When She Is Not Being a Statistician?

This column focuses on what statisticians do when they are not being statisticians. If you would like to share your pastime with readers, please email Megan Murphy, Amstat News managing editor.

Who are you, and what is your statistics position?

My name is Claire Bowen, and I am a statistics PhD candidate in the applied and computational mathematics and statistics department at the University of Notre Dame.

Tell us about what you like to do for fun when you are not being a statistician.

When I’m not being a statistician, I participate in endurance races such as marathons and triathlons.

What drew you to this hobby, and what keeps you interested?

During high school, I was overweight and could barely run a mile. Originally, I joined the cross country team as the student manager and started running to keep up with the team better. Through the encouragement of the team and coach, I changed to a runner by the end of the season.

Since then, I discovered I enjoy long-distance races. I completed my first marathon when I was 19 and my first half-Ironman when I was 24. My goal is to complete an Ironman before I am 30.

I continue this hobby to help maintain a healthy lifestyle and for the overall positivity I’ve experienced from running and triathlon communities. Being overweight before, my training keeps my physical and mental health in check more easily. I love that I can do other physical activities like hiking and snowboarding without being exhausted afterward. My stress has gone down considerably, and training breaks up my day when I’m stuck on a research problem (or sometimes I figure out the problem during a run).

I joined the local biking and triathlon clubs, where I have the opportunity to meet people in different social groups. In these endurance race communities, everyone is encouraging and positive about the sport they’re in, because it doesn’t matter how you perform in the races. What matters is that you are swimming/biking/running and you are doing it for you, becoming the best you can be.