Radcliffe to run NY Marathon!?!?!

[Jon]

Apparently Paula has put her name down for the NY City Marathon and will confirm soon whether she will definitely run it. Bizarre decision, but I suppose I can see where she's coming from. After suge huge disappointment in Athens, she must be so keen to redeem herself. I just wonder if it's too soon after Athens. I mean, she ran 36km + 6km in Athens within a week (a marathon's worth of distance!), and now she's thinking of doing another within 3 months of that!?! Plus, there's all of the niggling injuries she had in Athens - if she hasn't recovered properly from those, then she could be setting herself up for another major disappointment.

But, as always, if she wants to run then I'll be cheering her on all the way. The conditions in NY will definitely be a whole lot kinder than in Athens, and with Deena Kastor in the race, it will give us all a good indication as to how Paula would/could/should have fared in Athens.



Reported by New York Times (free subscription required):
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/26/sport ... athon.html

[slowcoach]

Re: Radcliffe to run NY Marathon!?!?!

Interesting! NY is not a fast course. If she was to win in, say, 2:20-2:22 the questions would continue in the popular press: 6 mins off her best, ordinary time, etc., etc.

(Of course if she doesn't win...)

[Jon]

Re: Radcliffe to run NY Marathon!?!?!

I'm hoping the press will be easy on her. The main thing everyone will be looking for is for her to finish the race.

[slowcoach]

Re: Radcliffe to run NY Marathon!?!?!

How the mighty have fallen! She should take it easy if she just wants to finish. Shouldn't go racing off at the start. Just jog around in 3 hours...

[Jon]

Re: Radcliffe to run NY Marathon!?!?!

>How the mighty have fallen! She should take it easy if she just wants to
>finish. Shouldn't go racing off at the start. Just jog around in 3 hours...



Lol, ok - of course winning will be an aim of hers. I should have said "finish the race strongly"... i.e. in the top 2-3, preferably 1st place!

[twittering debutante]

Re: Radcliffe to run NY Marathon!?!?!

Couldn't help but think that too. Not long ago, Paula was going to run 2:19 easily in 90 degree temperatures and now all she needs to do is finish?

At any rate, I'm a Paula fan and I hope she is pleased with her race. It would be a shame if the unrealistic expectations of others became such an overwhelming burden that PR lost the edge over the rest of the world that she worked so hard to achieve.

[Jon]

Re: Radcliffe to run NY Marathon!?!?!

>Couldn't help but think that too. Not long ago, Paula was going to run 2:19
>easily in 90 degree temperatures and now all she needs to do is finish?



So should I pretend as if nothing major happened in Athens, and therefore start predicting another 2:19 for her?? Naturally, if I'd have known the extent of her niggling injuries before Athens then of course I wouldn't have expected her to fare too well. But this situation is a whole lot different.

First of all - she couldn't pick the date of the Olympics. It simply came too soon for her (not having enough time to recover from the niggles). Now, however, she has her pick of whatever race she wants. She also knows that if she goes into a race unprepared then she will be setting herself up for another big disappointment. Therefore, Paula wouldn't be entering this race if she wasn't ready.

Reports say that she's had a very good 4-5 weeks training and has recovered (mentally and physically) from Athens. Personally, I think she will finish the NY marathon and she could even win it. But as I said before - this race is all about proving that she isn't a quitter (which is what the British press have ignorantly made her out to be since Athens).

[tafnut]

Re: Radcliffe to run NY Marathon!?!?!

I would guess that she is not yet fully recovered, metabolically speaking, and that this may be too soon. I hope she wins and runs sub-2:20, but I will be VERY surprised if she does either.

[STL_Runner]

Re: Radcliffe to run NY Marathon!?!?!

> this race is all about proving that she isn't a quitter

Winning this race won't change the fact that she's a major choker when it really counts.

[Jon]

Re: Radcliffe to run NY Marathon!?!?!

>Winning this race
>won't change the fact that she's a major choker when it really counts.




Ah, yet another person who is looking at the situation from one dimension. Read this article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/athletics/3657890.stm

And you'll see that the reason she dropped out was because of an INJURY. Even if she had been leading the race at the time, she wouldn't have been able to go on any further. She literally had nothing left in her legs.

And yeh - major choker, isn't she:

World Championships: 1999 silver in 10,000m
London Marathon: 2002, 2003 champion
Chicago Marathon: 2002 champion
European Championships: 2002 gold in 10,000m
Commonwealth Games: 2002 gold in 10,000m
World Cross Country (8km): 2001, 2002 champion
European Cross Country: 1998, 2003 champion
World Half-marathon: 2000, 2001, 2003 champion

With that poxy list of acheivements, Lord knows how she finds the nerve to show her face in public, eh?!

[Asterix]

Re: Radcliffe to run NY Marathon!?!?!

<<Winning this race won't change the fact that she's a major choker when it really counts.>>

And your substantive evidence for this is what...? The previous Olympic and World Championship races where her times were competitive but not dominating the best in the world but she plainly did not have the same kick as the others so charged headlong into the lead most of the race? Or maybe you are referring to her various World or Euro cross-country championships medals? Or perhaps you are thinking of the couple of marathons where the entire story was her and her potential record attempt? (I seem to recall she didn't do half bad at those.)

Yeah, one two week period of competition in extreme environmental conditions characterizes the entire last 12+ years of her competitive career as a choker.

[STL_Runner]

Re: Radcliffe to run NY Marathon!?!?!

World Championships: 1999 silver in 10,000m
London Marathon:
>2002, 2003 champion
Chicago Marathon: 2002 champion
European Championships:
>2002 gold in 10,000m
Commonwealth Games: 2002 gold in 10,000m
World Cross
>Country (8km): 2001, 2002 champion
European Cross Country: 1998, 2003
>champion
World Half-marathon: 2000, 2001, 2003 champion

The only major track credential she has there is the silver from the 1999 World Champs, which was five whole years ago. I've got to give her props for winning world cross too, but that event pales in comparison to the Olympics, where she doesn't even have one medal.

Her injuries during the Olympics didn't force her to withdraw from both events. If she truly had to stop in the marathon she wouldn't have been able to recover well enough to line up for the 10K a week later. I was a big Paula fan before the Olympics, but watching her bob her head around like a kid and then drop out of two races really made me change my mind about her.

[Jon]

Re: Radcliffe to run NY Marathon!?!?!

>The only major track credential she has there is the silver from the 1999 World Champs,
>which was five whole years ago. I've got to give her props for winning world
>cross too, but that event pales in comparison to the Olympics, where she
>doesn't even have one medal.


OK, so she 'only' has a silver from a track event at a global champs. But it's not like she ran badly in other major champs (Sydney, Edmonton). She still ran bloody fast and finished in the top four. Plus, she has won five global titles (either XC or on the roads) since 2000.



>Her injuries during the Olympics didn't force her to withdraw from both events.


Err.. yes. It did.


>If she truly had to stop in the marathon she wouldn't have been able to recover
>well enough to line up for the 10K a week later.


And sure enough she didn't recover well enough. Re: the 10k, she said she stopped at a point where she felt she wouldn't do herself any physical damage. If she had have finished the 10k, her body would have been beaten up even more than it is now. If anything, her 10k DNF underlined that her marathon DNF was more a case of injury as opposed to 'choking'.


>I was a big Paula fan before the Olympics, but watching her bob her
>head around like a kid and then drop out of two races really made me change my
>mind about her.


I'm sure she'll be really sad to hear that she's lost a fan such as yourself.

[Asterix]

Re: Radcliffe to run NY Marathon!?!?!

<<The only major track credential she has there is the silver from the 1999 World Champs, which was five whole years ago. I've got to give her props for winning world cross too, but that event pales in comparison to the Olympics, where she doesn't even have one medal.>>

Talk about ignoring the facts on the ground. On the track (5000/10,000), Paula is not head and shoulders above her competition. Compare PBs and she's right in the thick of things. Same as Tergat and Geb are very close in the absolute sense, but I guess Tergat is a 'choker' because he was never able to beat a guy who fundamentally had a better kick.

It's no secret that Radcliffe has no kick, therefore it is no big surprise or 'choke' when a 30:something runner gets beat by a 30:something runner (or runners) who can close the last lap faster. If she was getting beat by 32:something runners with faster kicks, then she's not performing up to par.

[STL_Runner]

Re: Radcliffe to run NY Marathon!?!?!

Talk about ignoring the facts on
>the ground. On the track (5000/10,000), Paula is not head and shoulders above
>her competition. Compare PBs and she's right in the thick of things. Same as
>Tergat and Geb are very close in the absolute sense, but I guess Tergat is a
>'choker' because he was never able to beat a guy who fundamentally had a better
>kick.

It's no secret that Radcliffe has no kick, therefore it is no big
>surprise or 'choke' when a 30:something runner gets beat by a 30:something
>runner (or runners) who can close the last lap faster. If she was getting beat
>by 32:something runners with faster kicks, then she's not performing up to
>par.

Paula's marathon PR is more than three minutes faster than anyone else's. It's not like she got outkicked in the Olympics. Tergat lost to Geb, who is widely considered the best distance runner ever, by a grand total of .92 seconds over 20K. That's not choking if you ask me. At least Tergat finished his marathon.

Alright, so "choker" wasn't the right word to describe Paula. It's hard to ignore the fact that she has so many world records and world titles but no Olympic medals though.