PAULA RADCLIFFE went to the start of the Olympic marathon suffering from a thigh injury and an upset stomach, conditions that contributed to her failing to finish the race in which she was favourite. The British runner recognised that some of her support team doubted whether she would even start the event, for which she holds the world record.
Radcliffe said yesterday that she has dismissed retirement and has resumed training, rebuilding her “body and morale” while she considers her future goals. Although it was known that Radcliffe had suffered a calf injury before the Games, the Briton said that the day after the marathon she was “struggling to comprehend what happened and find a reason for it”.
In her newspaper column, she dismissed the “minor strain” that took three days to clear. Instead, she said: “My quad felt a little tight during a run in Spain and afterwards went into total spasm. Despite the best treatment, the injury would clear but then return to kick me in the teeth each time I tried to run.
“The muscle itself was OK, but a haematoma on the underside of the muscle was discovered. This is an unusual injury and I definitely picked up on the fact that people around me were very unsure as to whether I would make the start line.
“I was determined to get there and we took a very aggressive line of treatment. However, the period was extremely stressful and I was unable to sleep with worry some nights and suffered an upset stomach from the high doses of anti-inflamatories. I also did get some dizzy spells but put these down to stress.”
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Radcliffe said that she was very nervous before the race but did not feel too bad up to ten kilometres. However, she then started to develop stomach problems and her legs began to feel weak and eventually very sore. She believes that because of the anti-inflammatories, the carbohydrates that she had consumed during the build-up to the race “did not get through and my fuel tank was very low before I began the race”. She eventually had to “concede that there was no way I could push my body any further”.
She says that her dream is “postponed, not over”. Now she will have to plan her competition for 2005. This could include the marathon at the World Championships in Helsinki, where the weather will be far cooler than in Athens — although Radcliffe insists that she was not dehydrated at the Olympics.
She might run in the Nagoya or Osaka marathon in January because she is revered in Japan, where she could command a huge appearance fee. Radcliffe also has the option of returning to the Flora London Marathon, in which she set her world record in 2003. David Bedford, the race director, said yesterday that there had already been one conversation with Gary Lough, Paula’s husband. “We have said that if she wanted to run a spring marathon, we would like to be involved,” Bedford said. “At the moment, we want the dust to settle.”