Paula Radcliffe pulls out of olympic marathon - Or does she?

Hi Crossfit guy.

Cannot say too much here, but I have a reliable source who has said that Paula still has a World Class Marathon in her, but that seems to have been lost now.

As Paula is a Nike icon, with all their technology, I cannot see why they couldn't have designed a carbon fibre (or similar) running shoe cage to protect her toe.

Would that be science fact/fiction at its limit ?

800MAN

But neither FloJo nor Paula tested positive so they must be legit, right?

Closer to fine wrote:

Brits are ugly due to dangerous inbreeding. Check out Camilla Parker and Prince Charles.

Too much Jewish blood. The Brits think they are the "true" Jews.

Ike Low wrote:

Why are brits so much less attractive than aussies? After all, they have basically the same gene pool. And WTF, are dentists outlawed in england?

Not really. Australia has a few different ethnic groups: Italians, Russians, Poles, etc. It is like saying that the USA is mostly English because its founders were English.

banjo string wrote:

How would you rate Radcliffe's career?

Olympics - best result 4th

World champs - 2 golds

World xc - 2 gold 3 silver 1 bronze

Euro track - 1 gold

Euro xc - 2 gold

And obviously a monster marathon WR

Certainly a solid career but feels like she should have done more.

Right, if only she had won a marathon major or seven and maybe a few half marathon world championships.

rupp-certified saladbar wrote:

The "insignificant" Olympic marathon, on the other hand, is a measure of ability to target, train for, and execute in COMPETITION with the world's best. No specific custom conditions for fan favorites. No pacers. No staged time trialing. No appearance fee politics keeping runners out. One race. The fact that Radcliffe had a stratospheric (for now) 2:15 and yet NOT ONCE pulled off even a top-ten in the OM says a lot about her career.

ukathleticscoach wrote:

Are you even aware that she won the WC's marathon?

Of course I am. Just as you are well aware that the WC marathon has NOTHING compared to the stature of the OM. Come on, man. Look who lines up for WCs versus the Olympics.

No Olympic win in a decade at the top is obviously a massive failing, any way you try to slice it.

No Olympic win in a decade at the top is obviously a massive failing, any way you try to slice it.

What a load of shite, to use a britishism. I guess it would be as bad as being Wimbledon* champion 10 years in a row but never winning the Oly tennis medal.

*

for letsrun.com purists.

Oh, yes, that was meant to be sarcastic, sorry if that wasn't clear.

hurdle envy wrote:

No Olympic win in a decade at the top is obviously a massive failing, any way you try to slice it.

What a load of shite, to use a britishism. I guess it would be as bad as being Wimbledon* champion 10 years in a row but never winning the Oly tennis medal.

*

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wimbledon_Championships

for letsrun.com purists.

I predict Shalane will win it all.

British teeth wrote:

But neither FloJo nor Paula tested positive so they must be legit, right?

At least Paula was tested out of competition and London where she set her record had blood testing which is more accurate than urine

You never know if anyone is clean though, but if she had taken steroids she might have had less injuries and still be competing well into her late thirties

If some of those top Ethiopian track runners raced the marathon in their prime they could beat or match her record

No other athlete has ever won so many world titles and still been perceived as a failure.You can no more stop slowing down as you age than stop your hair going grey or wrinkles appearing

However, I would have had her do less road training as she aged as a lot of her injuries were bone related. Her career also showed that once you leave track type training behind you have only a couple of good years left at the marathon

ukathleticscoach wrote:

However, I would have had her do less road training as she aged as a lot of her injuries were bone related. Her career also showed that once you leave track type training behind you have only a couple of good years left at the marathon

I agree with this. It's striking how much frailer Paula has looked physically over the last couple of years compared to when she was breaking records. I think she should have increased her weight training as she got older to balance the catabolic effects of high mileage.

ukathleticscoach wrote:

If some of those top Ethiopian track runners raced the marathon in their prime they could beat or match her record

You are clueless. You have no idea what 2:15 means.