ING NEW YORK CITY MARATHON

November 7, 2004

Paula Radcliffe

PAULA RADCLIFFE: I think it's very difficult to make up for it. Like I said before, it happened. It's over now and this is moving on from there. But in it's own right, winning here in New York is very important to me. I've always run well here in the past. It's a great city with a great atmosphere and I'm really, really happy to be here and run well.

PAULA RADCLIFFE: Well, in a lot of races, I've been in that position, maybe not a marathon race but in a lot of the other races. I mean, I've raced Susan for years, probably ten or 12 years now. We've know each other very well and I'm really pleased to see her back running well, as well. I think it's maybe a little bit different position for me in America than on the track because I am confident with my finishing speed. Maybe I could have run sooner but today was about winning the race. It wasn't about times. It was about taking in the atmosphere and enjoying it and winning the race.

PAULA RADCLIFFE: Yeah, I was pretty determined. I was struggling a little bit with my stomach. I think I was -- I ate something last night, it was cold and I reheated and woke up in the middle of the night with pretty bad indigestion. It was okay in the race and just came on at 23 miles. In this case it was just hanging on to finish. I knew that once I hit the line, it wouldn't matter if I threw up.

PAULA RADCLIFFE: We were running alongside each other pretty much since -- I think maybe about 20, 21 miles. In some ways, I'd say we're pretty relaxed running along side each other. It's not like either of us is really competing with the other. But we both tested each other out a little bit and I was just feeling confident and just hanging on and then just running hard at the closing stages to win the race.

PAULA RADCLIFFE: I think with the quality of the field, it was going to be a competitive race and possibly the nature of the course, as well. But really, today was not about times to me. It was just getting in there and enjoying the race and enjoying the atmosphere.

PAULA RADCLIFFE: Probably it wasn't really intentional. It's just when you've got the whole world, you're right there on top of each other, in some races you do have to watch your step a little bit in terms of uneven areas or potholes. Probably just trying to find the best area of the road to run on.

PAULA RADCLIFFE: It was just spaghetti bolognese. I was just going for the basic pasta.

PAULA RADCLIFFE: They were great. The atmosphere was really, really good. So much support for me out there. It was really surprising. I could obviously feel the support for Deena, but there was a lot of British support out there and thank you very much for that. The atmosphere, it was really good. It was fun going through all of the different boroughs. The only quiet area was going through the bridge at the beginning and then you had the good views, so it was nice.

PAULA RADCLIFFE: It just had not fitted in. Simple as that. It just hadn't fitted it in.

PAULA RADCLIFFE: It was one of the ones that I had in my first in London, so I just thought, have that.

PAULA RADCLIFFE: Yeah, it did.

PAULA RADCLIFFE: There wasn't really a specific training run. It was just after feeling pretty bad and the left knee injury healing post-Athens, I just started to feel a bit more like myself and my training was coming together. I just decided I wanted to come here and race.

PAULA RADCLIFFE: Do you mean doubts for winning the race?

PAULA RADCLIFFE: Not really. I think just maybe doubt that I would hold it together. But no, all the time that I could hold onto Susan, I was confident that it would come down to a close battle at the end. I just needed to just hang in there.

PAULA RADCLIFFE: Not really. I kind of run it past at mile 22 and thought about it. (Laughter) No. I felt totally different. I felt totally myself. My legs might have been a little bit tight because it's the end of the season, but nothing like that horrible feeling that I had, nothing like that.

PAULA RADCLIFFE: Like I say, reasonably confident. I know Susan is a really strong athlete, but I've raced her for a long time and I was confident, I had run the last half of the course quite a bit so I knew exactly when you turn from Columbus Circle how far it was up there and that hill I've raced in the mini as well. I knew I had a lot left so I was just holding myself together until I could get to the last.

PAULA RADCLIFFE: No, I didn't clip, I saw it -- I thought it was just flat and then as I saw there was a rise there. But no, I didn't hit it or anything.

PAULA RADCLIFFE: Yeah, one of my bottles wasn't there. I don't know what happened there. I got to mile eight and I got to table six before, it should have been and it just wasn't there. And I didn't want to take somebody else's bottle so I just went out.

PAULA RADCLIFFE: I don't think it was about sending out messages. It was about running well for me and enjoying it and just being back to racing normally and in it's own right, winning here in New York is very special to me.

PAULA RADCLIFFE: I just said earlier in my race that I would run my normal race, in that I would run how I felt. I felt good at the end part of the race and pushed on. There was a group of us running strongly and then the second half of the race was quite windy today. I wasn't actually thinking about it. I think I saw the first three or four -- I saw the halfway splits and I wasn't really checking the splits. We were just racing. It's a nice way to run it.

PAULA RADCLIFFE: I think I picked it up. I picked it up up the hill.

PAULA RADCLIFFE: I did a lot of good high-quality training pre-Athens. You're not going to lose that in two weeks of interrupted training and two weeks recovering. So that was there, and it was just a case of just getting back to running and taking over and enjoying it. It was a reasonable level of training.

PAULA RADCLIFFE: That's right.

PAULA RADCLIFFE: We were there about four and a half weeks, and thank you to everyone there at the High Altitude Training Center for welcoming us there and making us feel really at home.

PAULA RADCLIFFE: I think certainly it was the biggest disappointment. And yes, it is, it's important to come back and run well. It's just important to just be back feeling happy and feeling like myself again.

PAULA RADCLIFFE: Yeah, it was definitely a race rather than any concerns about the time. I didn't even know what time I finished. I had to ask afterwards. Like you said, it was just about winning the race, and over the last six, seven, eight miles, I don't think we were looking at splits. We were just racing, and it's a nice way to run.

PAULA RADCLIFFE: A couple of weeks easy. I'll run in the race on the 28th of November and I'll just take four or five complete breaks of holiday time.

PAULA RADCLIFFE: It's a 10K.

PAULA RADCLIFFE: Thank you.