![]() ![]() "I would sit here with Kelly Holmes and a few of the other girls talking about Sydney," she recalls. She hasn’t been in Limerick since early summer. The colors have faded, but she will not practice or race without it.Īt the coffee shop, a favorite haunt for Paula and many of the English athletes who come to Hartmann’s clinic, Radcliffe grows reflective. She has lost and misplaced it on several occasions, but invariably it turns up or a friend finds it. Her mother gave it to her in 1996 when she graduated with a First Class Honors degree from Loughborough University. "We want to encourage youngsters to take up sport, particularly athletics," she says, "but will parents bring their kids down to the track knowing that once they achieve a certain level they won’t make it unless they take something?"Īround her neck is a pendant with the Olympic rings. She is concerned about the signals being sent to the young, aspiring athlete. She notes that the press and public seem to be paying more attention since she started wearing the ribbon. Comprehensive and consistent blood testing would certainly undermine the cheaters, but Radcliffe is not overbearing about her standpoint. Radcliffe wears a red ribbon signifying her willingness to lodge a blood sample with the authorities. ![]() We walk unnoticed through the city streets. Freshly showered, hair combed out straight, Paula has completed an easy morning run. There’s a breeze coming up from the river but it’s a mild, wet day. We are headed to the Blue Berry Hill coffee shop on Harvey’s Quay overlooking the river Shannon. She has just come off a mesmerizing series of post Olympic runs in the half marathon, punctuated by a European and course record of 67 minutes in the Great North Run, and a World Championship victory in Veracruz. This is a preventative, maintenance visit. It is late November in Limerick, Ireland, and Paula Radcliffe has scheduled a week at the Hartmann Clinic. What I will always know is that I ran the hardest that I could have done, and there’s always another year, another race to try a different tactic." "People say you should have done things different in the Olympics, but I’ll never know that. "I try not to come off the track and have regrets about it," says Radcliffe. Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to play ![]()
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