Preparation is Key – Paula Radcliffe World Champion Success Story

Paula Radcliffe is undoubtedly one of the greatest endurance runners of all time.  She won the London marathon in 2002, 2003 and 2005.  She won the New York marathon in 2004, 2007 and 2008 and Chicago in 2002.  She set a blistering world record in the marathon of 2:15:25 that lasted from 2003 until 2019!  She was also a world champion in the half-marathon and cross country.

How did she accomplish such amazing feats?  I feel blessed to have interviewed her and be able to share some of the inspiring highlights of her story.  Preparation and hard work are keys, but only part of the story ...

I started our conversation asking what her favorite race of all time was.  I expected a marathon answer, but wasn't surprised with her answer.  It was her victory at the World cross-country championships in 2001.  She loves the challenge of the trails, hills, mud and tough competition.   She had tried for 9 years to win, often coming in 2nd or 3rd and with a grueling muddy sprint finish she finally got to stand on the top of the podium.

She started her running career at the age of 7, inspired by her marathon running father Peter.  Even with difficulties with asthma, she persevered.  At 12 years old, she competed in the English schools' cross country event.  She finished 299th out of 600 girls.  The very next year she placed 4th!  This ignited her passion to strive always to achieve her best possible performance.  She was now very curious - how could she get the best out of herself?  She shared that it was just how she was brought up - work hard to achieve.  She remembers her coach giving her a sticker that said "Aim for the stars and you'll reach the moon."  Her dad advised "never look over your shoulder, it's a sign of weakness."

What are some of her success tips?  She set and wrote her goals annually - both realistic and dream.  Her daily training required incredibly hard work.  She used mental ninja tricks to get the most out of her body.  She told herself "I'm the best".  It took a lot of mental strength and discipline.  She didn't believe her body when it complained of pain or indicated it couldn't go on.  She would ask herself "how much do you want it?"  She turned pain into a challenge or opportunity.  She knew that overcoming pain would lead to her gaining personal best times and victories.  She was fully committed.  She trained twice a day, did altitude training in the Pyranees, paid careful attention to rest, stretching, sleep, eating right and whatever it took to be at her best.  Most of all she fed on the joy of the journey and loved her workouts.  With full preparation, she rarely had to worry about pre-race jitters.  To handle this occasional nervousness, she used breathing exercises, reading to distract herself and positive visualization.  Once she was warming up it always disappeared - game on!

She also had to overcome illness, flu, asthma, anemia, foot, knee, and calf injuries over her career.  This took patience, self-care along with expert care from doctors, nutritionists, physical therapists, massage therapists and other specialists [Side note - she is grateful to Doctor Amol Saxena for even being able to run at all after all these thousands of miles].  All these factors come into play when you are pushing your body beyond its limits on a daily basis.  Hard work has to be balanced with incredible self-care.  When you are a high level athlete and you put your whole life and soul into your workouts, it's depressing and tough when you're injured or sick, especially when a huge race is scheduled.  At times like this, she learned deeper lessons about self-awareness and listening to her body.  She says to surround yourself with positive people and is forever grateful to her parents and husband for heartfelt support she could always count on.

She also shared that one of her favorite books "Schindler's List" helped put things in perspective when she was down with a foot injury in 1994.  So true.

When I asked about her long-lasting World record in the marathon, she shared some highlights.  She set the World record in Chicago and knew she could do better.  Then she suffered a setback when she fell due to an accident with a biker in Albuquerque.  Her hip was locking up and it took a lot of body work to get back healthy again.  She then trained smarter and harder than ever and felt she was in her best shape ever.  At New York, she went out strong and had a goal to run each mile faster than she did in Chicago.  At mile 24, Peter Elliot shouted to her from his motorbike "Pick it up - you can break 2:16!"  She picked it up and with 800 meters to go she gave it her all.  You know the rest of the story - she won, setting a World record that lasted 16 years - two hours, fifteen minutes and twenty-five seconds.  To put this in perspective, I'll share a couple of facts.  The men in the marathon regularly beat each other's World records every year.  Often times, women would win World champion marathon races finishing several minutes behind Paula's time.

Paula is also committed to keeping athletics clean from doping or other performance enhancing drugs.  She works two to three days a week for the AIU [Athletics Integrity Unit] to give back and protect clean athletes.  She is also a professional sports commentator for BBC and an ambassador for Nike.

Thank you Paula for your incredible accomplishments, inspiration and giving back to the sport.

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