Marathon great Paula Radcliffe has won her age category at the Boston Marathon as she earned her World Marathon Majors Six Star Medal in stunning style on Monday.
The British legend only returned to a marathon course for the first time in 10 years in Tokyo last month, the other race apart from Boston which she needed to complete to claim a coveted Six Star medal. That covers the world’s six biggest marathons, though Sydney has now been added to what is a seven-strong list.
The former world record holder (she held that honour for a remarkable 16 years after running 2:15:25 in London 2003) is now aged 51 and dipped under the three-hour mark in Tokyo with a time of 2:57:22.
But she went even better in Boston – here’s what happened…
First 10km in 38 minutes flat
Radcliffe has had to battle a long-term foot injury which made a second marathon in less than two months even more of a challenge.
But she clocked an impressive 38 minutes for the opening 10km and her half marathon time was 1:23:15.
She said later on Instagram: “My calf went at 9 miles and I couldn’t go full out from then on, but on the plus side the foot is great and I got to savour and enjoy those @bostonmarathon crowds.”
She battled on brilliantly to ace what is the world’s oldest annually run marathon with a finishing time of 2:53:44.
That placed her first in the female 50-54 age category – out of over 1,300 competitors.
And she very nearly made the top 150 women overall in a race that was won by Kenya’s Sharon Lokedi.
Bib #215 honours astonishing record
Radcliffe raced Boston wearing bib number 215 in honour of her former women’s marathon world record time of 2:15:25.
And to put that into perspective, Lokedi shattered the previous Boston course record time of 2:19:59 when she won the elite women’s race in 2:17:22, but that was almost exactly two minutes off that 2003 London time of Radcliffe!
And as Paula herself had pointed out in the build up to Boston, a race she has always wanted to compete in but the proximity to London had made it difficult, this felt like a full circle moment.
She said on Instagram: “Ticking off no 6, thanks for giving me a goal to work after, an excuse to be back in this atmosphere again and perfect symmetry for me in finishing where the journey started 33 years 1 month ago in Franklin Park winning world juniors XC!”
Afterwards she confirmed: “That’s me signing out on the roads now! Lesson learned that my body is done with that.”
