Marathon great Paula Radcliffe looks on course to win 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.
And she continued the momentum 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 1,336 competitors, though some of those are yet to finish and start times were staggered.
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!”
*all subject to confirmation once all finishers have completed as start times for the ‘masses’ are staggered.
