This was our preview of Paula Radcliffe’s comeback in the 2025 Tokyo Marathon – you can click here for a full report on how she did, and her official finish time.
Running great Paula Radcliffe says it’s all about taking part rather than setting any time goals when she makes her marathon ‘comeback’ in Tokyo this Sunday.
Now 51, British star Radcliffe is a three-time winner of both the London and New York Marathons as well as the Chicago Marathon once. And her world record of 2:15:25, which she set in London in 2003, stood for a remarkable 16 years until Kenya’s Brigid Kosgei broke the mark in 2019.
Tokyo will come 10 years after Radcliffe ended her competitive career and she also intends to run in the Boston Marathon six weeks later. That will make her a Six Star finisher, an accolade awarded to runners who complete all six Marathon Majors, though that series increases to seven events this year with the addition of Sydney!
Completing the set
Taking part and thoroughly enjoying the Marathon Pour Tous in Paris last summer, where she competed in the 10km race alongside thousands of amateur runners on the same day as the Olympic men’s marathon, appears to been one of the sparks for her to step back up to 26 miles, the distance with which she’s so closely associated.
Looking ahead to Tokyo when speaking to Athletics Weekly in this YouTube video and asked what’s prompted the return, Radcliffe said: “There are a number of reasons for it all coming together. I turned 50 last year, am now 51, and thinking about the goals I’ve got left one of those was always to tick off the six Marathon Majors.
“For most of my career it was five and then Tokyo was added so I never really had the opportunity to race Tokyo. And Boston I never did because it was so close to London.
“But Boston as a city is really special to me because it’s where I won the world junior cross country way back in 1992 and that race really gave me the belief that I could make a career in athletics so that was really, really important to me and it’s a city I would love to go back to.
“So I guess you could say the stars kind of aligned really in terms of the timings.”
Managing expectations
But Radcliffe has a long-term foot injury which she has had to manage and will not risk jeopardising that by trying to chase a time in Tokyo or Boston.
She insisted: “I really have no time goals whatsoever. It’s about getting out there and being a part of it. I think the camaraderie is almost bigger and better in the middle of the race than it is at the [front] in the elite race so I’m really looking forward to that side of it.
“I can’t control other people’s expectations, I can only control my own. People will say – and it’s natural, I would say it – ”I wonder what they can do’.
“But the overwhelming thing is I want to come out the other side having had a great time, a great experience and still be able to run on my foot. I don’t want to set that back because it’s taken me a long time to get to the point of being able to run every day.
“I know that in the middle of my career I was able to get the best out of myself – so running fast at 51 is not a huge goal. Having said that, when I get out there I’m sure my competitive instinct will kick in!”
