Paula Radcliffe's finishing time of 1hr 12min 3sec is the slowest of her career over half-marathon distance. Photograph: Ronald Zak/AP
Paula Radcliffe has had tougher runs, but not many that were so slow. Her finishing time in the Vienna half-marathon was 1hr 12min 3sec, the worst of her career over that distance. Radcliffe, 38, had never taken more than 70 minutes to run a half-marathon until this one. Her dream of winning an Olympic medal seems as distant from becoming a reality as it ever has.
Radcliffe has been suffering with bronchitis for the past two weeks, and came off antibiotics only the day before the race. Some will wonder why she ran here at all given that she was so ill she could only do a third of her training mileage in the buildup, but she wanted to fulfil her obligation to the race organisers.
After Radcliffe crossed the line she collapsed into a crouch, exhausted. When she stood up the first thing she did was apologise to the race director, Wolfgang Konrad, for producing such a disappointing performance. He insisted he was just happy to have her here at all. As Radcliffe and Konrad spoke she was still struggling for breath, and he later confirmed that underneath her sunglasses she was shedding a tear or two. He gave her a consoling hug, and Haile Gebrselassie patted her on the shoulder.
"It's not as if there aren't reasons," Radcliffe said by way of explanation. "But even so I couldn't have expected it to make that much difference. It is really concerning. I knew I wasn't coming into the race in PB shape but I didn't expect it to feel that bad." She had been hoping to finish in 69min.
"My legs just felt empty. There was no turnover there at all and I was just fighting it." It was a cold, grey day and a stiff wind was blowing in off the Danube. The warmth of the reception Radcliffe got from the fans waving "Welcome Paula" placards along the road did not do much to lift her spirits, though it did give her a reason to keep running. "After that," Radcliffe said, "it was a kind of lonely run. I was just trying to mentally switch off and keep going."
There was a point when Radcliffe considered quitting, and she probably would have done if she had not felt so indebted to the organisers. The Vienna marathon was taking place at the same time, but the event had been promoted as a catch-me-if-you-can competition between Radcliffe and Gebrselassie. As impressive as it was to watch two great runners sharing the same stretch of road, it was not much of a contest.
Gebrselassie, who started 7min 52sec behind Radcliffe, was in sight of her by 14km, and overtook her at 16km. He did it with an ease that seemed almost insulting, pausing to sip some water before tossing away the paper cup and putting his foot down. He accelerated away as though he was passing a Sunday driver in the slow lane. There were almost 35,000 people following in their wake, and as Radcliffe struggled you had to wonder whether a third man was going to emerge from the pack and pass her.
Gebrselassie, who turns 39 in two days' time, finished in a time of 1hr 52sec. He said he will run the Bupa 10km race in Manchester on 20 May, but it is a shame that he will not be able to take a place at the London Olympics. The competition on the Ethiopian team is too stiff, and his times too slow.
"Sometimes there are good days and some days there are bad days; maybe today was just a bad day for Paula. She is a fantastic runner, but she was not fantastic today." Gebrselassie said. "The gap between me and Paula was OK until about 8km, but somewhere around 12km she was slower. Every kilometre she was slower than me by about 30 or 35 seconds. At the beginning my calculation was that I was going to catch her at about 20km but I knew Paula must be ill when I saw her going that slowly."
Radcliffe started the race well, setting out at a steady pace of 20kmph. But around the 6km she started to slip back a little from her pacemakers. "My legs started to feel really heavy, they just wouldn't work much better."
"It should have been a test for the Olympics," Radcliffe said. "But it wasn't a real test in the end. The plan now was always to take a week easy and I think I need to take that week now to recover properly and get back to being fully healthy again before I start heavy marathon training." She is unlikely to run another half-marathon before the Olympics, but will compete in some 10km races. She has already described her own chances of winning a medal this summer as "slim", and nobody will be cutting the odds on her after this race.
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