Paula Radcliffe’s start as a runner was hardly auspicious.
As a 12-year-old, Radcliffe finished 299th in her first serious race, a cross-country event for English schoolgirls. As one British writer put it, “If her parents had any sense, they would have bought her a violin.”
Instead, Radcliffe’s heartstrings were tugged by distance running, and she was determined to be one of the best in the world.
She got there by relentlessly training 100 miles a week and spending three months each year running in the thin air of the French Pyrenees. The sweetest music to Radcliffe’s ears eventually would be the pitter-patter of her footsteps on urban pavement.
So her start as a marathoner two months ago in London was remarkable. She won the race in 2 hours 18 minutes 56 seconds, the fastest women’s debut marathon in history.
Her next marathon, in Chicago on Oct. 13, now is as eagerly anticipated as her debut.
Radcliffe, history’s second-fastest women’s marathoner, likely will meet the fastest, Catherine Ndereba of Kenya, on what has proved one of the world’s fastest marathon courses.
Ndereba won last year’s LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon with a world-record time of 2:18:47 and figures to seek a third straight Chicago title.
“I’m currently in positive discussions with Catherine,” Chicago race director Carey Pinkowski said.
He also has invited Naoko Takahashi of Japan, who last year became the first woman to run a marathon under 2 hours 20 minutes and is now the third-fastest woman ever. Takahashi so far has declined the invitation.
The leading active U.S. marathoner, Deena Drossin of Colorado, has committed to Chicago. While her marathon debut last year in New York produced the fastest time by a U.S. woman in 10 years (2:26:58), Drossin remains light-years behind the world elite.
Radcliffe moved near the head of the class in her marathon debut at London two months ago. Her time might have been even faster had she been aware the world record was within reach.
“I was stupid,” she said. “I had my watch running but [didn’t look at it] because I didn’t think it would be that close.”
Radcliffe, 28, has wiped out the disappointment of running fourth in the 10,000 at the 2000 Olympics and 2001 world championships with her London win, two straight world cross-country titles and two straight world half-marathon titles.
