Radcliffe using NYC Half-Marathon to gauge whether she’ll run in marathon at worlds

Radcliffe uses NYC race to gauge status for worlds

NEW YORK — In just a week, Paula Radcliffe went from concluding she wasn’t ready for the world championships to planning to run a half-marathon and a marathon in an eight-day span.

The marathon world-record holder hasn’t raced since reconstructive surgery on her right foot in March. After a disappointingly slow 10-mile tempo run last Friday, Radcliffe determined she should skip the marathon at the worlds in Berlin.

Then last weekend, as the scar tissue continued to break down, she changed her mind. On Monday, Radcliffe decided to enter this Sunday’s NYC Half-Marathon. If all goes well, she’ll then run the full marathon at worlds just a week later.

“In a way, it was the only way it could work,” Radcliffe said Friday. “Unless I have a good run and I’ve got confidence, I’m not going to go to the marathon start. It was kind of a Catch-22.”

The 35-year-old Brit acknowledged the plan is “unorthodox.” Ideally, she’d wait three weeks between the 13.1- and 26.2-mile distances. Then again, Radcliffe won the 10-mile Great South Run in England last year a week before her victory in November’s New York City Marathon.

Other elite competitors in Sunday’s race said they couldn’t imagine doing the two events a week apart.

“That’s hard,” said defending champion Catherine Ndereba of Kenya, who owns nine major marathon titles. “But each and every person is different.”

Depending on how she feels Sunday and how she recovers the next several days, Radcliffe will determine whether to run at world championships. She plans to fly to Berlin on Sunday night and expects to make a decision by Wednesday.

Asked if she’ll go all out Sunday, Radcliffe said, “If you’re in a race, you race it.” But she acknowledged she’s not going to push herself to try and set a personal best no matter how good she feels.

Radcliffe’s foot had been sore for several years and she had planned to have the bunion surgery after worlds. But while training for April’s London Marathon, the pain became so bad she couldn’t walk.

She spent three weeks on crutches after surgery, then started running after 6½ weeks. But it took time to regain full flexibility in her foot. Her husband and coach, Gary Lough, will watch her stride closely Sunday to ensure her technique isn’t off.

Radcliffe, who has won eight of the 10 marathons she has started in her career, said her hips, back and hamstrings feel better now that she’s no longer compensating for the foot.

“I just wanted a test somewhere,” she said. “I love coming to race in New York. So even if I didn’t go to worlds after this, and I just raced here, I would be happy.”

Radcliffe has won six straight races on the streets of New York: the mile twice, one 10k and three NYC Marathons. In 2004 and 2008, she rebounded from Olympic heartache with marathon triumphs here. In 2007, she was victorious in her first marathon since the birth of her daughter less than 10 months earlier.

“A lot of times New York has been a bit about coming back, coming back, coming back,” Radcliffe said with a laugh. “So I kind of thought, maybe it would be a good omen.”

She plans to run a fall marathon no matter what happens in Berlin. A spring marathon is a possibility — she just has to decide exactly when next year to start trying to have a second child.

She wants to time that perfectly because looming in 2012 is her chance to finally win Olympic gold in front of her fellow Brits in London.

Said Radcliffe: “You have to keep your fingers crossed that nature works along with you.”