Athletics: Radcliffe back on the road to riches
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Your support makes all the difference.Paula Radcliffe, by her own admission, has been "going well" in training these past few weeks. If she looks a million dollars around the streets of San Juan today the British wonder-woman of world athletics will boost her burgeoning bank balance and her preparations for the London Marathon.
In her first race since she broke the world-best time for the marathon in Chicago four months ago, Radcliffe lines up in the World's Best 10km road race in the Puerto Rican capital. If she breaks the world-best time for the six-and-a-quarter-mile distance the Bedfordshire woman will pocket a cheque for $1m.
A year ago she missed the global mark and the jackpot by a whisker in hot and windy conditions, clocking 30min 43sec and finishing four seconds outside a record that was held by Liz McColgan at the time. The record now stands at 30:29 to Asmae Leghzaoui of Morocco, who will also be in the field today.
Radcliffe ran a stunning 30:01.09 for the distance on the track at the European Championships in Munich last August, and her road time today will be a measure of just how well her training has been progressing at high altitude in Alburquerque, New Mexico, since the turn of the year. "I feel as if I'm much further on than this time last year," she said, "but Sunday will tell me exactly where I am."
It might be the only glimpse of Radcliffe before the London Marathon on 13 April. She has yet to decide whether to defend her world cross-country title in Lausanne next month.
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