NEW LEVELS COACH MATT LONG CELEBRATES PAULA RADCLIFFE’S MARATHON LEGACY.
In a reflective piece, New Levels Coach Matt Long, delves into the inspiring journey of Paula Radcliffe through her extraordinary marathon career. Highlighting her unmatched achievements and resilience across the grueling 26.2 miles, Long explores the determination, strategy, and spirit that defined Radcliffe’s rise as a marathon legend. From her world-record-breaking performances to her influence on distance running, Radcliffe’s story is celebrated as a blueprint for passion and perseverance in sport.
13th April 2003. London.
With 400 yards to go, an emotional BBC commentator Brendan Foster waxes lyrical by reminding millions of viewers that, “Last year she came here and the athletics fans recognised her and this year she comes here as BBC Sports Personality of the Year and everybody recognises her…the record books are being rewritten by Britain’s darling, Paula Radcliffe’. As the red and white kitted athlete wearing the number 101 turns and heads into the Mall, with customary blond hair bobbing, co-commentator Steve Cram enthuses that, “They came to see something special from the girl from Bedford and she’s produced it once more”, before the clock stops at an unbelievable 2hr15m25s. Paula Radcliffe has reached the summit of her marathon journey, but where did that journey?
The Marathon Journey
The 2005 World Marathon Champion (Helsinki) is keen to use the central concept of ‘The Marathon journey’ to articulate the processual nature of both planning, preparation and race day delivery. She references her journey as being characteristic of a, “Slow build. It was the London Marathon back in 1985 which triggered it for me. I was watching at the side of the road cheering my Dad on and I saw Ingrid Kristiansen run past on her way to winning. I was in awe of the day”. So when did the 2002 Commonwealth Games 5000m champion really decide to commit to the classic 26.2 mile distance? She responds, “Off the back of the Sydney Olympics (where she placed 4th in the 10,000m), I decided on the marathon, after tackling the Great North Run and winning the world half marathon championships. I felt like I had more cards to play rather than having to try and shake people off like I had to on the track’. Did she have any reservations about the step up? With conviction she asserts that, “You have to respect the marathon but not be afraid of it”.
Aerobic development
Paula reminds us that rigorous training means that, “There are no shortcuts. You’ve got to do the work. It’s not about the success or failure of any one single session, its about putting back to back blocks of consistent work together”. So when did Paula know she’d done the work required for the classic distance? She articulates that, “I knew I was ready to race when I had the miles and time on my feet banked. I would stick with 2hr15 mins time on my feet. But hard running was 22-23 miles at the very most. I always had a very easy warm up mile and cool down when running blocks of hard work within my long runs”. Some athletes worry that they cannot reasonably cover the full marathon distance in training. Did this worry Paula? She comments that, “My coach Alex Stanton said to me ‘You can easily do an extra 4 miles because its shorter than your easiest training run’. So my advice is save the rest for the race day. See it as a challenge. See it as fun. I always told myself that how close I could ‘hold it to the line’ was a fun challenge which I played with”.
Paula is at pains to stress that the marathon journey needs the subcultural support of some kind of group so that there is a social element along the way, adding that, “You need to set a plan and have a training and support group and not go through it all alone. The bigger picture matters rather than the height of each step when individual sessions don’t go quite to plan”.
Speed reserve
The 2002 Commonwealth Games 5000m champion stresses that working for a number of years at race distances shorter than the classic 26.2 mile race distance is paramount for success. She conveys that, “I wanted to make sure I’d run as fast as I could over those shorter distances until I was champing at the bit to do the marathon”.
Strength endurance gains
The Loughborough University graduate took world cross country gold as a junior in 1992 and similarly in Ostend in 2001 and Dublin in 2002 . She is keen to make the connection between excelling over the country and similarly going on to excel over the 26.2 mile distance on the roads. She explains that, “My grounding as a cross country runner made me a better marathon runner because its about tuning in to your body. It’s very similar in the marathon”.
Coping with setbacks
Paula would go on to win the Chicago Marathon later in 2002 in a phenomenal 2hr17m18s before furthering lower her own world record a year later 2003 in London. So you’d think her preparations must have been near perfect to achieve such a feat? Not so. Paula had her period on the day itself and had to manage the physiological implications of this. But way before this, things had gone wrong. She recalls that, “5 weeks out from London I was on a training run in Albuquerque and a young girl on her bike caught my foot. I tripped and smashed my jaw and my knee and more worryingly my hip kept clicking out. Even on the day itself after I’d recovered, I was worried that my hip would tie up at 15 miles”. A week out from one of her greatest triumphs she remembers that, “My husband Gary got sick after a press conference in the final week and we had to keep our distance in case I came down with anything similar”.
Tapering
Athletes tend to panic when the get close to marathon race day, with the mind playing tricks on them and telling them to bank for training. You need to back off and taper appropriately with Paula reminding you that, “Its better to be 100% healthy and only 90% fit on that start line than the other way round”.
The devil is in the detail
Paula reminds you to, “Practice the little things like your drinks. Its things like that and making sure you get enough quality sleep that really matter. Remember to eat what you’ve eaten before in terms of routine and know that when you travel to a big City where you can find food you have been used to. I guess the ethos is, ‘Leave as little to chance as possible’”.
Pace judgement
Paula definitely believes that the training ground is the place to experiment and make mistakes, in what coach educators would term ‘guided discovery’. Pace judgement for her is very much about experimentation as she urges you to, “Go and do a long run really fast and then scale it back. That’s a way to learn”.
The two-time European cross country champion (Ferrara 1998 and Edinburgh 2003) maintains that running an even paced split and even a negative split is desirable over the marathon because, “When you are slowing down you are losing efficiency in your form and your cadence is dropping off. Its negative debt if you like. Somewhere like the London Marathon is good for that big crowd of runners at the start to hold you back. Take your time and work through those early water stations and top up your glycogen stores there”.
Feel versus split
The three-time World Half Marathon champion (Veracruz 2000, Bristol 2001 and Vilamoura 2003) maintains it’s a balance between being cognisant of split times periodically on the one hand and also allowing yourself to run to feel at other stages of the marathon. She warns that, “The more obsessed you become about trying to run each kilometre to a certain split to achieve a target time the harder it actually becomes. If you can turn the preoccupation with splits off and maybe dial into it every 5km or every half an hour that’s healthy but it’s a matter of not getting too caught up in it”.
So how did she approach her debut marathon at London in 2002 where she famously set a world best for a women’s only race in clocking a magnificent 2hr18m56s? She confides that, “I had no specific target times in my head. I ran with the pack. The crowds round Cutty Sark buoyed me and I suddenly realised ‘I’m away’!. A couple of my splits after half-way were really fast. I started just running to feel. It was honestly only when I turned into the Mall did I realise how close I was to the world record”. She cautions about the need to set process based as well as time-based goals for the marathon in that, “If you set a finite limit what happens if you are ahead of it. You panic”.
This leaves us with the following questions for self-reflection:
- Why is it important I have worked hard at race distances under the marathon like the half and 10k before committing to moving up in distance?
- How can I ensure that I can commit to a sustained macrocycle of training needed to build for the marathon?
- What training and support group do I need from fellow athletes, friends and family to help me on my marathon journey?
- What role do cross country or fell running have in terms of strength endurance gains for marathon preparation?
- When will I need to be psychologically resilient enough to cope with inevitable setbacks in the marathon journey?
- How have I planned the detail of the final days before travelling to my marathon and race day itself?
- What does my taper consist of in terms of a reduction in volume and intensity of my training load?
- When should I run to feel on the one hand or split on the other both in training and on race day itself to facilitate effective pace judgment?
Join us for The Paula Radcliffe Marathon Workshop on the 5th January 2025 at Loughborough University.
Book Your Spot Today: https://www.newlevelscoaching.co.uk/paula-marathon-workshop/
New Levels Coach Matt Long, who has also served as an England Team Manager, brings a wealth of expertise and insight to his writing. His articles are crafted to share deep knowledge, inspire athletes, and provide valuable perspectives on the sport. We hope you find them as engaging and enriching as we do!
