Paula Radcliffe fit for NY Marathon! Again.

[Pottsy]

I have a marathon PB of 2.36 so to answer the first part of your question, yes. I haven't been world-class but it wasn't for want of trying, thanks.

Very good time.

You'll appreciate the quantity of training, frequency and difficulty of injuries, the quantity of world-class runs an athlete can achieve in their career and the success she's achieved then despite facile and irrelevant comments from people who try to knock her.

 

[PaulB]

Very good time.

You'll appreciate the quantity of training, frequency and difficulty of injuries, the quantity of world-class runs an athlete can achieve in their career and the success she's achieved then despite facile and irrelevant comments from people who try to knock her.

Clearly not facile and irrelevant or you wouldn't feel the need to dignify my criticism. I reckon she's more interested in money than medals. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that as others have pointed out but spare us the crocodile tears when you can't be bothered in the Olympics or Worlds, eh, Paula?

 

[Pottsy]

She seemed to be trying quite hard in the Olympic and Worlds runs that I've seen in, but hey, perhaps you know different.

 

[PaulB]

You've got your opinion, I've got mine.

 

[Pottsy]

You've got your opinion, I've got mine.

Fair enough. They seem quite different on this one.

 

[rich p]

IIRC she ran the Athens Olympic marathon with a dodgy stomach upset, failed to finish despite trying extremely hard and then gave the 10k a bash a few days later and tried to lead from the front. Heroic effort to me.
She ran the Beijing marathon with having barely recovered from a pelvic stress injury and finished in a low position despite suffering. She then got cross when the press focused on her rather than Yamagouchi(?) who finished 6th.
Where's the lack of effort in that palmares for Team GB?

 

[darkstar]

I think Paula is a bloody hero, she seems to give 100% every time she races, no matter what the circumstances. The lack of success at the Olympics can be put down to unfortunate illnesses, not a lace of effort.
And as for running for money, the majority of athletes do certain events for the cash incentive, it's not to say they don't value the titles and medals though.

 

[PaulB]

IIRC she ran the Athens Olympic marathon with a dodgy stomach upset, failed to finish despite trying extremely hard and then gave the 10k a bash a few days later and tried to lead from the front. Heroic effort to me.
She ran the Beijing marathon with having barely recovered from a pelvic stress injury and finished in a low position despite suffering. She then got cross when the press focused on her rather than Yamagouchi(?) who finished 6th.
Where's the lack of effort in that palmares for Team GB?

Where's the lack of effort for Britain? You've just pointed it out. Others have too without realising it. She's always well prepared and uninjured for New York and the big payouts but not quite so when there's medals involved. As I mentioned, that's absolutely fine but it seems to me she wants her cake and to eat it. She wants the money but also the (rapidly diminishing) sympathy of the British public when she's inevitably injured when there's only medals at the end of the pain. As I pointed out, I have a 2.36 and felt closer to death during that than at any time during my life so I sincerely empathise with her and the pain she goes through. I just wish she'd be honest about it.

We had exactly this situation last year on here with Radcliffe at the NY marathon and people then were emphasising we wouldn't see her run this year at London or NY and she'd show her critics up. Well I said I'd be back if she did.

 

[rich p]

Where's the lack of effort for Britain? You've just pointed it out. Others have too without realising it. She's always well prepared and uninjured for New York and the big payouts but not quite so when there's medals involved. As I mentioned, that's absolutely fine but it seems to me she wants her cake and to eat it. She wants the money but also the (rapidly diminishing) sympathy of the British public when she's inevitably injured when there's only medals at the end of the pain. As I pointed out, I have a 2.36 and felt closer to death during that than at any time during my life so I sincerely empathise with her and the pain she goes through. I just wish she'd be honest about it.

We had exactly this situation last year on here with Radcliffe at the NY marathon and people then were emphasising we wouldn't see her run this year at London or NY and she'd show her critics up. Well I said I'd be back if she did.

I think you're seeing what you want to see so I'll give up on the logic and leave you to it.

 

[PaulB]

I think you're seeing what you want to see so I'll give up on the logic and leave you to it.

I'm giving up on it too. My last post on this subject is to say that as a huge athletics fan and a runner of many years standing, I think she's a phoney when she reckons on she wants medals.

 

[Rob S]

Yet another PaulB thread bashing Paula, change the ****ing record PaulB.

 

[Over The Hill]

Not quite sure where she has gone wrong to upset anyone.

I think that the prize money for races would be insignificant compared to the earings you could generate from being an olympic medal winner.

Over a four year period there must be a few hundred significant winners of marathons but there will only be one winner at the olympics.

Paula was to have done the Great South Run last week but had flu we were told.

 

[Pottsy]

Where's the lack of effort for Britain? You've just pointed it out. Others have too without realising it. She's always well prepared and uninjured for New York and the big payouts but not quite so when there's medals involved. As I mentioned, that's absolutely fine but it seems to me she wants her cake and to eat it. She wants the money but also the (rapidly diminishing) sympathy of the British public when she's inevitably injured when there's only medals at the end of the pain. As I pointed out, I have a 2.36 and felt closer to death during that than at any time during my life so I sincerely empathise with her and the pain she goes through. I just wish she'd be honest about it.

We had exactly this situation last year on here with Radcliffe at the NY marathon and people then were emphasising we wouldn't see her run this year at London or NY and she'd show her critics up. Well I said I'd be back if she did.

Well I reckon you didn't really try very hard for that 2:36, poor effort. If you'd pulled your finger out you'd have got under 2:30.

I'm a bit of an expert on how much effort you put in you see.

 

[pubrunner]

A month or two back, I placed a posting stating that perhaps the top footballers shouldn't be paid quite so much.

I got quite a 'bashing' - most on this forum were of the opinion that they are deserving of such huge sums - few (apart from myself) thought that they were 'money grabbing'. Some made statements such as 'very few people can do what the top footballers can, if you could play like them, you'd deserve such pay'. In 2003, Paula was the fastest UK athlete over the marathon distance; yes, she was quicker than all the men that year - that is one hell of an achievement.

And yet some believe that Paula Radcliffe is money grabbing ?

I can't see why Paula Radcliffe should be any less deserving; as others have mentioned, a marathon runner can't compete as frequently as those competing over the shorter distances.

I can't agree that she didn't give 'try her best' in the Olympics; an Olympic gold would lead to greater earning power. If she seems to some to be a bit of a 'cry baby' well I'm hardly surprised. She must find it very frustrating when she has run minutes faster over the distance than all of her rivals.

One of the hardest parts of a marathon is just getting to the start line in the best shape to compete. I would suspect that many/most of us have taken part in events when we shouldn't have done so, due to illness or injury.

 

[darkstar]

Completely agree mate.
And footballers are paid too much, who can possibly contest that??? Some are paid way over £100k per week, thats fu**ing ridiculous. Rugby players who reach international standard are lucky to get much more for the whole year, which is a fair salary.
Taking all the money out of football would make the game much more interesting imo, player caps should defiantly be implemented.