Radcliffe admitted last week that she will likely never compete again due to ongoing complications with her foot.
The 39 year old was forced to pull out of the 2012 Olympics, even though she had specialist treatment in Germany in July. Radcliffe later had surgery in August when her foot problems could no longer be ignored. Her foot problems went all the way back to 1994 when she suffered a stress fracture that progressed to a broken left foot. Even after that, Radcliffe had hopes of running a 10km race, as well as the 2014 London Marathon. That dream has now been dashed.
Racliffe told the BBC, "Targets have gone out of the window. I'm very much in that limbo where I know and accept that realistically it may not be possible. But at the same time I have a little window of hope and I would rather be able to finish my career in a race, rather than a race I can't actually get to the start line of."
Radcliffe was often caught in very public moments during and after races. In the 2004 Athens Olympics, when talk of a Radcliffe gold was high, the runner was discovered broken down in the streets of the city, sobbing, sitting in the gutter. She had a repeat performance in Beijing, limping to the finish line in 23rd place, crying.
But Radcliffe did have some spectacular moments in her career. She created world records in Chicago in 2002 and London in 2003. It will be ten years next month that Radcliffe ran the 26 miles of London's streets in two hours, 15 minutes, and 25 seconds, a record that still stands.
"I've not been able to run after the kids in the last few months, and you have to think about the first goal- to get back and be able to have a normal active life and then worry about if I can get back to competing.
"In all honesty with me, it was always probably going to be something going wrong with my body that would make my career start to wind down because I am always going to want to keep competing and keep getting out there.
"I would love to be able to run a couple more marathons before I finish, even if it's just another half marathon. At the same time I would still like to have a healthy foot in 20 years' time," said Radcliffe.
Reference: Sky.Com and The Guardian.
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