Athletics: Bright Side for Radcliffe in Fun Run

Paula Radcliffe achieved the worst result of her career last night. The Bedford runner, arguably the greatest female distance runner in the world, finished more than 13 minutes behind her team-mate Jo Pavey, winner of the RunLondon event held over 10km.

The last time Radcliffe had been beaten this comprehensively was 18 years ago when, as a 13-year-old, she finished 299th at the English Cross-Country championships in Leicester.

There is no need to panic, however. The fact that she finished behind several other hundred runners in this event in Southwark Park does not herald a dramatic downturn in her fortunes. Radcliffe was fulfilling a contractual obligation to her sponsors by jogging around an event that attracted a huge field of 30,000 for a race that started at 7pm, making it the biggest nocturnal race ever held.

She had originally planned to make this her comeback event after her trials and tribulations at the Olympics in Athens, where she dropped out of both the marathon and 10,000 metres.

Radcliffe then made a late decision three weeks ago to run in the New York City Marathon, a race she won to re-establish herself firmly at the top of the tree.

She had not fully recovered from that race but wanted to keep her promise to run here, so she agreed to jog round a course that transversed Tower Bridge - an important staging post in her two London Marathon victories, including in 2003 when she set the world record.

With the entire entry forced to wear luminous yellow T-shirts, the race resembled a field of super-fit lollipop ladies. It made it impossible to identify Radcliffe as she completed the course in approximately 45 minutes among a group of disbelieving fun runners given an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be paced by a runner who has run the distance in 30min 20sec.

It was a unique occasion for Radcliffe, too. "It felt really special with everything lit up with the globes and Christmas lights around the course," she said. "It was something a little bit different. Everyone was laughing and chatting. You don't really get that in elite races. I do like running at night. It's something about beating the winter blues. It was really good fun."

She finished a long way behind Pavey, who won the women's race in 32:33. The Exeter runner, 30, is enjoying the best year of her career. She finished fifth in the Olympic 5,000m and is among the favourites to succeed Radcliffe as the European cross-country champion in Germany next month.

It completed a good double for British runners as Aldershot's Chris Thompson won the men's race on his debut at the distance in 28:50. "At the age of 23 I may have finally found an event that I'm good at," he said.

The race completed a hectic schedule for Radcliffe, who has been busily promoting her autobiography My Story So Far since winning in New York. Even yesterday morning she was still pushing it by appearing on the Breakfast With Frost show.

Radcliffe is now planning to fly out to Mexico with her husband and manager Gary Lough. High on the agenda will be what events she concentrates on in 2005. Her first decision will be whether to run in the London or Boston marathons next April.

Something else they may discuss is starting a family, which Radcliffe has not ruled out doing before the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

"It is something that Gary and I will know when the time is right," said Radcliffe. "At the moment there are still [other] things I want to do. I don't think it would be a great environment to have a child when you are rushing around. But it is something we want to do at some time in the future."

Radcliffe is not ruling out the possibility of starting a family and still being back in time to compete in China. She is encouraged by the example of Sonia O'Sullivan, who had a baby and returned to win a silver medal in the 5,000m at the 2000 Olympics. O'Sullivan has subsequently had another child and was among the other fun runners last night.

"I don't see why not; a lot of people have," said Radcliffe. "Sonia does an amazing job looking after her two kids."

But, unlike O'Sullivan, Radcliffe does not visualise herself taking the baby on training runs. "I can't see myself running with the buggy. Gary can do that."