Paula does it!

Paula Radcliffe has won the New York marathon yesterday in an incredible race where she led all the way, despite a strong headwind. She managed to gain about three minutes on the second half of the race (she was 1:13 at the half-marathon if I remember correctly and thus did the second half-marathon in 1:10!!!) and was two minutes ahead of the second runner… While I was unsuccessfully trying to find a TV channel broadcasting the race at my hotel near SAMSI, I was following her times on the NYC Official Marathon site but nothing else was visible. Even the New York Time was shutting off the women race and focusing solely on the men race. (Nothing either on Le Monde website, despite an earlier advertising campaign with New Balance…) While there was indeed a strong suspense in the men race, the Brazilian outlier ending up first, the women race was equally climactic and, given the past abandons of Paula Radcliffe in the Olympics, nothing was clear till the end. An historical race, really!