The Mad Mad World Of A Marathon Mom

Paula Radcliffe is balancing her motherly duties with Olympic-caliber training.

With weekly mileage totals exceeding 120 and two children at home to tend to, world-record holder Paula Radcliffe is giving new meaning to the term “working mom”.

Somehow, she is able to fit in all the running between diaper changes and feedings.

Despite Radcliffe stating that her goal is to qualify for the 2012 Olympics, she says her top priorites are Raphael, her six-month old boy, and four-year-old Isla.

Radcliffe is a four-time Olympian. Admittedly, her performances in each of these hasn’t been up to expecations. She placed fifth in the 10,000m in Atlanta in 1996. In Sydney four years later, Radcliffe was outsprinted in the same event and took fourth. Then in Athens, she dropped out of the marathon due to stomach problems, while in Beijing she was coming back from a stress fracture.

Still, Radclife, 36, remains optimistic about her chances in London were she to qualify. Her world record, 2:15:25, has been unbeaten in eight long years. 

While training for the upcoming Olympics, Radcliffe remembers that breakthrough race, which happened to be in the same city she wants to race in next year: London.

For More: Sky