Pacing Paula Radcliffe
Weldon Johnson paced Paula Radcliffe to her first world marathon record of 2.17.18 in Chicago in 2002, a run that lowered the previous best by a minute and a half. As Weldon tells SPIKES, the run gave him a ringside seat for a piece of history, and a unique insight into Radcliffe’s brilliance.
"I went to college at Yale, and I was a decent regional runner. I ran an Olympic marathon qualifying time in 1999 of 2.19, but 2.19 is a long way from the Olympics, you know. My coach is a genius and he said I needed to go to altitude, so I moved to Flagstaff, Arizona, and I really improved.
"I’d paced the second group of men at sub five minute mile pace for twenty miles in Chicago the year before, so they knew I could do the job. Although it’s difficult, it pays very well, in fact it’s the only guaranteed payday in the sport, provided you do your job.
"The women’s pace is obviously slower than the men, but Paula was just cooking it. I’ve been around a lot of elite athletes, but she is by far the most impressive. Her determination, her focus is just incredible.
"I had met Paula before. I had these foot problems and I went to see her physio, Gerard Hartmann, in Ireland.
"The second week I was there, her and Gary [Lough, Paula’s husband and coach] showed up. Gerard said, ‘her pain tolerance is higher than anyone I see’. I was a little bit dismissive… she had a knee problem at the time, but she won the world cross country in the middle of this and then she made her London Marathon debut. And she was just flying every day in training, even with a knee problem. Her pace, day in and day out, is incredible.
"Me and my brother had been out running and she ran the other way. We came back and said, ‘what did you do?’ She said, ‘oh nothing much… 5.16 (mile splits), just marathon pace.’ And we were like, ‘5.16… her marathon pace is world record pace…’ We went straight out and bet on her to win London, and she was four to one or something, because she’d never run one before. We knew she would win it easily, and she did.
"The race organisers in Chicago basically wanted the world record. It looks bad to have a man right beside the women, running along.
"They’re paying Paula a lot of money, you know, they don’t want me blocking the TV cameras. So you run off to the side. The day before, the weather changed and it was windy. We started out into the wind the first six miles, then we turned and had the wind at our backs for probably the next fourteen miles.
"Catherine Ndereba was right on her, but she fell back. I stayed with Paula, and Brian Sell, who’s actually on the US Olympic marathon team this year, went back to help her. Then we turned back into the wind and it’s howling in our face. We’d been running 5.09 (mile splits) and I thought, okay, 5.15 or 5.20 won’t be a problem. We ran a 5.23 into the wind. She said to me, ‘what was that one?’ I said ‘5.23’ and she just yelled 'WHAAT?!' and she took off!
"I’m really tired at this point. She ran the twenty-third mile in 5.09. Right before we got to the end of the twenty fifth mile, that was it for me. I knew she had the record. I just started jogging in with a massive smile on my face. I was probably running six-minute mile pace but it felt like jogging. I ran 2.18.10, which was an Olympic qualifying time, and it’s still my PB.
"It was just a fantastic thing to be part of, and I have no doubt Paula would have broken the record whether I was there or not. Then of course she went to London and ran 2.15.
"I had breakfast with Paula and Gary the next day, and they must have said thank you about a thousand times. They kept asking if I’d been paid enough. I said look, don’t worry, I got very well taken care of, and I got the best seat in the house."
Weldon Johnson co-runs the excellent www.letsrun.com