14-Apr-2002 – London Marathon – 2:18:56 – Nike Air Streak Ekiden V
Date of birth: 17-Dec-1973
Nationality: English
Women-Only World Record duration: 3 years, 3 days
The athlete:
The 2002 London Marathon was already the source of huge interest from the matchup between longtime rivals Haile Gebreselassie and Paul Tergat, the former making his much anticipated debut at the distance. There was also Paula Radcliffe, who was making her own marathon debut after considerable success in shorter distances.
Radcliffe and Derartu Tulu, the defending champion, requested pacers take them through the first half in 70:30. With absolutely perfect weather, no wind or humidity to otherwise affect the mile temperature, Radcliffe slowly picked off her competition until she passed the halfway mark in 71:04 and in the lead.
She continued accelerating for the next two miles, but realising how comfortable her lead was backed off the pace. Radcliffe later recalled thinking she might have blown her chance to win, but instead was soon pushing the pace again with her 25th mile her fastest overall.
Winning in 2:18:55, Radcliffe was less than ten seconds away from the marathon world record at the time and was seven minutes faster than the National Record. As the London Marathon has since 1991 had the elite women’s category start some 45 minutes before the men’s category, Radcliffe could also claim the women’s only marathon world record.
The shoes:
Radcliffe wore the Nike Air Streak Ekiden V, the latest entry in the Air Streak series that first launched in 1995. You can read more about the development of the model in my article on Radcliffe’s first marathon world record, but in short the Ekiden series further refined the Air Streak formula by having only one Zoom Air unit in the rear of the already lightweight platform.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Radcliffe
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/athletics/2324527.stm
https://www.defynewyork.com/2018/11/19/late-year-revisit-of-the-original-nike-air-streak-spectrum-plus-with-zoom-air-2003/
https://www.letsrun.com/2003/escortingpaula.php
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2002-10-06-0210060314-story.html
https://www.time-to-run.com/marathon/chicago/report-2002
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/specials/london_marathon_2002/1929069.stm
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bj_MdhFFnbZ/
http://drewhammell.com/
https://www.retrolab-shop.com/
https://www.complex.com/sneakers/a/brendan-dunne/nike-zoom-streak-spectrum-plus-ekiden-flame-shoe-paula-radcliffe
https://www.instagram.com/stevensmith/
https://sport-locker.net/2015/04/22/nike-honours-paula-radcliffe-ahead-of-the-london-marathon-with-thankspaula-campaign/
https://www.letsrun.com/news/2020/07/i-was-bored-so-i-watched-the-greatest-marathon-ever-2002-london/
https://run.outsideonline.com/history/london-marathon-2002-remembering-two-of-the-worlds-greatest-races
https://runnerstribe.com/features/remembering-greatest-marathon-london-2002/