I have always loved running on the roads, ever since I used to take part in relays for my club when I was 12 and 13. I felt really at home on the surface.

As of November 2009 Paula Radcliffe holds the official world record for 10 km on roads. Early life
Radcliffe was born on 17 December 1973 in Davenham near Northwich Cheshire. She has twice won the World Half-Marathon championships twice the World Cross-Country championships (in 2001 and 2002) and in December 2003 became European Cross-Country champion for the second time the only woman to have achieved this feat in the event's ten-year history.

She has also been nominated for World Sportswoman of the year on several occasions. She has represented Great Britain at the Olympics four times consecutively (1996 to 2008) but has not won a medal on the Olympic stage. Radcliffe is a former world champion in the marathon half marathon and cross country.