Paula Radcliffe will race on many of the roads that make up the 2012 Olympic marathon course when she lines up alongside Mo Farah for the Bupa London 10,000 road race on Monday 30 May, an event that incorporates the first UK national 10km road championships, part of the runbritain Grand Prix series.
Radcliffe has chosen the annual race, organised by the London Marathon, for her second competitive outing since giving birth to her second child, Raphael, in September last year, while Farah returns to the course where he has twice broken the British 10km record.
After 18 months out of the sport, Radcliffe will test her fitness on the roads where the Olympic marathon will be held 14 months later, racing over 10km for the second time in 15 days following her appearance at the Bupa Great Manchester Run on 15 May.
This will be the second stage of the 37-year-old mother-of-two’s bid to regain form for 2012 as she looks towards an autumn marathon where she will seek the Olympic qualifying time of 2 hours 31 minutes.
Radcliffe remains the 10km world record holder thanks to her time of 30 minutes 21 seconds from San Juan in February 2003, a performance which came just two months before she smashed the world marathon record in London, clocking 2:15:25.
“I can’t wait to be running in London again,” said Radcliffe, who’ll have her eyes on Mary Keitany’s London 10,000 course record of 31:06. “Racing in London holds special memories for me for obvious reasons. The Bupa London 10,000 is a great opportunity to test myself against some good opposition and be competitive again over a shorter distance.”
Farah makes his first appearance on home soil since February when he broke the European indoor 5000m record in Birmingham’s National Indoor Arena. Since then, the country’s number one men’s distance runner retained his European indoor 3000m title in Paris and won the New York City Half Marathon in another British record time on 20 March.
Now based in the United States, where he is coached by triple New York Marathon winner Alberto Salazar, Farah aims to lower the national and course record of 27:44 he set 12 months ago when he defeated the men’s world 10km record holder Micah Kogo.
“I’ve had some great success in this event in the last two years,” he said. “I’m aiming for more of the same this time. It’s been a great year for me so far and another good run at the Bupa London 10,000 could be the springboard to a successful summer on the track with the World Championships in Daegu my main target.”
Also in the elite field is Andrew Lemoncello, the US-based Scot who will be aiming to improve his 10,000 personal best of 27:57:23, set in Berkeley USA in 2009.
Lemoncello, who recently ran 2:15:24 in the Virgin London Marathon to finish second Briton home, albeit suffering with a stitch, has been selected for the World Championships marathon in Daegu in August.
Alongside elite runners will be teams of up to six runners from UK clubs competing for places in the UK 10km championship race, with the cumulative times of the first three finishers counting towards the team prize.
Behind them will be over 10,000 fun runners, celebrities and charity fund raisers looking for lifetime bests and personal satisfaction while the organisers will be testing the course and timing equipment in preparation for two of the most anticipated events of the 2012 London Olympics.
London Marathon race director David Bedford said: “It’s great to have Britain’s number one male and female distance runners with us for the Bupa London 10,000. We are delighted to welcome Paula back to London after such a long absence and very much hope this race will be her first step on the road to Olympic success.
“It’s also good to see Mo back for a third year. Mo has performed superbly here in the last two years and is in even better form this time. We expect another record from him.
“For us, this year’s race will be especially important as we host the UK’s first national 10km championships while for 10,000 others it will be a chance to run on the very streets where the best distance runners in the world will be racing for Olympic medals in little over a year’s time.”
The Bupa London 10,000 starts and finishes in St. James’s Park and uses Green Park as its assembly area. Runners set off from Birdcage Walk and follow an anti-clockwise route around the City of Westminster and the City of London via Parliament Square, Embankment, Blackfriars Bridge, Queen Victoria Street, Cannon Street, Great Tower Street, Crutched Friars, Fenchurch Street, Leadenhall Market, Cornhill, Queen Victoria Street, Puddle Dock, Embankment, Horseguards Avenue, Whitehall and via Trafalgar Square to the finish in The Mall.
Runners pass many of London’s famous sights, including Westminster Abbey, Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, The London Eye, Cleopatra’s Needle, Tate Gallery, Millennium Bridge, The Monument, Lloyds of London, Leadenhall Market, Bank of England, Mansion House, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Horseguards, Nelson's Column and Admiralty Arch. Buckingham Palace acts as the backdrop to the start and finish.
For more information visit: www.london10000.co.uk
