Paula Radcliffe (b. 1973)
Filed under the name Paula · April 3, 2026
Paula Radcliffe set a marathon world record that stood for well over a decade, which if you think about it in mill terms is like holding a plant production record for years running, nobody else in the whole industry able to touch it no matter how hard they tried. That's not luck, that's grinding, repetitive training, mile after mile, year after year, the kind of unglamorous physical work I understand a lot better than I understand most celebrity news. Donna and I walk every evening now on doctor's orders after my stents, nowhere near marathon pace, but I respect anybody who put in that kind of physical labor day after day to get somewhere that lasted. A record standing over a decade means the work she put in was genuinely ahead of everybody else's, not just for a season, for years. I don't follow track and field much, never have, but that kind of sustained excellence earns my respect the same way a good welder or a good foreman does.