I'll be one of the girls in Beijing, vows Radcliffe

Radcliffe's win in the New York marathon on Sunday puts her back among the contenders for the Olympic gold in Beijing but this time she will not be setting herself apart from the other British runners.

Scroll down for more

She will join the rest of the team at its acclimatisation camp in Macau for the last 10 to 14 days before she arrives in Beijing, and she is considering joining Britain's other endurance runners at training camps in South Africa during the spring.

But, if that is one important change to her regime going into her fourth Olympics, the most significant was welcomed into life on January 17 this year — daughter Isla.

Scientific studies of how a first child improves an endurance runner are almost entirely anecdotal, based on the experiences of elite runners in the past such as Ingrid Kristiansen, Liz McColgan and Sonia O'Sullivan. But Paula's initial contribution to the debate is positive.

'I think definitely I felt stronger coming back after the pregnancy. My legs were tired in the race because probably I didn't have quite enough work behind them but cardio-vascularly I felt good,' she said.

'I have more stamina than before and, emotionally, I'm very very comfortable within myself.'

Scientists have speculated that the red blood count may be improved, at least initially, by pregnancy. Paula found that the effect wore off within weeks.

They have speculated that there may be hormonal changes and that the pain threshold may be raised by child-birth.

Paula, though, believes that the most significant effect is on the state of mind. 'I am happier,' she says. 'And when I am happy I run better.'

Life now has to be built around Isla, a spectator at her first marathon on Sunday in father Gary's arms and ready and willing to greet mother when she arrived at the finish. 'She is a great distraction,' says Paula.

Fortunately for them, she has slept through the night for most of her life, loves the creche where she spends her morning while mother trains at Font Romeu in the French Pyrenees and has taken easily to travelling.

Before Athens, Radcliffe kept herself to herself, doing her altitude training alone in the Pyrenees and New Mexico.

She declined to join the team at its pre-Games camp in Cyprus — where Kelly Holmes chose to put the final touches to her training — and arrived injured in the Athens athletes' village.

It was a reaction to the medicine to help with those injuries that caused her to end her race stricken on a kerb instead of the Olympic podium. She will not make the same mistake.

'I will be in Macau. I will do a lot more acclimatisation for the humidity, similar to what I did for Athens and what I would have done for Osaka,' said Radcliffe, 34 in six weeks.

'Essentially, you are talking 10 days, two weeks acclimatisation, because if you try and do more than that you are draining your system.'

UK Athletics will have a full physiotherapy and medical support team with its athletes in Potchefstroom in South Africa at two three-week camps in the New Year.

'We might try South Africa first in the springtime for a change and, because there will be more of a medical back-up there that I could access, it might be safer in an Olympic Games,' said Radcliffe.

'You have to look at this win in New York as a stepping stone. To win here means that I am back. Now I am only looking forward,' she said.

'Athens is something I'm going to look back on and I'm always going to be frustrated.

'It's not going to be a happy memory but I think pretty soon after the race here in 2004 I was able to put it in its little box. It probably took Gary (her husband) longer to get over it than me.'

From the moment she crossed the line in Central Park first, only the future mattered.

A day in the life of Paula

8.30am: Wakes, showers, feeds Isla.

9.30am: Day's longest run until 11.30am-noon, depending on training schedule.

12.30pm: Lunch.

1.30pm: Massage.

2pm: Afternoon sleep (until 4pm).

5-7pm: Training and exercises.

7pm: Shower and put Isla to bed.

10pm: Bed.

When training in the French Pyrenees (as before New York), Isla spends the morning at a creche, where she has lunch.

For eight of the last 10 weeks before New York, Paula ran up to 140 miles each week.

She says her diet is not seriously different. Eats most things, even has the occasional glass of wine.