No spider will stop me getting back in the running, says Paula

The world marathon record holder revealed the bizarre setback to her desperate bid to run for Olympic gold four years after her devastating disappointment in Athens. 

Wide-eyed with excitement: Paula Radcliffe reveals her intention to run in Beijing

Last year she endured a stress fracture of the pelvis because of an extremely long labour when giving birth to daughter Isla. Then, in April, she suffered another stress fracture in her left thigh.

Now we discover that three weeks ago, on her first rest break from training on a day out with husband Gary Lough and Isla, she was bitten on a toe on her left foot by a spider. This caused her to be rushed to Accident and Emergency in Font-Romeu in the French Pyrenees where she was training.

‘It was a toxin, they thought I might need an IV drip, but in the end I had to have strong oral antibiotics,’ said Radcliffe.

‘That night I had a really bad fever. By the morning my foot was like a red balloon and I had a red line all the way up the inside of my leg. I couldn’t put my foot down and couldn’t run for four days. I’ve still got scabs on the toe and I’ve lost all the skin. I’ve had nightmares in the past couple of weeks.

‘I was thinking that somebody somewhere had a little doll and was sticking pins in. But something like that just makes you more determined to fight.

‘There have been lots of points where I thought: “Am I going to make it?” That’s where it helped to take it one day and one week at a time and go from scan to scan then see when I can start this and when I can start that. I kept trying to remind myself that everyone’s different, so you can’t say it definitely has to be this many weeks out.’

Radcliffe, who arrived at Team GB’s holding camp in Macau on Monday night after a 12-hour journey by plane and hydrofoil, said her presence is proof that she is planning to run in Beijing.

On the April injury, she said: ‘From the nightmare of when it was diagnosed, the whole thing has been a race against time . . . the aim has always been to start the race.’

Her husband, who is also her manager, interrupted to say: ‘There’s no definite decision been made.’

Marathon misery: Radcliffe is helped away in tears by two British spectators after illness forced her out of the running in Athens

Radcliffe added: ‘Gary is right. You can’t make a definite decision because I’m running on a leg that could break down. It’s not a decision, is it? I’m racing unless my leg breaks down and I can’t run. That’s it.

‘I feel good. In terms of judging shape, it’s impossible to do that this year because training has had to be so adapted. Normally I can run over a certain tempo over certain courses.

‘I’ve had to push it a little bit, but not stupidly, to take risks. I’ve had to be aware of listening to my body but at the same time asking questions of it and trying to hurry it along a little bit.’

But is the 34-year-old still thinking of a medal? ‘You can think about it, like any other race. In any race I go into, my aim is to win so that’s what I’m thinking.

‘I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think I was in good enough shape — I know from what I’ve done that I’m good enough to be on the start line.’

Radcliffe began her rehabilitation training in a swimming pool, then introduced Nordic skiing (in the gym) and had a special altitude treadmill installed in her French home that is said to be like running on a pillow.

She estimates that the volume has been similar to her programme before other marathons but little of it has been done outside of the house or pool.

As for her motivation to keep trying when at least one specialist told her it was impossible, she said: ‘I think that I’m the type of person who, if you say to me that you can’t do this, then it makes me more determined.

‘But with what happened four years ago (in Athens), it has just been one nightmare after another. When each one comes it hits you. It’s like a punch in the stomach and you’re down on the floor. But fighting it does give you a bit of energy as well.

'There’s a determination to make it and it’s different from four years ago because I absolutely knew that I was in really good shape, quite healthy and I felt that my leg would take it . . . and it did actually take it. What stopped me was illness.

‘This time I feel it’s more like 2002, the London Marathon, when I’d had the nightmare with my knee three weeks before, didn’t know whether I’d be able to start that race and then when I did, I was really happy and ran really well. I hope it will work the same way this time.’