'Paula effect' endures 13 years after record marathon

Thirteen years ago today, Britain's long-distance runner Paula Radcliffe became the first woman to set a world record at the London Marathon with her time of 2 hours 15 minutes and 25 seconds. Her performance still baffles and thrills athletics fans today. Experts say her legacy has beento encourage more women to don their running shoes.

Paula Radcliffe competing in the 2015 London Marathon, which would be the final race of her career Wikipedia

Officially out of competition since last year, the British long-distance runner continues to hold the limelight.

The current holder of the women's marathon world record has become a vocal campaigner against drug cheats and what she considers threats to distance-running.

On the thirteen year anniversary of her record win, she has spoken up against attempts by a local council in Britain to charge joggers to use their local park, describing it as "short-sighted."

Radcliffe's strong stance is not surprising. This is a woman after all who stunned the world when she clocked a record-breaking 2:15:25 at the London marathon in 2003, fighting against throbbing pain to stay in the race.

"A number of things are exceptional about Paula Radcliffe's performance in the 2003 London marathon," Events Director Hugh Brasher told RFI on Wednesday.

"The obvious one is that we are still talking about it thirteen years later, it is still the world record by minutes... it ranks with Bob Beamon's long jump in the 1968 Olympics that just transcends performances of all time."

Radcliffe, who stayed at least two meters behind her pacers, often running next to them, offered spectators a jaw-dropping display of marathon running.

For Hugh Brasher, she also opened up the sport to non-elite athletes: "In 2003, I was working and owned a specialist chain of running shops, and almost the day after the world record in London, we had women flocking in to buy running shoes. Three months later, you could virtually find a single pair of women's running shoes in Great Britain. No one had predicted that huge upswell," Brasher reckons.

That upswell has since been nicknamed the 'Paula effect,' which essentially translates as the uptick in female runners in competition running or non-sporting events.

"We're not yet at parity," cautions the London Marathon's Event Director. "Certainly, we have registered a 3% increase in the number of female candidates signing up for the London marathon, but it's not yet 50-50."

For the upcoming marathon on Sunday, April 24, 247,000 people will be at the starting blocks, out of that number forty-two percent are women.

"Nowadays in Great Britain, you will see more women running than men," Brusher says, and predicts that parity will be achieved within the next five years.