Radcliffe's win a familiar script

On an election week when runners-up often lay claim to moral triumphs, the first three female finishers of the New York City Marathon on Sunday -- Britain's Paula Radcliffe, Russia's Ludmila Petrova and Kara Goucher of the U.S. -- each had ample context to declare victory.

Besides Radcliffe's victory in two hours, 23 minutes, 56 seconds, an impressive time under strong windy conditions, Petrova set a masters (40-plus) world best, finishing in 2:25.43 and holding off Goucher, whose debut time, 2:25.53, was the fastest ever for a U.S. woman running her first marathon.

With a men's field that wasn't nearly as deep or as compelling, Brazilian Marilson Gomes dos Santos rallied in the final two miles to win for the second time. But for different reasons, the women who reached the podium ran for more than place and prize money.

As if Radcliffe hadn't redeemed herself from an Olympic flameout once before in New York, the classy champ threw her arms up in Central Park exactly as she wasn't able to do at the Bird's Nest in Beijing 10 weeks ago. Radcliffe, 34, virtually led from the starting horn to the finish tape, crossing the line first in 2:23.56, nearly two minutes ahead of the pack she decimated with the savageness of a front runner damning the cool headwinds and forcing the field to chase her. It was the third marathon title in New York for Radcliffe, who won the race in 2004 and 2007 and has failed to win only two of nine marathons she has entered, both at Olympic Games.

This was a familiar script. Eight years ago, Radcliffe placed fourth in the 10,000 meters at the Sydney Games. In 2004, she entered the marathon as the world-record holder (2:15.25) and prohibitive favorite, but broke down along an Athens street and pulled out midway through the race. She blamed a bad reaction to anti-inflammatory drugs she had taken to combat a quad injury. Several days later, she also pulled out of the 10,000 with eight laps to go. Was Radcliffe fighting injury, demons that appear in major races or a combination? New York Road Runners president Mary Wittenberg invited Radcliffe to view the New York Marathon in November of that year, but Radcliffe surprised her by instead asking for a race entry. With cool persistence, she held off Kenya's Susan Chepkemai to win the race by three seconds. "I don't know if I felt in needed to redeem myself in New York," she said at the time; "I just knew I had a good race in me I hadn't run."

Fast forward to 2008, when Radcliffe entered the Olympic year with three more decisive marathon victories in three tries. She suffered a thigh injury five months before the Games and struggled into 23rd place in the Beijing Marathon. "I had rebounded well in New York once before" she reasoned. "I thought maybe again."

So it was. Radcliffe took off from the gun, bolting to an early lead on the hilly two-mile long Verrazano Bridge that opens the race. Though she wasn't about to hide from the lead-pack of nine just yet, Radcliffe served notice that she had the mettle to overcome the gusts that accentuated the races hills and often broke the racers' forms. Rather than share the windbreaking duties of the front-runner, the other runners were content to tuck themselves behind Radcliffe. "Everyone was in single file behind me," Radcliffe said. "I was like, 'C'mon, we've got the whole road.'"