WHAT road to go down with Paula Radcliffe?

The greatest-ever British female distance runner and current marathon world record holder has seen plenty in her time. Seeing as she is here at a sun-kissed Glasgow to publicise Sunday's Morrison's Great women's 10k, which meanders through Pollok Park before finishing in Bellahouston Park, why not start with her own memories of competing in this country? They include winning the European Cross Country championships in 2003 and a couple of memorable excursions on Royal Deeside.

"Balmoral [in 1998] was really special for me, because that was the first time I set a world best for five miles on the road," said Radcliffe. "Then going back there a couple of times, it was an amazing opportunity to come back and run on that estate. One year it snowed, and I was running round in front of the house, and the young princes - I am showing my age now - must have been about six and eight or something, building a snowman on the front lawn. I didn't meet them at that time, thought I did meet Harry last weekend. Maybe I should have reminded him about it."

After running her final competitive marathon in London last month, Radcliffe has opted for the media path, and being mum to her own children, Isla and Raphael, who are now at a similar age. For all her achievements, to the casual viewer the 41-year-old is perhaps best known for the injuries and setbacks which so often seemed to strike as she vainly pursued Olympic Gold. A nation watched in 2004 as her marathon attempt in Athens ended with her sitting, weeping at the side of the road, and things weren't much better in Beijing four years later when she suffered leg cramps and finished back in 23rd. Her body didn't play ball in the lead-up to London 2012, a long-standing foot injury ending her chances of competing in her home marathon.

She more than anyone knows how things can easily go awry at major athletics events, and how to pick yourself up and get on with it when they do. It makes her an expert witness when she casts her eye over Laura Muir, the 22-year-old from Milnathort near Perth whose time of 4.00.07secs at a Diamond League event in Paris last year broke Yvonne Murray's 27-year-old Scottish 1500m record, but whose Glasgow 2014 dream ended with an unfortunate trip in the last lap.

"Laura is such an amazing talent," said Radcliffe. "Running four flat last year was an amazing boost to her confidence - then it took a little bit of a knock because things just didn't go her way in the championships. But she is still so young and has so much time ahead of her. I think she has huge potential.

"It is tough because it wasn't that she did anything wrong," she added. "Things just didn't go quite right - particularly in Glasgow. She had one little trip, stumble and at that point you just can't recover from that. Mentally it is very hard to recover from that, and I think it did knock her going into the Europeans. But she is strong and has good support around her. She knows the potential of where she is going to be in the future and is really balanced and working towards that. With some people luck just kind of falls perfectly for them the first time, but it is almost sweeter when you do go through those knocks the first time and then come through it and get it right. I am sure she will in the future."

This imperative to locate luck at the precise moment in such a precision sport as athletics is also illustrated, in a more positive sense, by Lynsey Sharp. On a drip the night before her 800m final in Glasgow as she battled stomach cramps and sickness, she recovered her poise to take a fine silver medal, following it up with the same colour at the European Championships in Zurich. The momentum should carry over to a captain's role in Loughborough, while others are slogging it around the south side of Glasgow, this Sunday.

"Lynsey had an amazing year last year, and she was battling that Achilles thing the whole time," said Radcliffe. "I think that has given her confidence a huge boost and she has had a good winter's training by all accounts. She is racing at Loughborough on Sunday so hopefully she is going to come out and run really well."

Chris O'Hare, Sharp's fellow European medallist, is another Scottish athlete who Radcliffe forecasts a big year from, while she is taking Mo Farah's recent comments regarding a return to the marathon with a pinch of salt. "I don't think he would rule it out," said Radcliffe. "He ran 2 hours 08, he still ran really well. But I just think at a time when he is best in the world at 5 and 10k it is natural that he is going to stick with it through the next Olympics."

For now Radcliffe is just happy dispensing advice to cancer sufferer Jennifer Bremner and her friends, who will run the race to raise money for Maggie's Centres, and urging others to get off their sofas and do likewise.

"Great Run asked me to be their ambassador for the year and said one of their targets is to increase women's participation," she said. "That is something I am really passionate about trying to do. Running has given me a lot fun and enjoyment, aside from the career side of it. Especially with women, there is that little bit more reticence and almost fear of taking that first step. 'Will I be safe running alone? What will I look like? What will I wear?' It's about breaking down those barriers."