TIME, regretfully, catches up with us all but Paula Radcliffe will gladly accept the embrace of the masses when she lines up for one final hurrah in this morning's Virgin Money London Marathon.
At 41, and without the detailed preparation that drove her to claim the world record there 12 years ago, her only ambition is to relish the occasion.
"People say: 'will you look at your watch?' And I'm like 'no'. I won't get caught up with the times."
Yet Radcliffe's legacy will not clock off when she crosses the line, Freya Ross asserts. "For me and probably millions of others, she is an inspiration. She's worked very hard to get to the level she was at. She's been through some difficult times but she remains a phenomenal athlete and that's how she'll always be remembered."
In an ideal world, the three-time London winner would have walked away in triumph when Olympic gold was dished out on these streets three summers ago. Instead, she withdrew, injured and inconsolable, leaving Ross to inherit her place in Team GB at the 11th hour.
Those were large shoes to fill. Finishing as the leading Briton felt like a mission accomplished. "To be there in her place, I felt I had to justify it," the Scot admits. "I'd have been gutted if I'd ran really badly because I was lucky to be there. It was horrible in a way that I was only there because Paula had got injured."
In her pomp, Radcliffe would have given today's elite a run for their money, with defending champion Edna Kiplagat returning to take on fellow Kenyans Mary Keitany, Florence Kiplagat and Priscah Jeptoo, while in the men's race, world record holder Dennis Kimetto faces 2014 victor Wilson Kipsang, who will be out to better his course record of 2:04:29 in the duo's maiden marathon clash.
Ross, meanwhile, will be waking up at her training camp in Colorado with a touch of regret that she is not joining them amid a prolonged spell of frustration which began when she pulled out on the eve of London in 2013.
One knock has followed another, with a stress fracture in her neck 12 months ago ruining her Common- wealth Games ambitions. It has been a slow re-build for the 31-year-old who, even now, is reluctant to programme the season ahead lest her body betrays her again.
The thought of reaching Rio 2016 has kept her inner fire alight.
"I need to stay focused on the bigger picture and stay positive," she says. "At least it's better for it to have gone wrong at the end of last year than this year because I've still got time to qualify and get back to a better level of fitness than before. I just have to keep thinking of that."
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