I respect Paula Radcliffe for finishing the Olympic marathon, especially since she was clearly in agonising pain, but I don’t understand her decision to race in the first place.

The Olympics seem to be an excuse for thinking you can do anything to your body without paying a price. But there is a price and the problem is that athletes pay it once the cameras stop rolling.

During my time as an athlete I had a stress fractured femur, the same injury Radcliffe had to overcome.

It was just horribly painful. Once it had healed, a process that took about eight weeks, I could run just two minutes and increase my workload by two minutes every two days.

It was a long road but I bet Paula will now have an even longer road to get back to full recovery … and it’s just beginning.

“I was trying to achieve the impossible because the amount of running I had done wasn’t enough and you can’t take short-cuts in the marathon,” said the 34-year-old said, who has not ruled out one more try for an Olympic medal at London in 2012, where she could expect great support from the home crowd.

“We’ll keep fingers crossed for 2012,” she added.

NOTE: Balazs Koranyi was an Olympic semi-finalist in the 800m at the 1996 and 2000 Games for Hungary and since 2004 has been a correspondent for Reuters.

PHOTO: Paula Radcliffe of Britain approaches the finish line of the women’s marathon at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in the National Stadium August 17, 2008. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez

Eight could be Michael Phelps’s lucky number if he can trump Mark Spitz’s Olympic haul of of seven golds at the 100m medley relay in Beijing on Sunday.

If so, he would have something in common with many host team athletes, who are big on the number 8 because in Chinese it sounds like a word for prosperity (fa). That’s why the Olympic Games opened on the 8th day of the 8th month at 8pm.

However, British marathoner Paula Radcliffe is counting on number 17 to banish memories  of her disastrous run in Athens and claim her first Olympic medal.  She was born on the 17th of the month, as was her grandmother and her daughter. According to a report in Britain’s Sunday Telegraph, the coincidence goes even further: her grandmother got engaged on a 17th and was married on a 17th too. 

Specially designed running shoes that Radcliffe will be wearing in the race on Sunday have 17 17 17 written vertically at the back.

And guess what the date will be? August 17.

PHOTO: British long distance runner Paula Radcliffe is interviewed in Beijing August 15, 2008. REUTERS/Gil Cohen Magen

There was good news for Britain on Monday as Paula Radcliffe talked up her chances of being fit enough to run the marathon at the Beijing Games.

“I’m racing unless my leg breaks down,” Radcliffe, 34, told reporters four days before the start of the Olympics and 13 days before the women’s race on August 17. 

Radcliffe, the world record holder, is getting over a stress fracture to her left femur and on Monday she sounded confident of taking part.

“I am happy to be here and to have got this far and I’m looking forward to starting the marathon,” she told the BBC in Beijing.

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Balazs Koranyi was a semi-finallist in the 800 metres at the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games and will cover the Beijing Games for Reuters.  

For an athlete, the Olympics are a bigger gamble than putting money on the zero at a roulette table. And when you take a big gamble, you’re bound to do dumb things.

I read recently about marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe, who was hobbling on crutches at the time, talking about coming back from a stress fracture for Beijing. It made me wonder why normally bright, rational people do insane things when it comes to the Olympics.

I was in a similar situation eight years ago, though not quite at the same level. I had just collected an indoor European bronze medal in the 800 metres and had every expectation of making the final at the Sydney Games. So, I pushed and pushed myself until something broke. Well tore, actually. It was my calf.

I had time to heal, rest and train again but even the thought of letting up on my dream drove me near insane. I couldn’t rest. I had spent a decade preparing for my date with destiny.

So I pushed and pushed more, despite the pain. I spent 2 hours a day practising and 22 hours putting myself back together for the next practice. The pain was excruciating. I limped everywhere. I skipped friends, I skipped going to the movies because it hurt too much to get out of the house.

What I had not counted on was the emotional toll of being in pain.  When it hurts, you hate the world and have no friends. The burden is all on you and you’re mad at world for not sharing your misery.

Training for the Olympics are about walking the fine line between health and injury, or to be more precise, between minor and major injury. You have no choice but to push your body to the breaking point and inevitably, sometimes you push too hard. Top athletes develop an awesome ability to override the body’s warning signs and not even know where edge is.

So I pushed some more. As I tried to protect the injured leg, I strained the healthy one and tore a foot muscle. The pain was worse but again, there was no time to stop.

In the end, I got to the Olympic semi-finals but ran an unspectacular race as my mind and body just couldn’t give more.

Even in hindsight, I’m reluctant to say I’d do anyhing differently. The Olympics are a gamble and unless you risk big, you won’t win big.

Picture of Balazs Koranyi (in yellow) on his way to victory in the 800 metres at the Osaka Grand Prix in 1999 by REUTERS/Eriko Sugita