by Our Sports Desk

A tearful Paula Radcliffe shouted her thanks to the thousands of fans lining the roads and linked hands with a club runner as she brought the curtain down on her glorious career at the London marathon yesterday.

The 41-year-old returned to the scene of her greatest triumph — her staggering world record of two hours 15 minutes 25 seconds set on the streets of the capital in 2003 — to bid an emotional farewell to competitive marathon running.

The days of running those sorts of times are over but the cheers from the crowds lining the streets were as loud for her as any of the champions as she came home in an unofficial time of 2hrs 36mins 55secs.

Radcliffe shouted “thank you” to the crowds as she rounded the final turn and came down The Mall hand in hand with a club runner — a homage to the first edition of the event when joint winners Dick Beardsley and Inge Simonsen crossed the line holding hands.

She embraced her husband Gary Lough and children, daughter Isla and son Raphael, at the finish.

“Down the last mile I thought: ‘I don’t care about the time.’ I just wanted to thank as many people as I could,” Radcliffe said.

“I came into this race totally unprepared and hoped the magic of the London marathon would help me and I’m sure it did. You can’t help but come here and run hard. You have to give it your best effort and that’s what I did.

“There was a big sign at Embankment saying: ‘We will miss you,’ but it won’t be as much as I will miss you.”