Paula Radcliffe's huge net worth, sad reason she left the UK, London Marathon incident

With the on the horizon, recently decided she is over the hill when it comes to long distance running. The legend announced her retirement from running after completing the Boston Marathon in the United States.

Her completion of the Boston marathon saw Radcliffe, 51, secure the prestigious Six Star Medal, a gong which is awarded to runners who complete all six of the marathon majors. She got herself over the finish line despite injuring her calf only nine miles into the race, but still managed to to complete the event with a time of two hours and 53 minutes.

Announcing her retirement, the Olympian and 2005 marathon world champion admitted "my body is done". Now her retirement is confirmed, Mirror Sport takes a look at her life and career.

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Paula Radcliffe's huge net worth

It is estimated that Radcliffe has a net worth of around £6million. This figure is made up of her competition winnings throughout her long career as well as many other investments.

In a previous interview with , Radcliffe opened up about her property portfolio, which has seen her own a wide variety of different homes. She said: "In Monaco we rent, but we kept our four-bedroom house in Loughborough and let it. I also own a student house I bought in 1996 and I let that.

"I'm lucky because I don't have a mortgage on either property. So, although they will undoubtedly have fallen in value, at least they are earning something for me.

"We can't afford to buy in Monaco – everything here is very expensive. Two-bedroom apartments cost anything from £1m up to £6m or £7m for a really good location with views. I'm certainly not in that bracket."

Why she moved to Monaco

As mentioned previously, Radcliffe lives in Monaco and has done since 2004. She decided to move to the French Riviera after enduring a heartbreaking 2004 Olympic Games, which saw her suffer a leg injury.

She pushed through the pain barrier by taking a high dosage of anti-inflammatory drugs, which would go on to play havoc with her stomach and force her to withdraw from the race after 22 miles. Five days later, she withdrew from the 10,000 metres in similar circumstances, despite being a favourite for the gold medal in both events.

The headlines were focussed on Radcliffe and while many expressed sympathy, many were also highly critical. It was at that point she decided to leave the UK. Speaking to in 2016, when asked about her move to Monaco, as well as citing her training trips in the Pyrenees and a desire for her children to be bi-lingual, she said: "I found it too distressing to stay in England after what happened in Athens.

"I felt like I'd let the country down. I decided I didn't want to live somewhere where I was recognised all the time."

That London Marathon incident

Radcliffe would do absolutely anything to win - that was never more obvious than at the 2005 London Marathon. When Radcliffe looks back to that marathon 20 years ago, she will remember the joy of passing the finish line first with a time of two hours, 17 minutes and 42 seconds.

It was the third time she won the iconic endurance race in the capital. Unfortunately, people's memories do not focus on her third marathon victory - instead, they will recall a rather unfortunate toilet break.

After experiencing some brutal stomach cramps, Radcliffe retired to the side of the road and relieved her bowels in plain view for all spectators to see. In 2015, she admitted: "It is funny because out of everything I have achieved I don’t think I will ever live it down. It is one of those things you would obviously never do when you are not in that competition zone or environment but I did what I had to do and what was in the rules to win the race.

"I had bad stomach cramps and put up with it for as long as I could. I was looking and looking and looking for a toilet and I would have had to climb a barrier to go – and I couldn’t envisage being able to climb a barrier at that point. I don’t regret it because I won.”

Family

Radcliffe is married to Gary Lough, a former middle-distance runner who represented Great Britain at the 1995 World Athletics Championships. The pair met at Loughborough University while they were both students and got married in 2000.

They share two children together – Raphael, 14, and Isla, 18, with Isla set to run her first London Marathon this weekend, five years on from being diagnosed with a rare form of ovarian cancer at the age of 13. Speaking about the treatment her daughter, who was given the all-clear four years ago, went through, Paula said: "It's the hardest thing a parent can go through."

"You can support them and be with them the whole way through, but you can't do that chemo for them. It's horrible to watch your child suffering through that, but at the same time we believed that if it felt bad, it was killing the cancer."