Can you run faster than Paula?

Was and is the question often asked of male runners in England.

There is a great story on Grete Waitz and Paula Radcliffe and the NYC marathon in the NYT.

...Waitz laughed when recalling a gratifying moment in 2005, when she was buying a cup of coffee before watching the Boston Marathon.

“Excuse me,” someone asked her, “are you Paula Radcliffe?”

Waitz, then wearing a blonde ponytail, responded, “Only in my dreams.”

She added on Friday, “That is the biggest compliment I’ve ever gotten.”