Paula Radcliffe and Selena Kosgei, two of the favorites heading into the 40th running of the ING New York City Marathon, didn't finish on the podium. They took time to answer questions following the race. The transcript follows:

Paula Radcliffe:

Q.   Can you talk about the race?  You said you had a twinge?

PAULA RADCLIFFE:  Yeah, I wasn't able to run the last two legs because I had a pain in my tendon.  I had a jab in it.  I really thought it was going to be okay.  But I knew I was fit coming in.  It felt great, then at 11 miles it just went.  For the last miles I was just thinking just hang in there as long as I could.  Just try to stay with them.

I couldn't believe they weren't running faster.  I was thinking, "hang in, hang in."  And as it started getting closer, I thought I had a chance.  But when they got away, I just ‑‑ uphill I couldn't do like the downhill.  I think I used a bit too much to get back to [] Christelle.  And it just came in my legs, and I just couldn't keep going the last 300 meters.  Yeah.  I knew it was a risk, but we were hoping my leg would hold.

Q.  What was the feeling going into the race knowing that you hadn't run for two weeks, and everybody was thinking this is Paula, every woman's dropped out, this is Paula's?  How was it leading up?

PAULA RADCLIFFE:  It was hard, to be honest.  I knew it was going to be against my leg.  And I was feeling really bad.  Like Wednesday, Thursday, but once they got it on Friday, I ran last night.  I couldn't feel it.  I was thinking, finally it's okay.  I'm just very disappointed.

Q.  Can you explain the injury?  It happened two weeks ago?

PAULA RADCLIFFE:  Yeah, I was doing my last workout.  Just on the last couple of K I started to feel it consistently.  It's actually a twinge, it's a tendonitis in the tendon behind the knee.  They scanned it, there was no tear.  It was just tendonitis, like fluid build‑up in there.  It's just really sore.

Like now it doesn't feel bad.  The cortisone shot helped, I think.

Q.  And right now?

PAULA RADCLIFFE:  I can't bend this leg.  I can bend this one.

Q.  Last time was different.  This time was harder because it's New York.  Maybe you would not have a good memory of this race?

PAULA RADCLIFFE:  No, I'll definitely have a good memory of this race.  I don't think it will affect my memories of New York.  I certainly want to come back and try to win the fourth one another time.  But I had a problem in the two weeks leading into the race, and kind of didn't want to say too much about it, because I didn't want people to know that they could maybe run away from me if it started to go.  I hoped it would be okay because it felt good yesterday, felt good the first ten miles.  But at 11 miles it got sore.

Q.  Maybe the operation that you had affected you?  No, it's another thing?

PAULA RADCLIFFE:  Well, indirectly, because I think the foot is very good now, but in coming back from it, I had the hamstring problem in August, and then that was okay.  Then just two weeks ago the other end of the hamstring from the other leg.

Q.  Derartu was your rival for a lot of time.

PAULA RADCLIFFE:  Yeah, Derartu's lovely.  She's waited so long.  Like even in the race she was like, "Come on, Paula, come on."

Unfortunately the really frustrating thing is I don't even feel tired now, but my legs just couldn't go any quicker.

Q.  Your daughter is always here?

PAULA RADCLIFFE:  Yeah.  She just said, "Mommy you have a boo boo."

Selena Kosgei:

Q.  Can you talk with about the race?

SELENA KOSGEI:  The race was nice.

Q.  Talk about the fall?  How did that affect your race today?

SELENA KOSGEI:  It affected my race because when I reached my pace, I had a lot of pain in my leg.

So I had to call my own race.

Q.  During the race you kind of fell back a couple times.  Was that more of a reaction to the fall?

SELENA KOSGEI:  Yeah, yeah.

Q.  Was there any ‑‑

SELENA KOSGEI:  Yeah, there was pain in my leg.

Q.  Can you say that again?  There was pain?

SELENA KOSGEI:  Yeah.

Q.  And you tried to run with it?

SELENA KOSGEI:  Yeah.

Q.  Are you happy with the performance considering the fall?

SELENA KOSGEI:  Yeah, yeah, I'm happy.  I'm happy, because I didn't know I was going to finish the race, but I tried my best to finish the race.

Q.  Was there ever a point where you thought you might drop out?

SELENA KOSGEI:  Yeah, I was seeing the trouble that I had, but I ‑‑ I tell myself I feel lucky for this race.

Q.  When you finished the race and you actually did very well considering the fall, how do you feel right now considering that the fall was there?

SELENA KOSGEI:  Well, I am quite happy because it was not easy to run it after falling down.