Paula Radcliffe, chasing (角逐) a third London marathon title(冠军), says she has became a stronger person after her terrible experience at the 2004 Athens Games.
Radcliffe, who failed to complete the Olympic marathon and the 10,000m last August, said: "Athens made me a stronger person and it made me care less about criticism (批评)"
"In the past I wanted to please everyone, but now I am going to listen even more to the people around me."
She didn't care about criticism made at the weekend by Liz McColgan, who felt Radcliffe should have rested and let her body recover after her failure in Athens.
"Liz is someone I look up to but she hasn't spoken to me since last year and if she really cared for me, I'm sure she would have contacted (联系) me."
Instead Radcliffe won the New York City marathon just 11 weeks after Athens.
"In New York I wasn't in my best state but I did know I was good enough to win the race. "
Radcliffe insisted her only goal in Sunday's race would be winning a third title and not chasing world records.
However, Radcliffe has not ruled out(排除) in the future chasing her "final" world record time and questioned sayings that marathon runners have the ability in their career to produce only four or five world-class times.
"I don't think that -- although I can't put a number on it," said. Radcliffe. "That changes from person to person."
Radcliffe is sure she can better her winning London 2003 performance at some point in the future. Following a successful three-month training period in the United States, the 31-year-old will chase a third title on Sunday after her first victory in 2002 and again 12 months later.
Radcliffe clocked a time of 2:18:56 in her first 42.2-kilometre race three years ago.
Afterwards she set a "mixed course" mark of 2:17:18 five months later in Chicago before lowering that to a time of 2:15:25 in the 2003 London event.

Paula Radcliffe生平第三次角逐伦敦马拉松冠军。她说2004年雅典奥运会的噩梦般的经历使她变成了一个更坚强的人。
Radcliffe去年8月在竞争奥林匹克马拉松赛和1万米的长跑比赛中未能成功。她说：“雅典让我成了一个更强的人，它让我不再在意那些批评。”
“过去我总想取悦每一个，但是现在我会更多地聆听身边人的意见。”
她对Liz MoColgan在周末所作的批评并不在意。Liz认为雅典失败后Radcliffe应该休息，让身体好好恢复一下。
“Liz是我所敬仰的人，但是自从去年以来她一直未同我说过话。如果她真的关心我，我相信她本可以与我联系的。”
然而雅典赛事后11周，Radcliffe获得纽约市马拉松的冠军。
“在纽约时，我并不是处于自己的最佳状态，但是我确确实实地知道我可以获胜。”
Radcliffe坚持说她在星期天的比赛的唯一目标是拿到第三个冠军，并不想冲击世界记录。
然而，Radcliffe并不否认在今后的比赛中要冲击她的终极目标——打破世界记录，并且对马拉松选手在运动生涯中仅有能力创造4、5次世界级的成绩这样的说法表示置疑。
“我不那样认为——尽管我不能确定具体会是几次。”Radcliffe说“情况因人而异。”
Radcliffe确信在将来某一时刻一定会刷新她在2003年伦敦的成绩。继在美国受训3个月之后，31岁的她将在本周日第三次向冠军头衔发起冲击。前两次胜利分别是在2002年和2003年取得的。
Radcliffe三年之前在她第一次的马拉松比赛中跑出了2：18：56的成绩。
5个月以后在芝加哥，她在“混合赛道”赛中跑出2：17：18的成绩。而后才在2003年伦敦赛事中跑出2：15：25的成绩。