London 2012 Olympics: Paula Radcliffe on high alert in quest for marathon gold You can't wrap yourself in cotton wool. I've learned that. You can do everything right and it can still go wrong a few weeks before. You have to push and take risks otherwise you're not going to get the end result, but you are a lot more wary after my history. The good news for lovers of sporting romance is that, this scare apart, what could be the biggest story of the London Olympics remains very much on track. Radcliffe is back to full fitness as she pounds out 130 miles a week in the oxygen-depleted Kenyan air and, what is more, her rivals know it. On Fridayy she was out on the dusty trails that criss-cross Iten when she bumped into Mary Keitany, last year's Virgin London Marathon champion and one of the favourites for gold this summer. Florence Kiplagat, who beat her in Berlin last September, also trains nearby, while Lornah Kiplagat, Iten-born but who now runs for Holland, is her host. The latter and her Dutch husband, Pieter Langerhorst, own and run the High-Altitude Training Centre where Radcliffe and 21 other British endurance runners, including world 5,000 metres champion Mo Farah and world 1500m silver medallist Hannah England, are in residence. Farah was an early pioneer of Kenyan running experience, travelling under his own steam to the area four years ago. It is the third year that the British squad have based themselves at the camp, which is funded jointly by the London Marathon and UK Athletics. Radcliffe was here for four weeks before Christmas, her first trip to the Rift Valley, and is back for a second four-week stay, rubbing shoulders with the cream of Kenyan athletics talent in a town that has recently become a Mecca for endurance runners. It is estimated that around 1,000 athletes are based in the town, which has an indigenous population of just 4,000. At 6am each morning, half-an-hour before dawn, the main thoroughfare teems with Lycra as millionaire world and Olympic medallists run shoulder to shoulder with athletes, who can only dream of their success. Almost everyone in Iten runs - the most popular activity among the children is trying to keep up with the athletes on their training runs - and almost everyone in town knows all about the tall, blonde woman in their midst. "They do recognise me because they're all running mad," said Radcliffe. I go out and, apart from the really young kids, they all know me and shout out 'Radcliffe. It's really friendly, and they use your surname because in Kenya that's a respect thing. For Radcliffe, the hardest thing about this training stint has been leaving husband Gary and children Isla and Raphael behind at their home in Monaco. Missing Isla's fifth birthday was particularly hard, though she has least been able to chat to her several times a day by Skype. "The funny thing is that when Isla is angry with Gary, she'll Skype me and talk to me in French so Gary can't understand," she said. But it's been hard leaving the kids. It's only because it's Olympic year. I wouldn't have done it any other year for this amount of time. If anything, missing them so much makes me work even harder. It makes you think, if you're here, then you've got to make it count. Radcliffe will not be reunited with her family until early February, though more hard work will be in store for her when she heads for another fix of high-altitude air in Albuquerque, New Mexico. At least Gary and the children will be with her there. Then it will be a few road races, a couple of 10kms and maybe a couple of half-marathons, before the big one, and the chance to fill the one yawning gap in her curriculum vitae by winning her first Olympic medal. At 38, she says she has mellowed with age and motherhood and her Olympic ambitions are not as all-consuming as they were, but they remain intense."It's still very, very important, and that's why I'm here. Much as I love being in the camp, I've found it really hard being away from the kids. I think that shows how important the Olympics still are to me," she said.