Radcliffe aims for second child before London 2012

Twenty four hours on from her own marathon victory on these shores, the Marathon Mom was planning to stick around to see how the Hockey Mom might fare in hers. "We don't leave New York until Wednesday so we will be here to see the election," Paula Radcliffe said, with reference to the protracted US Presidential race which features Sarah Palin as John McCain's Republican running mate and which hits its finishing stretch at the polls today.

Having recovered from her latest Olympic disappointment with an emphatic victory in the New York City Marathon on Sunday, Radcliffe was savouring her third successful bite at the big race in the Big Apple and starting to formulate her plans on the road to London 2012.

That schedule is likely to include a head-to-head on home ground against Constantina Tomescu-Dita, the Romanian who possesses the Olympic marathon crown the Bedfordshire woman craves – plus a pregnant pause to become a Marathon Double Mom. "We don't want Isla to be an only child," Radcliffe said about the 21-month-old daughter she embraced at the finish line in Central Park.

"Both of us would love to have another child. It isn't planned in, like it will be at this date in this year, but at the same time we don't want a six-year gap between them." In other words, Radcliffe would not want to wait until after she took her next – and probably final – shot at London four years from now. "But we have to have the luck to be able to conceive," she added. "Things just don't happen as you plan them on paper."

Professionally, they have rarely panned out for Radcliffe in recent years. Still, given a fair wind and a clean break from injuries in the immediate future, the Flora London Marathon in April next year is likely to be the next major target for the 34-year-old, followed by an attempt to regain the World Championship marathon crown in Berlin next August.