Paula Radcliffe, chasing   a third London marathon title  , says she has become 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." "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 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   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 _ ," 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-kilometer 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. Radcliffe's failure in Athens made her  _  .
develop respect for Liz. love people around her more. rest for five months. face criticism calmly.